Here's a short story I wrote a while ago to poke fun at the woke crowd. Title 28 is a law passed in New York State banning most uses of plastic shopping bags.
Elsie started off that day as she had for decades on end: she fed the cats, made herself a cup of coffee, ate a bowl of yogurt with honey and bananas, completed her morning "constitutional elimination", then set out on her daily activity of protesting on the steps of the courthouse with one of her spiffy signs, her weapons.
The protesting started off as a bit of a joke, a way to get out of the house that she had shared for fifty years with her now deceased husband Edgar. Elsie had painted her first sign in response to the Me Too movement:
If You Think It's Hard To Be A Woman, Just Wait Until You're A Little Old Lady
She'd gotten herself into the national news that very first day of her protesting career. Memes of her standing on the courthouse steps in her beige coat and handmade persimmon colored hat went viral. Everyone thought she was cute and harmless, proving what she'd set out to say, but she suspected only she could see the irony.
So, she stepped it all up a bit. The signs got a bit more political, a tad more controversial. Elsie hoped to inspire some conversation among folks, who were increasingly sorting themselves into two opposing camps, which she found alarming.
Most people were friendly to her on the courthouse steps, but she started noticing that certain factions were eyeing her with disfavor, even disgust. Two signs ago she carried a sign that said
Love Thy Neighbor Even If They Voted For Trump
That sign inexplicably got her a great many dirty looks.
Her last sign
Science Makes Mistakes
set a few of them off actually yelling at her. Sam Security had to come shoo them off.
That last day was a beautiful day for a protest, clear blue skies and a warm spring breeze, so off she went as usual. Shopkeepers she'd known since they were students of hers greeted her warmly as she passed them while they were opening up their shops.
Her sign for the day was one she'd been working on for a week. She wanted to make a statement that was sure to rankle no one and maybe get a few chuckles out of some.
When she got there, Carol the meter reader greeted her with a now customary "How did the constitutional elimination go today Elsie?" to which Elsie responded "Still no need for a colonoscopy, Carol!" Elsie settled herself at her usual spot on the lowest step, and hoisted her latest weapon.
Title 28 Unfair To Little Old Ladies
She also had a bundle of plastic shopping bags, which were now illegal for stores to provide. She expected to hand them out to anyone who might ask for some. She herself had been stocking up on them for a year now, when the law was first passed. It was either that or buy garbage bags to put her tiny amounts of household garbage in.
A group of people at the top of the steps, who seemed to have been waiting there for her arrival, began walking down the steps toward her. Two of them had professional looking video recording gear. A microphone was shoved into Elsie's face, disorienting her and knocking her down. The crowd grew, but Elsie could no longer be seen and the only sound was a chant
Racist, Sexist, Anti-Gay, Elsie Viscardo Go Away
At the end of the day, when all the crowds and the police and the media were gone, Carol picked up a persimmon colored hat from the pool of Elsie's blood on the sidewalk.
"She'll never need that colonoscopy now" Carol thought, then headed over to Elsie's house to feed the cats.
I, like my character Elsie, am becoming alarmed by the inability of those of supposedly liberal bents to respect viewpoints other than those within their very narrow range of allowable thought. You can not fight hate with hate, and your neighbor is not your enemy, no matter who they vote for.
One crowd I have never feared for my safety in, is the freedom crowd. Whether it was in the cannabis activism movement in Vancouver in the leadup to "legalization", or the anti-lockdown rallies, or Freedom Convoy, there was a special aura of peace and Liberty at the events. We became a bubble of goodness in the area we were in, making our point, but also creating a place where nothing but love and freedom was permitted. It didn't have to be said, it just happened. Freedom-based grassroots events are amazing. Anything pumped by the media, such as the anti-Trump protests, BLM, etc are always violent. Even the attendees of those events are sometimes violent toward each other. It's not about freedom and love, it's about an agenda that is usually stoked by politicians or the media. Dangerous.
On plastic bags... we have known for decades how to make plastic out of hemp. It naturally biodegrades but is strong and durable when new. There's no reason to make them out of petroleum products, or to ban them.
Thanks for the cool story Owasco!
My pleasure, thanks for appreciating it and leaving such a great comment!
Even the hemp bags are forbidden in NYS, where just about everything is regulated and/or illegal.
Your experiences in the freedom movement demonstrate the power of love.
I love this post! It's so important to spread love and understanding, not hatred and division. We need to remember that we're all in this together, no matter what our political beliefs may be. #LoveNotHate
Thank you. Division only weakens us.
It's funny how it's 'the liberals' of today use the word 'haters' so much isn't it?....It's almost like they're projecting their own inner landscapes onto the rest of the world.....
(nothing to do with The Classic Liberal and Volatire, et al)
Everything they accuse the other side of doing, they are doing in spades. Cannot see it, as if a force field has been erected around their self-reflection capabilities.
The lack of any real self awareness is both hilarious, and depressing, at the same time.
I'm not sure how to/if there is, a way fix this internal blind spot.
So while we work on that conundrum, I say that we expose idiocy (for that is what it is) laugh at them, and by doing so - use it to the advantage of those who do actually use their noggin's - to improve things.
These people have been psychologically neutered somehow, but I 'believe' it's reversible.
(I don't know this, only believe).
I'm an optimist.
From observations so far - both in real life, and reading quite widely on the subject - I see no concrete path to reaching this mental state by those who do not currently posses it.
('it', being on a spectrum of course),
It's not an IQ thing (imo), but I think that I've observed certain correlations....
It's this area that interests me the most as this area is the one that has - by far - the largest impact on, well...everything....
The psychology of the midwit.
(these are individuals with an 'above normal IQ', but without any great degree of self awareness, and who appear to be able to only 'plug into' the lower, more 'reptilian' levels of human brain functions...It's a very dangerous mix).
Yes I know a lot of these midwits, and many if not most of those I know are highly educated, PhDs and all. Those with the most education appear to have been the most harmed intellectually. They were instilled with a whole bunch of false assumptions that they base all their logic on. Such as vaccination is very effective and reasonably safe. Such as Hitler was an anomaly and that he worked alone. Such as groups of powerful people would never get together To conspire against the rest of humanity. There are many more. They are unable to make logical connections because they are operating on false assumptions.
logical connections - use of frontal lobe.
False assumptions - reliance on emotional stimuli, to define their reality.
(emotional stimuli is a much older -primal- development within the brain)
So - if the intellect is employed in the 'day to day' running of things (jobs, social skills, etc)' ..BUT that is not the main operating system - just a program - we get the midwit...
And when there is an existential crisis ?... a threat to their subjective reality for example - the emotionally based operating system prioritizes 'survival of their system' - shutting down unnecessary programs (as they perceive it) .....The 'frontal lobe cortex, intellect program', being one of them....
hmmmm....
If the analogy has any merit, the far more important issue then become's - How is it possible to 'turn on' the frontal lobe program, in these individuals ?
Or is it even possible? (after the 'brain peak' development, of the early 20's?)
I think it is...
I also think that it could necessitate having to have their own 'mini existential crisis', to shatter their previous 'reality'.
No one said growing up was easy !
Hmmmm....it does lend weight to my original hypothesis, however - that humor and ridicule is a good (but uncomfortable) road map to creating that said existential crisis.
Why?...
Because it's the synapse between emotion - laughter happy, angry, offended ect - and intellect. (understanding the joke in it's correct context).
....I feel a post, coming on....lol
some say that, since the jab contains materials that allow the toxins to cross the blood brain barrier, the jabbed have essentially been lobotomized.
.....more lobotomized, you mean ?...(cognitive function not exactly being one of their strong points, not if you 'jibby jabbed up' in the first place!)
Love your neighbour as your Self. - Yeshu bar Yosef
I got the idea from all the Love your Neighbor signs in my last neighborhood, but the signs were only in the yards of people who, I knew, hated anyone who voted for Trump. Oh the irony!
Some people are only filled with hate.
As for the woke crowd, their political party is filling them up with it. And they cannot see it. They are so very hateful of all things and people conservative, but think they themselves are the party of love and inclusion. They want us to look different, have any kind of sex we want, but otherwise to think exactly the same.
Curated by @ultravioletmag
Excellently written story. Science makes Mistakes is my favorite sign. You used a story to point out a real issue. They would kill a little old lady sitting on a step quietly holding a sign if the words on that sign "triggered" them no matter how small or large the debate is. Cult/mob mentality is always dangerous and violent.
Yup! You and I think alike on a lot of things. I have to explain this story to lefties. Thanks for getting it so well!
Yeah, I find we do see things from the same angle. Nice to talk to folks who do once in awhile. Keeps me somewhat sane in this inverted overly emotional society.
Congratulations, your post has been curated by @r2cornell, a curating account for @R2cornell's Discord Community.
Thank you! @jasonmunapasee
Re🤬eD
Little old ladies will be Unfair to Title 28
🥓