This diary is part of a continuing series on living with Asperger's Syndrome. If you wish to know more about my diagnosis, you should start here.
Hello everyone. Last time I was here I wrote a diary explaining my frustration with politics. This last week really brought me to the boiling point. I'll explain more below the jump.
I suppose that last bit is somewhat of a lie. You see, when it comes to politics I always seem to be mad as hell, but with things the way they are today, who can blame me? I'll never understand how in what is termed 'The Age of Information', we have what can only be called a massive case of blatant and willful ignorance.
Before I go any further, I will state that I don't watch any mainstream news, because if I want to know about something, I'd much rather go directly to the source itself. I will also say that I did not watch any coverage of the Republican National Convention, because it doesn't take a genius to figure out that these assholes want to drown the rest of us just to keep their over-priced turds they call yachts afloat.
I try to talk to people about what the country needs to do as a whole and I am largely ignored. Now, I realize that things like single-payer or rolling back thirty years of needless tax breaks for the privileged few won't just magically happen overnight, but we can and should advocate for policies that would at least start us on such a path.
As far as the media is concerned, I feel that we absolutely must abolish the 24 hour noise machines we call news channels. Half of the time most of what they report isn't even news anyway. I don't want to hear about the stupidity of today's celebrities or celebrity wannabes. I want the media to report on the sciences accurately and with no distortions.
I would also like to see Wall Street abolished, Glass-Steagall reinstated and for the government to start enforcing the Sherman Anti-Trust act again. I would like to see an end to so-called 'free trade', because it doesn't have anything to do with trade and everything to do with turning the country into a Banana Republic...not that it would be much of a stretch now.
I want people to be able to receive a quality education and not have it cost them an arm and a leg. I want to be able to live in a country where the citizenry are well informed. I want to live in a country where people don't have to nearly kill themselves just to make a decent living.
I want to see an energy policy that allows for full exploration of all alternatives to things like oil and coal, and I also want that policy to make sure that the masses have access to such technology once it can be made available. I want to live in an environment that gives people of all backgrounds a chance to grow and improve themselves.
But none of this is going to happen any time soon, and I'm sure many of you already know why. We have no checks against the monied or corporate powers that have almost absolute control over our elections, at least at the state and federal levels. You saw what happened two years ago.
I want women to be treated with respect and dignity, rather than as objects for the pleasure of old white men who understand nothing about how biology works. I want women to have free and full access to birth control, and for discussions regarding abortion to be kept between doctor and patient, rather than relegated to back alleys and 'safe houses' because certain segments of the population ignorantly believe that banning something magically makes it disappear.
I want people to be able to love and marry whoever they see fit (So long as it's between two consenting adults, of course). I want those same people to be able to assist their loved ones in any time of need.
And lastly, I want to see a market where labor is on equal footing with capital. I want workers to be able to organize freely without fear of backlash from private armies of jack-booted thugs. I want workers to be able to have a stake in the companies that their time and effort help build, no matter how small their efforts might seem.
I realize I may get some heat for writing this, but I do so because I do believe in this site's cause: More and better Democrats. I also realize that some of this sounds almost utopian in nature. But I'm sure people said the same thing about FDR and LBJ when they created Social Security and Medicare. Yet both are widely popular today. Despite what the hypocrites who just want more money in their pockets are saying, both are doing well.
My point is, while it would take many years to implement policies that benefit all of us, it's still very possible. The main issue is that people expect it all to happen from the top down when it needs to happen from the ground up. Otherwise the foundation will easily crumble.
Sorry for the long winded and somewhat irrelevant diary, but as I said before in a comment, I usually have a thousand thoughts running through my head at once. I just hope you'll understand at least to a point where I'm coming from, because no one in the so-called real world seems to.
See you around,
Homer