The Real Problem

The first person I heard express this in an articulate way was Jon Stewart and what he said was pretty simple and it went something like this:

The real problem isn’t Jews or Arabs or Republicans or Democrats or Gays or Straights or Yankee fans or Red Sox fans, the real problem is extremists. (Hang on, maybe that should be “are” extremists, which totally fucks up the rhythm of that previous sentence, so don’t get extreme about it or you’re part of the problem.)

Anyway…

Jon made a good point: I’m a Liberal who has a job that that requires me to express my opinions through cartoons and essays, but once I’ve done that, I don’t talk about politics all that much or force my opinions down other peoples’ throats at my mother’s 100^th birthday party.

Number 1: I already have to think about politics more than I want to and…

Number 2: (Those of you who have an infantile joke about Number 1’s and 2’s in your head should think it here) I don’t believe people change all that much because change is hard even when you want to change and yelling at somebody just makes them dig in their heels and resist changing their minds more than ever.

And I get along with a variety of Conservatives who don’t feel the need to bring up Donald Trump every 30 seconds or use the N-word or say homophobic or antisemitic shit and we know we disagree on a whole bunch of subjects, but don’t think yelling at each other is going to fix anything, so we “agree to disagree” and move on to other topics, like who the fuck thinks pineapple and ham are acceptable pizza toppings and would order a pineapple and ham pizza for a birthday party?

(You pineapple and ham people know you’re wrong and I don’t think you actually like it all that much, but you also know if you order one there will be more pizza left over for you which is selfish and greedy and you need to knock that shit off ASAP.)

Despite my pineapple and ham diatribe, everything else sounded extremely adult and mature and if there weren’t complications, we’d be all through with this issue.

But what if a Conservative believes some people shouldn’t have the same Constitutional Rights as Straight White Males (which would be a great name for a band performing in the Missouri Bootheel) and it’s OK to grab those Non-Straight White Males off the street and ship them off to a foreign prison without a trial or any one of the other 101 fucked up things some Radical Conservatives believe.

Do you still want to be friends with them?

And what if the Liberal insists that you agree with him and/or her on every single goddamn issue, like the government should finance operations for male prisoners who feel they’re trapped inside the wrong body and not only want to be a woman, they want to be an “attractive” woman, which will involve numerous operations and some frilly lingerie from Victoria’s Secret, financed by taxpayers and if you don’t agree with that position or any of the other wacky shit he/she/they come up with, the Radical Liberal calls you a “Nazi Homophobe.”

Do you still want to be friends with them?

So we all have to decide what’s too extreme and can’t be tolerated, but I’d like to think we can all agree that just because someone thinks or says things we find abhorrent, we don’t get to shoot them.

As recent events demonstrate, some people feel differently.

And to further complicate our thinking, when people say “violence never solved anything” I tend to think “violence solved WW2 and every football game ever played,” but now you’re wading in some murky waters that may contain some easily-irritated alligators.

Unfortunately, there are no easy answers because if there were, we wouldn’t disagree about things.

And the guy who has done more than anyone else (at least recently) to divide us and get people at each other’s throats—Donald J. Trump—recently suggested Conservative Extremists have been radicalized for good reasons and Liberal Extremists “are the problem.”

So to the question: “Can’t we all just get along?”

Donald Trump just answered: “Fuck no and I hope you enjoy that El Salvadoran prison I’m sending you to.”

In contrast to our Divider in Chief, after the assassination that took place in Utah, Gov. Spencer Cox said:

“We can return violence with violence. We can return hate with hate. And that’s the problem with political violence. It metastasizes, because we can always point the finger at the other side.

And at some point, we have to find an off-ramp, or it’s going to get much, much worse. Do we escalate or do we find an off-ramp? And again, it’s a choice. It’s a choice, and every one of us gets to make that choice.”

After criticizing social media and the people encouraging violence, Cox added:

“I would encourage you to ignore those, to turn off those streams, and spend more time with our families. I would encourage people to log off, turn off, touch grass, hug a family member, go out and do some good in your community.”

Which brings up the obvious question: Can Spenser Cox please run for president?

(Just read his Wikipedia page, and while we disagree on abortion and the right to walk around carrying a rocket launcher in Starbucks, there’s a lot to like there and now that I say that publicly, don’t be surprised if Spenser turns out to be a Dyed-In-The-Polyester Satan Worshipper, which—depending on his position on human sacrifice—would still make him a better choice than our current president.)

Before we leave the topic…

Looking back at what I just wrote, it’s easy for me to say I express my opinions through cartoons and essays and then drop the subject and act reasonable at parties, but most people don’t have those outlets and express their political opinions on Facebook or at rallies and protests and we’re all trying to move the political needle in the direction we want it to move in and I’m all for that.

But let’s try to refrain from shooting people in the process.

When you have a president who appears to have problems with ADHD and can’t stay on the same topic for 30 straight seconds, a lot happens in a short amount of time which makes anything that happened a few days ago feel like Ancient History and way back there in what now feels like the Bronze Age (AKA: Last Week) Donald Trump was encouraging the Smithsonian Museum to reflect his view of history, so I illustrated what that view might look like.

And Israel bombed Qatar and if you Google “who has Israel attacked recently?” the answer is: Qatar, Gaza, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen which seems like an awful lot of attacking, so I drew a collection of the maps used by the Israeli government to make military plans.

Today’s Lesson

This is the section where I try to sum up whatever I’ve written that day, but today’s message was somewhat garbled—be tolerant, but not too tolerant, don’t yell in people’s faces at birthday parties, but it’s OK to yell at protests, try to put up with Yankee and Red Sox fans even though both groups are frequently obnoxious, try to respect other peoples’ opinions except the Ham and Pineapple Pizza People because they’re clearly part of some Communist plot—and I’m not exactly sure what thought I should leave you with today, except this one:

DON’T SHOOT ANYBODY.

And as soon as I write that I can think of exceptions (stopping a werewolf with a Silver Bullet immediately comes to mind and that’s a better use of a Coors Light than drinking that watery shit) but shooting someone for expressing a political opinion you disagree with, isn’t one of them.

Now have a nice weekend.

http://kingfeatures.com/comics/editorial-cartoons-a-z/