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A dude on a forum was talking about offing himself in response to despair over the way society is shaping up. I sort of get it, times are tough and everything seems to be getting progressively worse. A lot of people and governments are showing their true colors, and it isn't a pretty sight. I suggested to this person that, if they don't want that outcome, they can fight it and "go out on their shield, so to speak."
There's always the risk, when using a phrase like that, that someone will take you literally, which evidently this person did, as they asked what I meant, because violence is not an option. I responded with what was obvious to me, that I wasn't talking about violence.
I have a complicated relationship with violence. I was raised by a drug addicted vet with PTSD, and it led to a violent and unpredictable childhood. Those cold and dry labels don't do much to convey what it was like. They also don't convey the fact that I loved him despite the horrible damage that was done to him by a society that drafted him to fight and then brought him home and threw him away, but that's getting a little personal and off topic so I'll let it rest.
As a misfit little kid with autism, I got to experience violence at school as well. Then when I became an adult, I learned to dish it out in impromptu fight clubs, in mosh pits, in drunken fights with friends. I learned about the savage joy of breaking and smashing stuff. If I heard about a stupid and maladjusted way of dealing with anger, stress, and fear, I probably looked into it.
This doesn't make me any kind of tough person. I don't have any formal combat training. I'm not a revolutionary. I just have an idea of what its like to live in a dangerous environment. I am not really a fan.
I am also not a big fucking pussy, to use the parlance of our times. I'm not going to kill myself because a bunch of Karens want me to get a vaccine. I'm going to tell them no and let the cards fall where they may. I'm not going to cry because a bunch of actors and pharma whores in the media castigate me. I'm not going to get bullied by some creep with dementia. I'm going to resist with everything I have.
In my case, resisting is writing blog posts and sometimes posting on a forum to share thoughts and feelings with others. It's going to work and having meaningful conversations with people who disagree with me and at the very least making myself understood. It's making jokes and sick burns and pointing out the incoherent BS the government is pushing. Its telling my boss straight up that if they mandate the vaccine she's going to have to fire me. It's getting kicked out of stores for not wearing a mask, and laughing all the way out the door. That's my resistance.
Maybe for someone else resisting is making Youtube videos or tiktoks. Making a podcast. Attending a protest. People in Germany, as I understand it, are just going out for walks in the evening in defiance of their frankly terrifying government. Whatever you can do. If you have gifts, if you're a poet or a painter, put it out there. This is the big show, right here and right now.
Violence isn't going to solve this thing. Not the kind of violence that I can muster, anyway. You don't have to be violent to have a fighting spirit. We may lose. I may lose. I'm going to say no anyway. The rest is in the hands of the gods.
There's always the risk, when using a phrase like that, that someone will take you literally, which evidently this person did, as they asked what I meant, because violence is not an option. I responded with what was obvious to me, that I wasn't talking about violence.
I have a complicated relationship with violence. I was raised by a drug addicted vet with PTSD, and it led to a violent and unpredictable childhood. Those cold and dry labels don't do much to convey what it was like. They also don't convey the fact that I loved him despite the horrible damage that was done to him by a society that drafted him to fight and then brought him home and threw him away, but that's getting a little personal and off topic so I'll let it rest.
As a misfit little kid with autism, I got to experience violence at school as well. Then when I became an adult, I learned to dish it out in impromptu fight clubs, in mosh pits, in drunken fights with friends. I learned about the savage joy of breaking and smashing stuff. If I heard about a stupid and maladjusted way of dealing with anger, stress, and fear, I probably looked into it.
This doesn't make me any kind of tough person. I don't have any formal combat training. I'm not a revolutionary. I just have an idea of what its like to live in a dangerous environment. I am not really a fan.
I am also not a big fucking pussy, to use the parlance of our times. I'm not going to kill myself because a bunch of Karens want me to get a vaccine. I'm going to tell them no and let the cards fall where they may. I'm not going to cry because a bunch of actors and pharma whores in the media castigate me. I'm not going to get bullied by some creep with dementia. I'm going to resist with everything I have.
In my case, resisting is writing blog posts and sometimes posting on a forum to share thoughts and feelings with others. It's going to work and having meaningful conversations with people who disagree with me and at the very least making myself understood. It's making jokes and sick burns and pointing out the incoherent BS the government is pushing. Its telling my boss straight up that if they mandate the vaccine she's going to have to fire me. It's getting kicked out of stores for not wearing a mask, and laughing all the way out the door. That's my resistance.
Maybe for someone else resisting is making Youtube videos or tiktoks. Making a podcast. Attending a protest. People in Germany, as I understand it, are just going out for walks in the evening in defiance of their frankly terrifying government. Whatever you can do. If you have gifts, if you're a poet or a painter, put it out there. This is the big show, right here and right now.
Violence isn't going to solve this thing. Not the kind of violence that I can muster, anyway. You don't have to be violent to have a fighting spirit. We may lose. I may lose. I'm going to say no anyway. The rest is in the hands of the gods.