I think my old friend really and truly cannot believe the fact that I've become a "democrat" and I just, for the life of me, cannot figure out why. Or rather, I should say, I think my old friend can't figure out how I came to be so specifically against the entire Trump/Republican ticket and...just as I said, I really cannot figure out why he's so perplexed. I mean, I guess if he was some random dude in a bar, his rage and confusion would make sense -- but this kids reaction is making literally zero no sense to me, because he's known me for a hundred years now, since we were actually kids, and I've never changed my opinion on basically anything , I've always been extremely cynical in terms of mainstream US politics; and yet....judging by his reaction oftentimes these days, you'd think that I've experienced some seismic unfathomable change that he can't accept. And the only change that's occurred inside me, that I can really & truly think up for why he's so god damn angry with me every time we talk now, is because these days , unlike the past, I do, in fact, have actual facts and articles that I read, which back up my opinion.
In the old days, he always had the articles, and the stories, and the facts (he went to college, I did not) and I would basically just have ideas, and feelings (plus song lyrics from Bob Marley) and he never got really upset with me then, I am realizing now, because I was never exactly "for" any one clear cut thing in particular, nor was I really against anything specific , but now.....well, now that I have these articles I will occasionally link him to, it seems he goes , quite literally, batshit insane. He just straight up flips out, flips his wig. He can't handle it anymore. It's as plain as day at this point, especially after Trumps victory and "triumph", to see that this old buddy I've known since literally 1st grade is losing his patience with me , fast. And I of course with him as well. It seems we just don't like each other much anymore when we talk, and I swear it's all just because I finally took a real side, and used actual articles , besides just Bob Marley lyrics from songs with titles like "Crazy Baldhead" , to back up my opinion.
We will be talking straight politics, I'll throw a dagger at some random Republican thing, and the next thing I know I'm being attacked personally for some personal choice I made 10 years ago. He gets that angry. He veers wildly from the actual political topic and just starts tearing on me .../.
Anyways, Take this afternoon, for example. I was on my iPhone reading the science fiction author William Gibsons Twitter (which I often do) when I just so happened to come across a link he had put up to an article in some German newspaper Der Spiegel. It was a rather serious anti Trump piece that "somewhat" shocked me, and was certainly serious, but which ultimately made me laugh, and wasn't that ...how could I put it..."risque" for me . I mean, the extremely anti Trump Article, written by a German journalist/intellectual, was shocking because it was in a pro newspaper, and often you don't see such a tone taken in a national newspaper, but beyond that I wasn't much surprised with the Germans extremely negative opinion of Trump. I, after all, have been keeping a correspondence with many euros for many years via my trusty internet here , and I know and am very accustomed to the sort of jokes and comments they crack in regards to the current US political debacle . It does not offend me. It especially , as I say, does not offend me when they rip on Trump. I agree with them. I find it "comical". I understand their grievances completely. It makes perfect sense to me. I join in on the fun. It's almost cathartic to rip on him in unison with others.
So long story short, I sent it to my buddy thinking it would be a good way to prove to him just what I've been trying to tell him all along now , about how basically none of the western Europeans dig this dude. Often he seems to sort of doubt the validity of this claim, so I wanted to send him this shocking piece while I had the chance. I figured - maybe a little - that it would shock him a bit , maybe offend him, OK, it's true, I went into it thinking "this may slightly backfire" but I also thought...hey maybe this article will make him see that something weird is going on here. Maybe this will show him I'm not a lunatic , and I'm getting my opinions from somewhere. That I'm not just like, in some sort of vacuum, coming up with this idea that Trump is an ass all on my own here . I've got folks. From California to New York City to Miami to Berlin and Munich and Rome ...I've got folks!
I thus link him to it and wait for a reply.
Well about 2 hours pass and suddenly i get one reply , and then another, and then another and another all in very very quick succession, and much to my surprise of course, the dude is wigging out and I really mean it ....he's absolutely wigging. Like just writing and spewing insult after angry insult for the writer of the piece, for Der Spiegel the paper itself, the whole 9 yards, and he's saying how "I used to trust this fucking paper but now never again! They're obviously WORTHLESS!" and how he "can't believe an article like this wpild even get published professionally, et cetera et cetera..." and his insults and his rage go on and on and on. The article, mind you, I guess I should add, was titled "it's time to get rid of Donald trump". And like I said my buddy just goes balls to the wall here flipping out , and I'm sitting there looking at the stupid iPhone, with my mouth wide open in utter disbelief.
I literally, like, even now, I just can't believe that this dude is this angry and this venomous after reading it. I mean not only did he not enjoy it or get a lAugh out of it as I did (!) but he actually , you know, he reacted to it like it was talking about his lover or something . That was really the only rotten thing I could think with his insane reaction: you'd think this dude Klaus Brinkbaumer (the writers name) you'd think he was writing about my friends actual lover here, his father or something, that's how mad this kid was. But of course old German Klaus here wasn't writing about my dudes father. He was writing about an asshole president whom nobody in their right mind seems to dig....cept of course, unfortunately for me, my old buddy here. He was writing negatively about someone that, as I was explaining to this same pal 2 weeks ago here (we were walking along a beach, screaming at one another) no one seems to like anyways....except for very very specific and select people. Like , when I say no one likes Donald Trump, I'm referring to the LGBT community, the vast majority of the arts community, basically both the west and east coasts completely, all the major American metropolises , a great deal of the western Euros ...the Afro American community ...smart and widely read legendary writers like Gibson...feminists...the anti drug war community , mexicans , the list goes on and on. Yet for some reason all of these various cultures now tied together in their disgust for Trump and his insane constituency seems to matter literaly not a single notch for my old friend. Not a single notch. When you tell him that all of these people are united now in their despisal for this man it goes in one ear and out the other. Seems to just not matter. How could all the opinions of all those various people ----people who, you should see, outnumber the Trump supporters enormously --- not matter a notch to my pal?
In one argument we were having about it, for instance, my friend told me I was a "conformist" for not liking Trump. He said to me that I was just going along with a trend. "You've said for years now how deeply this society troubles you. And now you're going along with it against him...."
He knew this word would get me a bit, I think, because years ago, one of the first things he and I ever bonded over was our love of punk rock music, and "not conforming" has always been a big part of the punk rock ethos. So he told me I was being a conformist by going against him, and what I told him was basically exactly what I just wrote to you, dear reader: I said "if only one of those communities I've listed was against him, and I conformed solely to that one communities idea, then you might be right, I might just be a conformist, just like many punks used to conform solely to the punk music; ..but to me, the fact that all of those, more or less, widely disconnected cultures, have now suddenly connected together in resisting DT, to me that's a sign that I'm not conforming, because if all of those various cultures are against this together, that's got to mean something-- don't you think?"
"No." He told me. "Because who are they anyways?"
Who are they anyways? Who are they anyways? What the hell is this dude talking about? Who are they anyways!? Well I'll tell you, I guess, what I also told him: "they're the fucking exact people in this society who have kept me afloat for all of these years, despite how sick this society is deep down. They're the David Bowies, the Bob Marleys, and the JK Rowlings of the world. They're the artists, the actors, the Intellectuals and travelers that you claim you've been examining yourself for years. They're the people who have made life actually tolerable for me for a hundred years now. They're the minorities...the queers, many of them the outcasts that those punk songs you claim to love sang about. That's who they fucking are!"
He of course just kind of sat there that day on the beach, looking at me, guzzling some Miller Lite: "well," he said , "I've always personally made it a rule to not let art and politics mix. It seems you've been unable to do that, buddy."
Or maybe, I thought to myself, you're just a cheap fucking hypocrite......
---- lost in Translation
Floating out here al alone
Endless notes on an iPhone
And a little bit of a headache and a sick stomach
I'm sorry it ended abruptly, reader. All my articles do. I don't get paid. I don't write for Der Spiegel.
If I did...I would not have this fucking asshole in my life!
----
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