Openly Fluffy October 2020

October 18, 2020

Openly Fluffy October 2020

Hey everyone,

This letter will be a little different.

I know that politics is an important issue for many folks in our community and I think a majority of folks in our Comfy Corner disapprove of the current U.S. president, to a point that some people do not want to be associated with anyone who may support him, so I'm writing this Openly Fluffy letter because as a left-leaning libertarian who voted for Obama twice and Bernie last election, in this election, I've decided to vote for Trump and want to be open with you about it and why I am.

This isn't me endorsing him and trying to tell you to vote likewise, and if you feel the need to unfriend/unfollow/unsub/etc, I understand and won't be offended. I hope you'll read this first though.

I wasn't sure how to write this or whether or not to write this letter, but I believe that we as a society are losing our ability to be open about our thoughts and opinions, and becoming quicker to judge others, especially on simple hearsay, and as a result, we're losing the ability to trust others as well as ourselves. Individual freedom to free-thought is core to me and what I feel the Comfy Corner is all about. Being Confidence and Comfortable with ourselves and being a Community to be able to do so.

Since the last election and especially this year, I think we as a whole have become more belligerent towards each other for not seeing the world the same way or disagreeing with our opinions, and become more stubborn to being right and closed-minded and closed-eared. And I don't think this is because we've become illogical or lost our common sense, but rather because our lens into the world has become so warped to only show what we want to see and reinforce them, and our ability to reach objective conclusions is hindered.

"So why are you voting for this racist, climate change-denying, homophobic, cry-baby-orange-pumpkin, white-supremacist who killed more than 200k with COVID because of his incompetence as possibly the worst president in U.S. history?"

I think I need to preface first with my own qualifications for coming to a conclusion because my thoughts as a random coding Twitch streamer don't hold as much credibility unless you also know that I heavily studied history and politics in college and graduated with an additional major in international relations/political science and a minor in history, focused around the Cold War era. History and news are two very different and often competing sides and I've voiced my disdain of the news media as a story-selling and news-preventing machine for a long while (List of recent tweets below), but it seems like we've circled back to thinking they're the same, ignoring facts and experts (whom by the way are allowed to disagree with each other too because questioning assumptions and exploring is what science is all about).

Basically, of the several reasons I came to the conclusion that re-electing the president would be best, my top reason is that I think the current picture painted of him by the media, especially this year, is simply incorrect, and the picture painted of Biden, his opponent, is also very incorrect, and that the ability of them to do so for their own agenda without any accountability, puts not just the values of our community at risk but also of the rest of the country and the world at risk.

For reference, Trump has repeatedly denounced the KKK and white supremacy since the 90s (https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/aug/27/joe-biden/biden-wrong-when-he-says-trump-hasnt-condemned-dav/) and Biden was very much against desegregation as a politician (https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/biden-racial-jungle-quote/).

We've also gotten to a place where "listening to the science" means we only use it when it agrees with us, without full context or the advice of multiple experts (WHO's Special Envoy on C19 https://twitter.com/spectator/status/1314573157827858434), even censoring them in sometimes.

When citing Trump as the worst president in history, of course we would think so when the news is no longer widely celebrating incredible achievements like the SpaceX/NASA collaborated launches and continued progress towards commercial space travel, Trump's global efforts to decriminalize homosexuality, reforming criminal justice and freeing 91% black inmates with the First Step Act, the biggest and largest environmental preservation law since WWII, or his landmark protection of animals and making animal cruelty a federal felony for the first time in the U.S..

And when it comes to foreign policy, this administration is the first to recognize Taiwan as a nationstate, the first to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, actually reduced and brought back overseas troops, and started bringing overseas manufacturing back to domestic. To me, it's just too different from the media and there's just too much deception.

Finally with COVID, I think it's easy to blame just the person at the very top, but we're a country made up of essentially 50 countries. I'm not sure I'll ever understand why even though the very first case of C-19 showed up in my own state and went ignored for 6 weeks, until community spread was confirmed, the media has heralded the governor for having one of the best responses to the virus. For those who don't live near Seattle, comparing this city with others like NYC and SF is apples to watermelons because those cities have subways and effective public transportation while we still need a car to get to mostly anywhere unless we wait hours on a bus. And considering how half of the C-19 samples seem to be descendants of the WA case, this governor should probably take at least half the blame for the U.S. deaths. This media has consistently lied to us from both parties and I firmly believe we need to address it.

Seeing as the media has become even more overwhelmingly liberal over the past years though (85% of journalists identify democrat) and almost exclusively controlled by just over a dozen billionaires with only 6 major companies: GE, NewsCorp, Disney, Viacom, TimeWarner, CBS, I feel I have to vote for the party that would fight to regulate it from a national level, which ends up being Trump. If controlling our lens into the world works and proves to the news and social media's benefit, I believe that this control of information and facts will only get worse.

I immigrated to the U.S. as a little kid, not knowing any English, and became a naturalized citizen in high school, convinced that the difference of opinions and backgrounds in this melting pot country was what made it possible to innovate better and pursue dreams and ideas, and believed that everyone should be proud to be here, but today it's become trendy to be ashamed and feel bad about ourselves and where we live, not just for Americans but for everyone around the world, and to be afraid more than ever, and to ridicule others who don't think, look, or feel the way we do. Everyone deserves to feel good about themselves and to keep learning and improving, not just because someone told us we're wrong and should think a certain way, but because we can communicate with each other, share stories, and learn to put ourselves in other people's shoes.

Right now, I believe this is what is at risk for our future and even if most of you might disagree with my vote, I'm writing this to share my perspective, conclusions, and what I believe. It sucks if we keep moving towards a future where we should just all feel bad or stressed or ashamed and afraid to be wrong. That shouldn't be how it is for the Comfy Corner or anywhere else.

Stay Comfy,

Instafluff

That list of some recent tweets: