Tell me what you think of this.

[matt_zimmer]

I have been posting more diaries than usual on Daily Kos. Jasper recently called my political opinions "Delusional" during our spat, and whether he was right or wrong, I HAVE been posting my thoughts on that blog and people have been responding positively to it.

I bet every single diary I'd link would annoy Jasper with my opinions (so I won't). Here's the thing: I put a link to Gilda And Meek And The Un-Iverse at the end of every one of those diaries and I've been getting a LOT of hits. More than I ever have.

I only write diaries when I have something important to say, but it's good when I do, because it's good for Gilda And Meek.

Comments

[jasperhansen]

That's great

[matt_zimmer]

I think so. People actually like reading my writing. Who would have thought?

[jasonderoga86]

I just read through your latest Daily Kos diary entry on "News Media Gaslighting", and man, you are SPOT ON.

Every time somebody on ANY news network uses the "people never got the chance to know who Kamala Harris is" arguing point, I have to restrain myself from grabbing the remote and hurling it at the TV when Mom's watching it. Everyone knows who both Harris AND Trump are. No excuses for anyone there. I also agree with you that Kamala Harris's campaign was as close to flawless as humanly possible, as does my entire family and friends. And at a time like this, the last thing anyone needs is for Democrats to not only be playing the blame game, but to be gaslighting us with their sudden meltdown over being too "norm-focused" -- it gives the other side a feeling of having conquered the "leftists".

And yeah -- the reason why we got the election result we got wasn't because Harris was a flawed candidate. It was because AMERICA itself is flawed. And kudos to you again for being bold enough to say so -- America is IRREPARBLY flawed. For the world's oldest "democracy" to be incapable of holding back its worst vices after 250 years or so and suddenly cascade into a freefall of regression as a result exemplifies how racism and bigotry were meant to be elevated by the institutions rather than held in check. America's entire governance is purposed on maintaining White supremacy, but only after this year's election year has it become front-and-center.

MAJOR PROPS to you on how these diaries have led to so many new hits at the Un-Iverse website -- it's like you helping others become aware about national events translates into increased readership and boosts your morale in creating more Gilda and Meek stories. I can see the saga advancing at a greater rate as a result of this, and it's an exciting feeling.

[matt_zimmer]

What your mom is going through is why I don't watch TV.

In the years ahead, I am a little worried. I use my real name in my work when I promote it on Kos. I live in a Blue State so I should be safe with my public opinions, but it's still a risk knowing what this actually is. I'm not certain posting links to the comic with my real name at the end of Kos posts is entirely safe. But for now, I'm not hiding. I might change my mind later. But for now I don't mind the extra eyeballs.

[jasonderoga86]

I feel you on TV -- it's not just the toxic politics; I actually kinda drifted away from TV back in 2001 when I started high school. I guess because I really had gotten absorbed into reading various stuff, TV lost its appeal for me. I guess it also had to do with a general decline in entertaining shows, be they animated or live action.

Truthfully, it's sort of shocking how my interest in the tube dropped like a rock at that point. It's like my parents didn't have to wean me off of TV, I just gradually and naturally did so on my own. A lot of my other IRL friends aren't the same, though; they can spend damn near three quarters of a whole day on the tube. I'll just chalk it up to the whole "I made my own entertainment during that time" argument.

[matt_zimmer]

It's called The Idiot Box for a reason.

[jasperhansen]

Also, Matt, I said you're delusional for thinking everything is going to be different now because Kamala lost. Because we've been heading down this road for a long time, and that's a fact, and if you don't think Your Side is complicit in that it's because you're too comfortable thinking in black and white. I never said your political opinions are delusional because I don't make generalizations in that way.

[matt_zimmer]

Many people on my side are complicit in that. But not all of us. Some of us have been fighting.

[jasonderoga86]

I agree with both of you guys -- some people on our side are indeed complicit in this collapse, whether intentionally or unintentionally. But there are also those on our side who have been raising the alarm about the dangers of sticking to etiquette and norms to the point of our own detriment at a time when the other side simply doesn't give a fuck about etiquette and norms. The simple fact is that you can't beat a dangerous bunch of vile opportunists who willingly defy the foundations by being cordial and formal in response. Being a pacifist against someone who wants to rewrite the world order by any means necessary is the dumbest of stances, and history is replete with stories about the kind of fallout that happens as a result.

But while some are thinking in black and white terms, there are others who are looking to unique and new ways to keep fighting the good fight. These people rightfully gave up on the idea of the government actually defending against malignant agents with ulterior motives and have taken the initiative to oppose authoritarianism in ways unorthodox to the norm, but which also remain respectful of certain laws. It's not just the other side that's trying to "shake up the foundations" -- in fact, I'd say it's the oppressed who've been shaking the foundation since the beginning while the oppressors have toiled to maintain the status quo out of fear for losing their undeserved and unwarranted privileges. Having illegitimate privilege handed down to a person will ignite such personal guilt and a feeling of undeserving so poignant that they HAVE to defend it, both because it feels extremely comfortable and also because admitting that they don't deserve the privilege risks egotistical destruction.

[jasperhansen]

The people who want to fight back should be organizing in their community instead of sticking to the democratic party. A party of liberal reactionaries isn't going to be able to meet a far-right dictatorship on even terms, we need a movement for the people and of the people if we want an alternative to the future that's staring us down now and the existing party is never going to be able to offer us that

[matt_zimmer]

This is where I am currently.

[jasonderoga86]

I'm in FULL agreement with you on this. My state of California is a "blue" state, historically a state that carries a huge chunk of electoral college votes. But over the course of the past couple of years, two of our liberal/progressive leaders shirked on their duties every chance they got. In my home city of Oakland, both Mayor Thao and District Attorney Price had faced an increasing amount of scrutiny, criticism, and downright condemnation for their failure to deliver on their promised goals. DA Price was disgracefully soft on crime, cutting every corner she could to lessen charges on criminals known to be dangerous; in the case of an Asian Oakland police officer shot and killed in the line of duty taking on three armed thieves, it was the guy who killed the officer whose charges of murder were dropped by DA Price because of "previous charges not prosecuted yet." And then there was a scandal in which an employee of hers posted a video of her critics on Facebook -- a video of angry families who lost loved ones to gun violence and saw no real efforts on DA Price to ensure justice was served -- and labeled them as staging "a facade by a violent gang". The families were enraged; DA Price's feckless employee had just humiliated them all on Facebook and vilified their grief over their lost loved ones. The families demanded that the employee be fired and accountability from DA Price, but they heard nothing from her or her office staff.

Mayor Thao, on the other hand, is an even worse case. Thao wrongfully fired our police chief shortly after being sworn in, leaving Oakland with a police chief for two years. As a result, crime in all forms surged; retail stores were routinely robbed, PEOPLE were routinely robbed, carjackings increased (in fact, there was a carjacking in my neighborhood in early 2023; a streetlight with cameras caught two men in an SUV stealing a car from a woman at gunpoint), and gun violence was basically a fact of everyday life in most parts of the city (my family and I live in a hilly area with lots of nature, so any kind of crime is extremely rare). Oaklanders demanded Mayor Thao do her job, to which she would angrily say she WAS doing her job. Eventually she promised to have a new police chief hired and sworn in by August of 2023... but it didn't happen until April of this year. Nearly a half-year delay before she could get a new police chief, which was ample time for crime to worsen. Things came to a head on two fronts; first there was a shooting at the 2024 graduation ceremony for my alma mater high school, which I personally took offense to as a failure on the Mayor and as an attack on my memories and emotional connection to the school, and later there was another shooting incident on Juneteenth, which was a mass shooting that hit fourteen people. No one was killed, but our community was broken; a mass shooting on a holiday of Black American significance in a city with a history of Black American significance. Not to mention the violence happened a lake close to the very community college I attended and showcased Sneakers' U-Force #1 during an ecology-art based gallery in 2010. I wasn't present at the lake when this atrocity happened, but all the same, I was furious.

Three days after the shooting, Mayor Thao's house was raided by the FBI on suspicions of campaign finance violations and bribery. Some of the mayor's former administration officials had admitted that Thao's corrupt dealings were what forced them to resign from the admin, citing things such as Thao's boyfriend handing out administration jobs in exchange for money.

I had hoped Mayor Thao would've addressed the city with a resolve to admit to her wrongdoings and make amends, as she had secured an attorney. Instead, Thao's first public statement in response to the FBI raid was to attack the FBI, accusing them of singling her out for an investigative probe because she doesn't hail from a wealthy family. A large crowd of Oaklanders later gathered around Thao's home to demand her resignation due to her continued antagonism towards the government, the city, and the citizens... while Thao's attorney, disgusted with how selfish and disconnected her public response was, ended his contract with her.

In the end, both DA Price and Mayor Thao were recalled; Thao condescended the city of Oakland by implying that without her "experienced leadership" the city's problems would worsen (and she did it in the most patronizing way: she basically said, "If you think crime in Oakland is bad now, think of how much worse it could get if I'm removed from this post."), as well as accused her critics of singling her out due to her Asian heritage and for political reasons -- she likened her legal woes to Hillary Clinton's supposed "e-mail scandal" and claimed she was a champion of democracy. DA Price acted in a similar fashion, attacking even her predecessor, who had joined the recall efforts. She accused the Democrats of California of targeting her due to her being a Black woman and connected the recall efforts to an alleged partnership with the MAGA party.

When I look at these two women, who were self-proclaimed "progressive leaders", and how they had become so defiant and combative to everyone when the signs were clear that they weren't qualified for their positions -- and later as New York City Mayor Eric Adams was indicted and took a similarly defiant stance to his accusers -- I saw a very disturbing political shift take place. Mayor Thao and DA Price prided themselves as progressive leaders, but when their incompetence become obvious, they both decided to adopt a defiant stance, basically telling us Oaklanders, "You don't get to tell us how we're supposed to do our jobs. Stop playing political games and let us work!"

But we DID get to tell them how to do their jobs. That's how electing people is supposed to work; we gave Thao and Price their power and our approval to serve in their respective positions, and when we saw that they fucked up and didn't care to fix what they broke, we decided to take that power back. But their defiance and antagonism of us revealed another disturbing reality: that these progressive leaders, who in their hubris refused to step aside for better leadership because of their vanity and/or delusions, ended up becoming more like the anti-democratic culture they claimed they were fighting -- in other words, they had become exactly like the MAGA acolytes, unknowingly attacking the democratic ideals they claimed to stand for. And ultimately, that gives MAGA acolytes the ammunition they need to justify their labelling of progressives/liberals as "destroying the country". Stuff like that, where one's own party can be so easily molded into that which they despise, really kills the purpose of supporting a "party" -- because when that party is completely dismantled or defeated, there's nothing left to "support".

Though both women were recalled, it's a damn shame how easily they were baited into becoming the incompetent and failed leaders MAGA agents wanted them to be. Especially in Thao's case; she is now the only mayor in Oakland, CA's history to be recalled before a general election. I guess the press will be calling her "Disgraced Former Oakland Mayor Thao" from now on...