I am a Realist

It is sometimes assumed that "Psycho Hippie Liberals" (to jokingly quote someone I met online) are quite naive. I'd say, that's very true, and so is everyone else in this stupid country. But seriously, I'm actually a realist. Just because I have positive, sometimes optomistic views of human nature, does not mean I don't know what's going on.

Martin Luther King, Jr. cheated on his wife. Ghandi refused antibiotics for his wife to save her life, then chose to take them when the same infection threatened his own. Despite all this, they are two of my biggest role models. Why? Because of what they did do for the people of this world. I refuse to be bogged down by the "real world" and complain about little details of everything.

Einstein was an asshole to women. I just get tired of it. Do you want to hear all my flaws, and then tell me what a horrible person I am, and how regardless of what I do for this world, I will only be seen for my flaws? If I could read your mind, trust me, I could find your problems too.

I love my life, and all the horrors and wonders in it. I love humanity both despite and because of what we're capable of, and trust me, I know what we're capable of. I am not a "tolerant liberal" who thinks that people should be free to do what they please. I'm not such a cultural relitivist that I feel that it is okay for women in certain Muslim countries to be treated like less than human, or that because the Aztecs were an indigenous culture, they should have been allowed to keep conquering more peaceful, egalitarian societies in MezoAmerica. They were no better than the Spaniards. I don't think children should be allowed to "explore sexually" to the point that they have intercourse when they're twelve and have never had a realistic talk with their parents. I don't think the pedophiles have just as much of a right to seek out young boys as grown-ups do to seek out other grown-ups. These are things that I despise about some people who call themselves "liberals."

In fact, I don't believe in tolerance at all. I believe in acceptance. I do not "tolerate" same-sex couples, or black people, or different religions. I accept them as just as legitimate as my own sexuality, ethnicity, and spirituality. But I have a rule: "Do what thou wilt and harm none." That is what I think "liberal" should mean. That is why it is not "liberal" to be okay with Aztecs pillaging other indigenous cultures, Muslims treating women like shit, or sexual practices that harm people and are nonconsentual. I call that apathetic, not liberal.

So what does all this have to do with? Basically, I think we should pick our battles. Abortion isn't as important as orphaned, starving children. MLK, Jr. cheating on his wife isn't as important as Bush sending us to war without reason and a million other things he did. Keeping our economy "intact" while destroying the environment isn't as important as having a sustainable economic system. Etc.

I am aware of the horrors of this world. But for god's sake, you should measure your complaints and whinings against what you've actually done for this world. If your ratio of complaints to activism is disproportionate, you should rethink your attitude, and your lack of action. I'm sick of apathy. You know who the majority of this country voted for? No one. That's right. We voted for, "Let the most corrupt and powerful person take office, cause I don't give a damn." That is the equivalent of voting for Bush.