So Halstead’s written something before the election too, and I guess I’m going to throw my two cents in on replying here. Admittedly, bit late to effect things, but oh well. Unlike with Beckett, who got the meme’ing he deserved for that piece of crap he wrote, I’m actually not going to be doing a full play by play on Halstead, or even being unmercifully memetic.

Gods, what world is this where I’m nice to Halstead. Truly the age of Trump is an age of miracles. But then, the glory of Kek know no bounds. So let’s get to Who Do You Vote For at the (Beginning of the) End of the World?

What’s a Berner to Do?

This has been a rough campaign season for progressives like me.

First Bernie Sanders lost the Democratic nomination, and then he turned around and endorsed Clinton.  That left “Bernie or Bust” types like me in an awkward position.  Should we vote for Clinton?  Should we boycott the election?  Or should we vote for a third party candidate?

Well, you could have voted for Trump, like a lot of Bernie folks did. I mean, Hela’s grace, Trump probably won some key areas because of those socialist bastards. So hats off to them.

Still, I can feel Halstead’s pain. It’s got to seriously suck watching your candidate get cuckholded and cheated out of the election and then forced to contemplate voting for the very person who cheated him. I mean, it’s got to be like watching some jackbooted racist beat your jewish grandpa to death, and then realizing you have to support that thug because otherwise you might end up with a populist.

Still, Stein and Johnson were options, I suppose.

Cynical commentators have been telling me that I should overlook the fact that Clinton is a two-faced political operative and that she’s the best we can hope for.  After Bernie Sanders, I can not longer accept that.  His support of Clinton was disappointing, but it has not diminished the optimism that his campaign inspired in me.

Well, there’s a reason he’s called Bernie “The Cuck” Sanders. But hey, I stopped expecting integrity from my socialists a long, long time ago. Way before they bought their third house for $600k after loosing a rigged election. But that’s me.

Still, I would never tell anyone to overlook the fact that Clinton was a two-face political operative. Because she most certainly was not the best anyone can hope for. She was, in fact, the absolute worst anyone could hope for. Literally anyone else could have beaten Trump.

On social policy, Clinton and I are largely in agreement, especially on “women’s issues”.  But economically, I think she’s in the pocket of Wall Street and will undoubtedly support “free trade”, like the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which is really bad for the environment.

Actually, I’m pretty sure that the TTP/TTIP is bad for absolutely everything, not just the environment. The things that piece of crap does to copyright laws and freedom of speech is just…terrible man.

I’m not really going to say anything about “women’s issues” here because…Well Hillary doesn’t really have any clear policies for “women’s issues” as best as I, or anyone, could tell. Part of that whole “two-faced” thing. Honestly, I’m just going to shrug at the whole “agreement” thing Halstead says he has because, honestly, no one knows what she stood for so there can’t really be any “agreement of views.”

Like ecofeminists, I see the oppression of women and the abuse of the environment as related phenomena, both arising from patriarchal power structures of hierarchy and domination.  But that doesn’t mean that a vote for a woman is necessarily a vote for the environment.

You know, I’m just going to give Halstead some honest credit for recognizing that a vote for a woman isn’t automatically a vote for the environment, even with his belief in “ecofeminism.” That’s honestly a lot more intellectual maturity than I’m used to seeing these days. Especially since so much Hillary support was “muh vaginuh.”

I mean, I don’t agree with the idea of ecofeminism in the slightest, but hey, I can at least respect some maturity.

What Happened to the Climate?

Perhaps even more disturbing than what the candidates have said about climate change is what they haven’t said.  We have gone from Bernie Sanders, for whom climate change was front and center (he said that climate change is the greatest threat to national security) to having three Presidential debates (and one Vice-Presidential debate) without a single question on climate change.  Only 82 seconds was spent on climate change in the four debates combined.

How is that even possible?  How is it that immigration and sex scandals and the national debt are seen as more important than the survival of the human species?!

Of course, it still seems that Halstead is what’s known as a “single issue voter.” In this case, the environment rather than genitalia…which I suppose is in fact a much better issue if you’re going to go all “single issue” about it.

Still, I think I can clear up the confusion as to why the environment and climate never came up. I’ve been hearing an advertisement lately that talks about how the average american household has something like $60k in credit card debt (don’t ask me how) and most people live paycheck to paycheck. And while I can thankfully say I do not have any credit card debt (I refuse to get one of the damn things) I do live paycheck to paycheck. Actually, I don’t even live that.

See, I know Halstead is “middle class,” probably edging upwards a bit. But when you live paycheck to paycheck, like most people do…you don’t really have time or energy to worry about the “biosphere” or “rainforest destruction” or rising sea levels. Honestly, what you’re most worried about is…your next paycheck. Will it be enough. Can I find a better job, one that won’t chew me up like a meat grinder and spit me out broken and broke. How can I keep a place to live. How can I keep my family fed and safe. Hell, how can I even get a family?

The reason economic growth was a big topic but the environement wasn’t, is because most people are fucked. We’re in debt for college degrees that don’t get us jobs, because the jobs they should get us have been gobbled up by either more experienced people who got laid off from their jobs, or have been dissolved from existence by bad trade deals, outsourcing, automation, or any number of factors. When you fill out an application for an entry level position, and they want three years experience to hire you for what was literally the job training…shits fucked.

And the person promising to fix that problem, promising to make it so you could get a nice job like your parents and grandparents had…yeah, that’s the person you’re going to listen to in that situation. Not the guy insisting that melting ice caps are as much a threat as Islamic terrorists with guns, bombs, and trucks.

You can’t worry about the world being destroyed if you’ve starved to death before it happens.

The Perspective of Privilege

The best argument I have heard in favor of the “Clinton compromise” is that it is privileged to vote for a third-party candidate. ..

Well that’s about the stupidist thing I’ve heard all day. And this has been a couple days for stupid.

Voting third party is your Right. Actually it’s everyone’s Right. In fact, that’s kind of why it is a Right. It’s an ability that is granted to everyone. Rich, poor, black, white, man, woman, doesn’t matter. Anyone can vote for a third party. There isn’t some test, nor is there some specific social class you “need” to be a part of in order to vote 3rd party. All you have to do is literally….vote for a 3rd party candidate.

…I can’t argue with that.  I’m white, male, heterosexual, cis-gendered, middle-class.  And so, a Trump presidency would be less disastrous for me personally than for women, people of color, etc.  So, yes, it is easier for me to overlook the evils of a Trump presidency.  And yet, I’m not convinced that my privileged position is a handicap in this election.

Huh. Halstead just refused to check his privilege.

This age is truly an age of miracles.

Honestly though, I don’t think the Trump presidency is going to be all that disastrous. Given that a Clinton presidency would have been marked with labeling green frogs a hate crime, starting WW3 with Russia over email hackings they never did, and a cabinet filled with Child Molesting Satan Worshipers who rig elections in some cosmic horror version of Manifest Destiny.

So, you know, it could always have been worse.

In fact, I think my privilege gives me a unique perspective: it enables me to look beyond the short term eclipse of human rights and focus the long term eclipse of human life…

Woah there grand dragon. Slow your roll. That’s some mighty whitey talk right there. Getting all “white man’s burden” up in this joint.

Honestly, real talk. Halstead makes a big deal about Trump being a racist, sexist, blah blah blah you get the picture. But this right here? This is actual sexism and racism. Halstead is saying that because of his race and sex, he has the ability to see beyond what people who are not of his race or sex can see. And so because of this superior ability, he must use that superior ability to enact the good of all peoples, including those incapable or ignorant as to this power.

…That’s a terrible calculus, I know.  But on the one hand, we have Trump, who would terrorize women and people of color and who would continue policies that will lead to the end of life as we know it.  On the other hand, we have Clinton, who would do better for women and marginally better for people of color … and will continue policies that will lead to the end of life as we know it.

Trump has a lifetime achievement award for helping the black community. Just…let that sink in for a moment.

Still, I can see where Halstead is coming from where Trump and Clinton would both “continue policies that will lead to the end of life as we know it.” From his perspective, I’m sure that’s exactly the situation. And I do believe that Trump will end “life as we know it” with his presidency. Given that life as we know it is a corrupt oligarchical state that no longer listens to the people, but rather rules over them without care or concern…yeah, Trump has a chance of changing that. Hillary would have changed it too, but that would probably have been through nuclear warfare.

Seriously though, it’s like everyone forgets Clinton abused women, threatened rape victims, and literally was mentored by a Head of the KKK and called black people “super predators.”So I’m not sure where this whole  “she’ll be better for women and minorities” comes from because her Track record is shit compared to Trump’s in that regard.

The Lesser Evil

I’ve told repeatedly that a vote for anyone other than Clinton is a vote for Trump.  Even Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, has succumbed to the logic of the “lesser evil”.

Praise Kek.

Now, Trump may be one of the worst people to have ever won a major party nomination…

I’m just going to guess that Halstead never really read any of the wikileaks stuff. Seriously, Hillary’s crew was and is one of the most corrupt political organizations in the history of politics. It’s like something you’d expect from some third world dictatorship. There’s strong evidence that top members of her staff are part of an international child sex trafficking ring. They quite literally have accepted millions and millions of dollars from nations who treat their women as 2nd class citizens and who slaughter their gays. Hillary has been a part of starting three civil wars in the Middle East in the last decade alone. That’s not counting the dozens of time’s she’s assisted her husband with his rape victims and intimidated them, passing laws that have laid the foundation of today’s “Racist policing,” and being implicated in numerous assassinations.

Now, I’m never going to claim Trump is any sort of saint, but bloody Hela, perspective people.

…What’s really disturbing to me is not the ludicrous things he says, but that because of his campaign, so many people now find it acceptable to be openly racist and misogynist.  The racist, misogynist, xenophobic, fascist side of the American psyche was always there — but Trump has given people license to wave it proudly like a flag.

Well, he’s not wrong. Trump has certainly done that and even I am amazed at the racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and fascism that is to be discovered in the American Left.

I mean, my twitter feed is constantly filled with screams for the death of white men. Entire sexist rants at women simply because they didn’t vote for Hillary. People out right body shaming and sex shaming Melina Trump because she used to be a model. Demanding the absolute destruction of entire cultures and people all for the fact that they didn’t vote for Hillary.

Hell, the day after the election at least seven major cities had massive protests of people marching in the streets demanding the election be undone simply because they didn’t like who won. Literally what Fascists have done in history. And none of them are the least bit apologetic about their bigotry, racism, sexism, or fascism.

Frankly, I’m really glad they didn’t win the election. I’d be in hiding by now.

I’m voting for Jill Stein, not because she has any statistical chance of winning, but because I want to send a message to the Democratic Party:  You can’t shove neoliberal candidates down our throats any more and keep our loyalty.  Bernie Sanders permanently changed the political lanscape, and we’re revolting against the plutocracy.  Neither the abstract hope of a woman in the White House, nor despair over Bernie Sanders’ loss of faith, nor fear of the threat of a Trump presidency are enough to make me vote for someone I don’t believe in.

And…this is fair. Actually, I’m really happy Halstead didn’t vote for Hillary. Stein was not the worst person on the ticket. And he stuck by his principles, such as they were.

And, given how badly the DNC lost this election, there’s some small hope that that party will die, and open the way for newer and better parties to come in. Hel, the same might happen with the Republicans at this point. Sure, they did a nice sweep, but that sweep comes with a very clear message from the people since it was topped with Trump getting elected. Do as the people say, or we have the power to oust you and plant leaders by sheer force of will against all your machinations and toys.

Protecting women’s rights, LGBT rights, and the rights of people of color are all important to me and I will continue to fight for them.  But no issue matters more than saving the earthly biosphere that is our home.  What civil rights activist, James Farmer, has said in this regard is as true as ever:

“if we do not save the environment and save the Earth, then whatever we do in civil rights or in a war against poverty will be of no meaning, because then we will have the equality of extinction and the brotherhood of the grave.”

Well, you’ll have the equality of the grave at the end of the day anyways. Which is part of why I don’t worry about environmentalism too much. What can I say, we death worshipers don’t really care about that stuff to much.

Still, I do wonder how Halsteads more…Marxist/Progressive friends are going to react to all this. I mean, he’s just said “I’m worried about the planet, and if that means inequality for women, gays, or people of color, I’m cool with that.” Can’t imagine that’s going to win him any points in his usual circles.

But hey, maybe this is a bridge, and Halstead can come to understand that just as he will not compromise on the environment, and that’s okay, that it’s okay for other people to not compromise on whats important to them.

 

 

 

Hela Bless