Dear countrymen (and we are countrymen, whether you think so or not), I know you're angry. We're all angry. The economy's in the toilet, the TPP (otherwise known as NAFTA 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO) will screw every one of us and is basically on the books. The elections are rigged. The rich grind the poor into spice for their lattes. I get it.
You need to know this, though. You're wasting your anger on trolling and harassing those of us you see as the enemy. You've been misled, as have we all. "United We Stand," I keep seeing on your bumper stickers, but you forgot the second half. Divided, we fall. We share the enemy, and it's time to start noticing its shape.
1. If you listen regularly to talk radio, or watch TV news, and if you really believe what you hear, you should know that you are being lied to by a league of hired guns who will literally say anything for money. They get their "talking points" from the people running this country into the ground, and always have. I won't pretend that it's all on one side, either. The far Left is an agenda, the far Right is an agenda, and so on. Everyone has an agenda in media, but the majority of the venom pours out of daytime Right Wing shows.They know things are bad, because they helped them get that way. They're preying on your fears, and they are nurturing them for harvest come Election year.
2. You are clearly taking the bait, as if they had your best interests in mind. Remember, however, that bait comes attached to a hook. Listen to the commercials. THAT is who they care about. They love to mock and dehumanize any movement that threatens their masters, and by trolling the Facebook pages of grassroots organizations with bad news (the only kind you're going to find in your bought-and-paid for news outlets, by the way), you are doing their work for them. The dumber we look due to the distortion in the media (which your radio gods laughably call "Liberal"), the less you have to think about the possibility that we're right, and that you're one of us, under all the made up statistics and misdirected anger. Change is hard, and people would rather pass the buck, and that's why things have gone so wrong.
3. Your seeds of negativity will fall on the rock, dear friends. Smart people aren't really that worried by your catcalls because we know it's a bottomless pit to reach people with closed minds. You can wallow in your blame games and pessimism if you prefer, but they won't help you. Optimists are the ones who get things done, they see possibilities and they embrace them. You wouldn't even have the Internet to abuse if everyone had your mentality.
4. Your inability to form sentences or use contractions betrays the ignorance that leads to this tragically limited world view. Maybe if your heroes at the top had invested in education instead of war profiteering, you'd be able to compose a coherent statement. In fact, maybe you wouldn't be so easy to control. Maybe you'd have learned compassion by now. Of course, that's bad for business, so that was never going to happen.
5. So many of you have obviously never even been to a protest of any kind, much less say, the Occupy camps or Black Lives Matter or the current Native protests against domestic pipelines that will poisonyet more of our precious groundwater. Many of you are not seeing the real issues because you're too busy "boycotting" a football player who won't stand for the anthem of the country that's hunting his brethren, or "evil" statues being erected to make a point about separation of church and state, or department stores that allow people you don't understand to use the bathroom, or whatever else you're damning with such enthusiasm. This is exactly how the enemies of real progress want it.
Before you harden your heart beyond the point of no return, go see for yourself. Go see that these protests are not just mobs of trust fund babies or the "welfare cheat" bogeymen you've been trained to believe are everywhere. These are not the enemy. These are your neighbors. Maybe even your friends and family. They are every bit as human as you are. They're out there because they're tired of being manipulated, tricked, and discarded. You probably have more in common with them than you can even imagine. You'll never know if you hide in your cocoon of cynicism.
We used to have something in this country called "community." It was replaced with gates and alarm systems and bickering religious factions, because the people taking advantage of us all depend on that fear and division to keep us from taking back our lives. It's been that way since at least World War II, and it will stay that way until people see it for the scam it is. What happened to "love thy neighbor," or do you only like the parts of the Bible that make you feel superior to others? What happened to "united we stand," or did that just go away because your 9/11 sticker faded? If you really care about America, try participating in it. Stop getting your opinions from other people, and stop hating strangers blindly. Get out there and look at the world, and talk to people, and think about what you found out there, and what it means. Then you can have an opinion of your own, like an adult. Until you do that, you are in real danger of becoming faceless, nameless, heartless, and useless, but remember, it's optional.
They want us at war with each other. They love it. Let's surprise them by coming together to be a force to be reckoned with rather than turned into income and votes.