[UPDATE 2024: in 2020, I started another blog. This, below, was THAT blog’s “first post,” back-dated to when I made it – but I have made a retroactive decision (in 2024) to include that blog’s posts on this here blog. A blogular consolidation, if you will. What is below is that content of that blog-post.]
I built this website [i.e. that other website] some years ago, but it had no “blog” attached to it. It was just a minimalist political platform that I never used, never publicized, and only sparingly maintained.
Last week, something happened that crystallized for me a growing desire to express myself politically, somehow, somewhere. So I decided to start an explicitly political blog. What better place for it than as an adjunct to my moribund political platform website?
I already maintain two personal blogs. One is for my creative writing, for journaling my day-to-day life, for photos I take and things I do and for my friends and family to see what I’m up to. Another blog is for my hobby community, where I prefer not to be “too transparent” in my online persona.
But in both blogs, I have mostly deliberately refrained from overt political statements. Part of the problem is that my friends and family are ideologically diverse – and I’d prefer not to alienate any of them with my own strongly held political opinions. Lately, too, I actually live somewhat in fear that if my neighbors, friends and coworkers knew my actual political stances, it could put me at risk of – for lack of a better word – “ostracism” – if not something worse, like losing a job or not being able to call on neighbors for help in a time of need.
The crystallizing event was conversation which I witnessed at work, between a coworker and a local resident. The local resident and my coworker, call them L. and T., were discussing the first presidential debate, between Biden and Trump (they are both Trump supporters, wearing buttons and with bumper stickers on their cars).
T. said, “You have to be ready – I know it’s scary, but you know, Biden might steal the election.”
L. said, with a dead-serious face that brooked no argument, “It’s gonna hit the fan. We need to start rounding up democrats and shooting them, now.” This is not an idle threat from L. – a well known gun collector and local 2nd amendment nut.
They looked to me for endorsement, as if this were an unassailable proposition.
I had to say nothing. Pick your battles. Don’t jeopardize your work relationships with political argument. Even my silence was probably viewed as problematic.
I was stewing inside. I need to have some kind of outlet to discuss these issues.
I must be clear. L. and T. are quite kind and reasonable people, in many respects. Indeed, my coworker has been generous to a fault with me personally, and has proven to be remarkably “live and let live” with respect to the people actually encountered day-to-day. Yet when confronted with a monstrous, amorphous other, “democrats,” baser instincts apparently kick in.
To those reading: if I have sent you a link to this, it’s because I trust you and need to express myself. I actually want you to share – on facebook or other social media or political forums. But, please do not link my name to this website. I’m going to run this blog anonymously.
I don’t know how often I’ll post here. I expect I might post fairly often for the next few months, as the election plays out. I might let it fall dormant again, after that.
[UPDATE 2024: Again, to be clear, by posting this post here on my main blog, I’m abrogating my intention to remain anonymous.]
