To The Left in Current Events

There was a mini intervention moment today about my politics from my family. We hosted my niece’s fifth birthday so we had a decent-sized gathering to celebrate. I tried to refrain from bringing up politics but people kept making digs at me. I took it like a champ but I did not let them convince me that I was some unhinged social justice warrior. I tried to be playful back and get in on the joke and they took that as me trying to evangelize them into accepting Trump as their lord and saviour. Look, we all think that we are the chosen woke ones. I don’t pretend that I’m any better. However, using logic and facts to challenge somebody’s political beliefs is not abuse. I represent my views pretty well, I think so anyway. One of them even brought up how their son can read my comments and it upsets him. Well, Facebook removed my cousin’s post that said “My boys are so messy” for hate speech and she was warned that she would be suspended if she violates their communist standards again. I’m not responsible for what their kids are looking at. My interactions are not even cyberbullying. I think this guy was referring to me reacting to him calling people with opposing political views trolls. He made a post that Trump hates gays and then everybody in his comment section ganged up on some girl who disagreed and I shut that down. Saying that Trump is homophobic does not magically make him homophobic. I can represent that he isn’t and they cannot represent that he is. He’s pro-freedom, pro individualism, pro-religious freedom and his policies represent that. I’m willing to play the bad guy in their imaginary virtuous hero story though. Whenever they caught me typing on my phone today they would comment “oh look Tom is destroying somebody.” First of all, yes. I’m destroying somebody to filth. Second of all, everybody else randomly tuned into their phones without getting called out. If the left didn’t have double standards they would have no standards. Apparently my family and friends feel “oppressed” because they can’t talk about their politics online without me chiming in and “attacking them”. First of all, that is how public forums work. Second of all, full-bodied opinions should not be taken as violence. Third of all, nuance does not translate on social media well. I’m actually trying to have fun. With the exception of twice. So far. Social media does not bring out the best in everybody in every single time. We are not evolved to experience it. It’s one entity in our brain for starters, not many but just one. All those arguments and compliments feel like it is coming from one entity. Blah, I digress.

I starved myself for most of the day because being controversial about expressing what I think isn’t menacing enough they had to bring up what I eat. I tried to wait for everybody to leave but I caved and I made myself something quick. Now I had to justify my plant-based diet. That’s stupid was their argument to everything. Thank God I have self-esteem. It’s Just draining trying to make my views palatable. I’m getting so much better at handling narcissism. That narcissism only came from one person. He was the passive-aggressive one who couldn’t let anything I said go. I can work with that. Anyway, veganism is generally recognized as a lefty social justice issue. I am complicated as a free thinker, my beliefs and values are all over the political/social compass. I don’t agree to believe that eating animals is natural, necessary and not noxious to the planet. I’m not making it political, it is my choice and if it inspires others great! This is just one of those choices that makes some people insecure. Especially since I am living proof that it is possible. The first thing everybody had to say to me today was that I look good. * You look so healthy, wow! Then the cognitive dissonance hit them hard later during the debates when I explained to them that we’re wearing masks to protect seniors and people who have diseases from bad nutrition. Hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, obesity and various respiratory diseases*. Not everyone with those health issues is a perfect victim. It’s just three simple important choices a day. When I get my degree in nutrition I will not be pushing people to be plant-eaters. I believe in choice. I will work with their own lifestyles. Science only shows us how to use everything on the planet but there is not one thing that it knows in its entirety. I use plants to fuel my body because I recognize that my alimentary canal is the same size as herbivores. I have similar hands as herbivores. Same teeth as herbivores. My jaw grinds, my eyes see in technicolour, my mouth produces the same enzymes as herbivores. I’m not convinced that my body is designed to be a predator. Our minds can be though. We are a brilliant adaptive species. Well, we were. Diets aren’t even that straight of a line in the rest of nature. Predators will eat some plants, primates will eat insects and the occasional lizard. I think science has evolved enough to allow me to ditch animals and just use plants. So far so good. I experienced the same benefits that anybody would should they make improvements to their diet. Jordan Peterson strictly only eats beef. The benefits he reported from that shift were the exact same ones anyone would get once they go on a restrictive diet. Where is he now? His health went through a series of unfortunate events just as conservatives need him the most. I didn’t need a crystal ball to see that coming. Plant-based diets are not restrictive. They’ve been used to halt and even reverse those diseases I listed above. Totally sustainable. Blah.

Anyway, today did inspire me to purchase that little book on how to debate the left. Why not? We all need hobbies and interests. Also, I bought some retinol finally. I still can’t bring myself to look in the mirror. I don’t have any dysmorphia or dysphoria but just some minor dissociation. Imposter syndrome. Boring boring it’s late enough to sleep now. Ta