By James Ochoa – Student Journalist
We live in a devastating time in America, where things that are meant to be celebrated turn into shit by people who want to ruin the fun. Specifically at this moment, we should be proud of the confirmation of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first black woman to sit on the Supreme Court. I am proud, I truly am—I watched as much of the confirmation as I can and I can conclude that she has poise and intelligence, even when Republican senators like Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley attempted to pull elements from their existing culture wars to create turmoil.
It hurts to watch highlights of the hearings where KBJ was subjected to cheap shot questions about “CRT” and the rights of LGBTQIA+ Americans by senators that are openly pushing legislation that only legitimizes these hateful and ignorant views to further their culture war.
It is not specifically this situation, but the modern day reality of the fact that literal, actual culture wars can spawn any second—even when you least expect it, which leads me to believe that America is not real.
The United States is not a country, rather a social experiment gone awry to the point where it has created a monster that cannot be controlled or tamed in any way. In other words, it is unbelievable that the conservative media-political complex can create a culture war out of thin air and/or recycle bigoted talking points about marginalized people and because of that, build strength and support for their elected leaders by the fringes of society that is now getting broader appeal and is therefore destroying America from the inside.
Our “great society”—if there ever was one—requires a complete rebuild, while the feel-good, fuzzy wuzzy grandstand neoliberals and Biden/Harris stan moderates suggest a software update in the form of “rebuilding” or “unity”.
Unity? Not in your wildest dreams. It blows my mind that people here have the gall to ask us to unite knowing that 56% of the Republican Party are copium-addicted QAnon backing hogs that still believe that President Trump rightfully won this election. It also blows my mind that people here have the gall to ask us to unite while also dismissing the suffering of Texans because it is a “red state”, effectively ignoring “blue” Houston, Austin and San Antonio because they are blinded by the shine of Ted Cruz’s stupid fucking cowboy boots.
You know what I love about being American? I really love interacting with soft, pseudo-leftist liberals with no self awareness and disgusting amounts of wealth and privilege that loves to give homage and cry their hearts out for the poor, working class and minorities as if actually fucking caring was a sport. Well, they don’t, we are their prop for their 30 seconds of ass kissing before they can go back to fucking us in the throat socioeconomically.
This is ridiculous. Unfortunately, this is your world, your oyster that smells like putrid shit because the fresh ones were left for those who cried the hardest for their “fair share.” The only thing that “Americans” are united in is suffering – it is our one common enemy. Whether it is in the form of racial injustice, economic injustice, injustice because of homophobia, transphobia, the uniquely American ideology that growth or justice is always done at the expense of someone else prevails in the end.
What a lot of people in this country, especially those that subscribe to the ideas on the right, need to understand is that other people in this world live, work, fuck and/or have children in this place called America. Deal with it. Deal with your individual problems deeply and don’t stop and get caught up at the surface level of bigotry and hatred.
Realize that Black people are not the sole people causing crime, Immigrants aren’t taking your jobs, Asian people aren’t spreading the coronavirus, not all Middle Eastern people are Muslims, nor do Muslims have the intentions to implement sharia law and do terrorism and Indians and other Desi people are not your racial punching bags either. This is a lot of people considering that I haven’t even mentioned women and the LGBTQIA+ community yet.
Am I an evil person for suggesting that those marginalized people deserve rights and access to economic opportunities? Those on the left, am I evil for suggesting that there are straight and cisgender people or men who are not evil? It shouldn’t be so fucking hard to answer that question with a hard no. We are so conflicted and so busy pointing fingers that we have run out of hands to work towards something meaningful. It feels better to give up and walk away sometimes.
What I am asking is for all of us to take a good hard look at how society operates, and see how much of it is fucked up without your preconceived notions of malice. If you have any feelings of doubt, or dismiss my ideas as being part of some sort of Socialist agenda – then I guess being a filthy communist is better than being an asshole because I am neither.
Putang ina mo, napaka bobo ng mga tao dito.
Ingat, America.