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I'm talking about politics here. Reading about it, thinking about it, writing about it. I've had a writing goal since the New Year began. It's not work I'm publishing, just consistent writing in a notebook. I'm doing really well, regularly hitting my goal, or even exceeding it. But it seems like whatever I set out to write about, I end up circling back to politics.
I suspect it's because I often write on topics in response to something I see in the media, and I can't read a story on almost any topic without the author shoehorning in some kind of tribalistic phatic communication about some political opinion or another.
Maybe I'm better off just embracing it and writing about political topics, but it's not like there's a shortage of political commentators saying the same stuff, often more thoughtfully and articulately then I can manage.
Today I visited the blog of an occult writer I enjoyed when I first began my journey into the realms of ritual magic. His apt introductory book on the Qabalah actually led to me discovering the book Paths of Wisdom, and from there finding John Michael Greer's other work and online community.
I still enjoy reading his thoughts on magic and other topics, but he is a firm leftist who also writes on politics in America. I was geared up to skip his latest political diatribe, which led off with a picture of Donald Trump and Hitler side by side and ended with the grim prediction that if Donald Trump wins reelection he will be shipped off to die in a forced labor camp staffed by red hatted Neo Nazis. (His laughable escape plan is relocating to Canada, which in my opinion has already been taken over by cold blooded fascists who are delighting in racking up a body count with their assisted suicide on demand healthcare programs).
I took a deep breath and read through his diatribe to see if I could find things I agreed with amidst all of the paranoia and batshit crazy hyperbole.
First off, the man is against authoritarian government. We agree on this, although we disagree on who is more likely to govern in an authoritarian fashion at this point (the Dems demanding I get an experimental vaccine or lose my job or freedom is something I never thought I'd experience in America, and I found it more bone chillingly evil than anything Trump ever cooked up).
He's against Christian Nationalism and theocratic Christian rule. On this, we are completely simpatico. I'm super cool with a lot of Christians and I'm positively disposed to the faith, but I also know that doesn't always go both ways and there is probably a lunatic fringe that would consign me to the flames for my religion. Freedom of, or from, religion is one of the great things about America in my opinion.
He's against racism, Neo Nazis, and the KKK. Hey, me too. Granted, my antiquated views on racism are based on the way people of color are treated, as opposed to racism being some innate quality I possess because I'm white, but I'm going to say, quibbles like that aside, we agree racism is bad and there's a lot of it out there.
He spent a fair amount of time on all the gender and sex related "phobias" that are pervasive in our culture. I think that shit should be kept away from prepubescents who can't possibly understand it and that there are a whole lot of psychological dysfunctions being displayed by the more strident advocates of the Alphabet people. I also think that, when it's not being indoctrinated into kids by government employees, it's not really my business. I think he and I would probably disagree on most of this and I'm not sure how much common ground we'd be able to find. C'est la vie.
What I did note was an absolute refusal to address any of the actual issues that put Donald Trump in power in the first place. There wasn't even an acknowledgement that someone might support Donald Trump for any reason other than being a racist authoritarian homophobe. Declining standards of living, the housing crisis, the offshoring of jobs and vital industries, the degradation of health care (Obamacare didn't help and made things worse), the choking regulations that make it nearly impossible to start any kind of business, culture war broadsides that create unfair and bigoted depictions of whites that are as gross as the ways people of color were formerly depicted, cultural genocide against rural America by coastal elites, illegal immigration that contributes to a lot of the preceding issues... All of the very legitimate and clearly articulated reasons someone might vote against the uniparty regime are completely glossed over and utterly censored from mainstream public discourse, and from this man's political perspective.
It's pity. My timer went off so my daily goal is met, so peace out 'til next time I get a bug up my butt and break out my computer instead of my notebook. It will probably be something about politics.
I suspect it's because I often write on topics in response to something I see in the media, and I can't read a story on almost any topic without the author shoehorning in some kind of tribalistic phatic communication about some political opinion or another.
Maybe I'm better off just embracing it and writing about political topics, but it's not like there's a shortage of political commentators saying the same stuff, often more thoughtfully and articulately then I can manage.
Today I visited the blog of an occult writer I enjoyed when I first began my journey into the realms of ritual magic. His apt introductory book on the Qabalah actually led to me discovering the book Paths of Wisdom, and from there finding John Michael Greer's other work and online community.
I still enjoy reading his thoughts on magic and other topics, but he is a firm leftist who also writes on politics in America. I was geared up to skip his latest political diatribe, which led off with a picture of Donald Trump and Hitler side by side and ended with the grim prediction that if Donald Trump wins reelection he will be shipped off to die in a forced labor camp staffed by red hatted Neo Nazis. (His laughable escape plan is relocating to Canada, which in my opinion has already been taken over by cold blooded fascists who are delighting in racking up a body count with their assisted suicide on demand healthcare programs).
I took a deep breath and read through his diatribe to see if I could find things I agreed with amidst all of the paranoia and batshit crazy hyperbole.
First off, the man is against authoritarian government. We agree on this, although we disagree on who is more likely to govern in an authoritarian fashion at this point (the Dems demanding I get an experimental vaccine or lose my job or freedom is something I never thought I'd experience in America, and I found it more bone chillingly evil than anything Trump ever cooked up).
He's against Christian Nationalism and theocratic Christian rule. On this, we are completely simpatico. I'm super cool with a lot of Christians and I'm positively disposed to the faith, but I also know that doesn't always go both ways and there is probably a lunatic fringe that would consign me to the flames for my religion. Freedom of, or from, religion is one of the great things about America in my opinion.
He's against racism, Neo Nazis, and the KKK. Hey, me too. Granted, my antiquated views on racism are based on the way people of color are treated, as opposed to racism being some innate quality I possess because I'm white, but I'm going to say, quibbles like that aside, we agree racism is bad and there's a lot of it out there.
He spent a fair amount of time on all the gender and sex related "phobias" that are pervasive in our culture. I think that shit should be kept away from prepubescents who can't possibly understand it and that there are a whole lot of psychological dysfunctions being displayed by the more strident advocates of the Alphabet people. I also think that, when it's not being indoctrinated into kids by government employees, it's not really my business. I think he and I would probably disagree on most of this and I'm not sure how much common ground we'd be able to find. C'est la vie.
What I did note was an absolute refusal to address any of the actual issues that put Donald Trump in power in the first place. There wasn't even an acknowledgement that someone might support Donald Trump for any reason other than being a racist authoritarian homophobe. Declining standards of living, the housing crisis, the offshoring of jobs and vital industries, the degradation of health care (Obamacare didn't help and made things worse), the choking regulations that make it nearly impossible to start any kind of business, culture war broadsides that create unfair and bigoted depictions of whites that are as gross as the ways people of color were formerly depicted, cultural genocide against rural America by coastal elites, illegal immigration that contributes to a lot of the preceding issues... All of the very legitimate and clearly articulated reasons someone might vote against the uniparty regime are completely glossed over and utterly censored from mainstream public discourse, and from this man's political perspective.
It's pity. My timer went off so my daily goal is met, so peace out 'til next time I get a bug up my butt and break out my computer instead of my notebook. It will probably be something about politics.