Being 'Bigger Than Political Differences' Is Not Noble, It's Ignorant

Being 'Bigger Than Political Differences' Is Not Noble, It's Ignorant

Could you really "agree to disagree" with someone who supports your disenfranchisement?

MarlenaSchuster
MarlenaSchuster Nov 9, 2018
360
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Okay. Here's the thing that I really need you all to understand.

There have been a ton of pictures going around lately of friends taking pictures together, one of whom supports a candidate of one party, and the other a candidate of another. The sentiment of such photos is almost always along the lines of, "real maturity" or "real friendship is not caring about differences in political opinion" or "not caring how our friends vote" because "friendship and/or family matters most."

Here's the thing, though. There is so. much. privilege. inherent in this mindset.

As I wrote in my last article, choosing to put politics aside and meet in the middle is a huge example of privilege, and here's why: Could you really just laugh and agree to disagree with someone who believes that you should be deported? Could you laugh and agree to disagree with someone who wants to take away your access to healthcare? Could you laugh and agree to disagree with someone who thinks it's more important to sell more guns than allow you to practice your religion? Could you laugh and agree to disagree with someone who thinks you should be fired and without access to care because of who you loved? Could you laugh and agree to disagree with someone who thinks the best way to support you after your child was murdered going to school is to say that there should be more people with guns? Could you laugh and agree to disagree with someone who wants to take away your rights to your own body?

Look yourself in the face and ask yourself, honestly: Could you just laugh and agree to disagree with someone who supports candidates whose actions literally threaten your life and well-being every single day?

Probably not. As I say in the article aforementioned, if you are able to "put politics aside" and "focus on what really matters," or "don't be a democrat or republican, just treat your friends with respect and that's all that matters," then you aren't aware of the huge amount of privilege you have by simply existing the way you do. Your life, family, well-being, and safety aren't going to be threatened by the people who may write and carry out the laws of this country.

There are posts all over the place, even post-election day, that champion friends or acquaintances "putting their differences aside" and "agreeing to disagree" as being what America "needs more of" right now. But I implore you to realize that this is not something to strive for. These decisions we make continue to contribute to the disenfranchisement of POC, LGBTQIA+ people, immigrants, etc. Doing this equalizes "rooting" for certain candidates and parties to something as inconsequential as a sports team. Those who run our country and whom we elect have real power to ruin peoples' lives. Doing this normalizes privilege and labels those protesting as uncivil.

Being supportive and loving each other "no matter whom they vote for" are two different things. Your vote is a moral issue. If you really loved your neighbors, you'd listen to why those disenfranchised groups are protesting in the first place. Your vote is bigger than agreeing to disagree. It has the power to change lives, for better or for worse. Remember, the personal is political.

MarlenaSchuster
MarlenaSchuster Nov 9, 2018
At University of Michigan

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6 Things You Should Know About The Woman Who Can't Stand Modern Feminism

Yes, she wants to be heard too.

Madeline Gazaway
Madeline Gazaway Oct 29, 2018
93626
views

2018 is sort of a trap for this woman. She believes in women with all of the fire inside of her, but it is hard for her to offer support when people are making fools of themselves and disguising it as feminism.

The fact of the matter is that women possess qualities that men don't and men possess qualities that women don't. That is natural. Plus, no one sees men parading the streets in penis costumes complaining that they don't get to carry their own fetus for nine months.

1. She really loves and values women.

She is incredibly proud to be a woman.

She knows the amount of power than a woman's presence alone can hold. She sees when a woman walks into a room and makes the whole place light up. She begs that you won't make her feel like a "lady hater" because she doesn't want to follow a trend that she doesn't agree with.

2. She wants equality, too

She has seen the fundamental issues in the corporate world, where women and men are not receiving equal pay.

She doesn't cheer on the businesses that don't see women and men as equivalents. But she does recognize that if she works her butt off, she can be as successful as she wants to.

3. She wears a bra.

While she knows the "I don't have to wear a bra for society" trend isn't a new one, but she doesn't quite get it. Like maybe she wants to wear a bra because it makes her feel better. Maybe she wears a bra because it is the normal things to do... And that's OK.

Maybe she wants to put wear a lacy bra and pretty makeup to feel girly on .a date night. She is confused by the women who claim to be "fighting for women," because sometimes they make her feel bad for expressing her ladyhood in a different way than them.

4. She hates creeps just as much as you do. .

Just because she isn't a feminist does not mean that she is cool with the gruesome reality that 1 in 5 women are sexually abused.

In fact, this makes her stomach turn inside out to think about. She knows and loves people who have been through such a tragedy and wants to put the terrible, creepy, sexually charged criminals behind bars just as bad as the next woman.

Remember that just because she isn't a feminist doesn't mean she thinks awful men can do whatever they want.

5. There is a reason she is ashamed of 2018's version of feminism.

She looks at women in history who have made a difference and is miserably blown away by modern feminism's performance.

Not only have women in the past won themselves the right to vote, but also the right to buy birth control and have credit cards in their names and EVEN saw marital rape become a criminal offense.

None of them dressed in vagina costumes to win anyone over though... Crazy, right?

6. She isn't going to dress in a lady parts costume to prove a point.

This leaves her speechless. It is like the women around her have absolutely lost their minds and their agendas, only lessening their own credibility.

"Mom, what are those ladies on TV dressed up as?"

"Ummm... it looks to me like they are pink taco's honey."

She loves who she is and she cherished what makes her different from the men around her. She doesn't want to compromise who she is as a woman just so she can be "equal with men."

Madeline Gazaway
Madeline Gazaway Oct 29, 2018

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Believe It Or Not, Trump Is Not An Idiot

I know this headline is scary, but hear me out.

Keely Davis
Keely Davis Nov 16, 2018
273
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If we were to place all of the smartest people in the world on a stage, Trump would be sitting (angrily I'm sure) in the audience. I do not think that Trump is an extraordinarily smart man. In fact, I wouldn't even consider him an ordinarily smart man. However, to call him an idiot would somehow diminish all of the harmful things he has done. To call Trump an idiot is to take away from how dangerous he truly is. To be clear, he is not dangerous because of his status, or his power, or even his money. He is dangerous because of his hate. If all of the hostility that man carries isn't enough, he holds alongside him a troop of people as equally, if not more so, hateful than he is. What is more dangerous than an old bigot you ask? An old bigot who is less intelligent than his supervisors. There is something much more daunting about an old man who can not make decisions for himself.

Often the criticisms I see of Trump and his administration center around his personal intelligence, capability, and shortcomings. Very rarely do I see the same attacks on the people guiding him, supporting him, or enabling him. Although I think Trump is a vile human being, I think he is often a distraction. At the end of the day, Trump cannot pass legislation by himself, he cannot fight wars on his own, and he can't run this country into the ground by his lonesome (granted I believe he wishes he could). To be completely transparent I think the latter action has been happening for decades. I think we have made, as a country, some very very poor decisions that have led us here. Although I think we are seeing a cascade of events that have been placed like dominos by our democracy, my focus is on the current situation.

So where does that leave us? In wildfires that our president blames on poor use of controlled deforestation while simultaneously cutting funding to conservation programs? In the potential wake of empty and careless threats of nuclear warfare? In states with steadily deteriorating infrastructure and education? In hospitals that we cannot pay bills for because our healthcare has slowly been torn from us?

It is important to remember that there are, unfortunately, people with much worse intentions than Trump. There are people working every day to mold the country into what works best for them. We are so often distracted that we forget that one family holds 40% of the wealth in this country, that our economy is disenfranchising a large majority of us, and that innocent people are being killed every day. We are blind to the lives we are destroying in this country and others. We are so caught up in whatever Trump is doing we don't realize that there are systematic problems our representatives avoid fixing like solutions are a plague. I think that there are many things wrong with this country, far beyond nepotism and narcissism. One of them is our inability as a society to hold all folks accountable.

Trump is not an idiot. He is an entitled man who was born into wealth and fortune. He is a predatory man that has had to do little by himself for his entire existence. I think he is a puppet, being moved by much more malicious hands than his own.

Keely Davis
Keely Davis Nov 16, 2018
At University of Arizona

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