Is There Hope For Humanity?

The “fuck your feelings” crowd is sure fond of spouting “the law”, aren’t they? For example, go ask someone to turn down their unbearably loud music, and they’ll parrot “the law” at you. Or at least, what they think “the law” is. I wrote about one such experience here. Know what else “the law” says? In states like Texas, “the law” says an eighteen year old can purchase two assault rifles and a ton of ammo for the express purpose of shooting up a school, NO QUESTIONS ASKED. Dear God, is there any coming back from that? Is there hope for humanity at this point?

That is to say, while the ACTUAL “law” did NOTHING to stop it. And now, 19 elementary school children and two of their beloved teachers are dead. This, barely a week after ten people of color lost their lives in a mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York grocery store. And on the heels of these two soul-searing tragedies, are MORE shootings and MORE threats. I mean, at this point I can only wonder if there IS any hope for humanity as a whole in America today?

Or are we as a country destined to remain in a near constant state of mourning and fear? Especially since after the Uvalde shootings, there were FIFTEEN MORE MASS SHOOTINGS ACROSS AMERICA IN THE WEEK THAT FOLLOWED. And twelve of those fifteen were over Memorial Day Weekend.

Let that sink in for a moment.

I’d Like To Believe There’s Hope Left for Humanity, But…

I can’t help but think that we are not failing, but HAVE FAILED as a human society. Somewhere along the line, we lost our humanity. When? I can only speculate, but if I had to hedge a guess? I’d say around the time Captain Fuck-Your-Feelings got elected to office in 2016. And it seems like things have only gone downhill from there. So again I say, is there ANY hope for humanity? What happened to make some people so vicious and uncaring? I mean, let’s look at this, and I mean REALLY look at it.

So here’s what I believe. When Former Guy was in office, he lead the hateful by example. I know, because I lived it. People started PROUDLY wearing hate on their sleeves and on their chests! Think about it. How many individuals were HAPPILY sporting “fuck your feelings” T-shirts (nice, right?).

Hate crimes SPIKED. A hateful White Nationalist cop MURDERED George Floyd ON CAMERA. Mass shootings EXPLODED. And yet these same “fuck your feelings” folks will savagely and indubitably parrot “the law” at you when you come at them about being courteous to their neighbors OR banning guns. Because fuck YOUR feelings, not THEIRS.

Let’s Talk About A POX On Humanity – The “Fuck Your Feelings” Crowd

Ah yes, the “fuck-your-feelings” crowd. Christian conservatives that love Jesus out of one side of their neck and spew hateful rhetoric, misinformation, and conspiracy theories out of the other. They’ll delightedly stomp all over the rights of anyone getting in the way of their enjoyment, freedom and rights while yelling about THEIR rights and THEIR freedoms. Music too loud? It’s unbearable to their neighbors?

TOUGH SHIT, THE LAW SAYS THEY HAVE UNTIL X TIME, they’ll say. Oh, fireworks are terrifying to pets, vets and the traumatized and some folks like me would like them banned? Fuck-Your-Feelings doesn’t care and is gonna do what she wants because “she loves fireworks and will light ’em off all day and all night and if you don’t like it, LEAVE!”

I literally saw someone on Twitter say as much. Grossed out doesn’t even BEGIN to cover how I felt about that. I CAN say that people like that are what’s wrong with humanity, but more on that later.

Fuck Your Feelings = No Hope for America?

Worst of all, these same people, and especially the Fuck-Your-Feelingers (otherwise known as the alt. right) in power like Greg Abbott and Ted Cruz will literally be LICKING THE ASSHOLE OF THE NRA while blaming travesties like Uvalde on ANYTHING BUT where blame squarely belongs: the easy availability of deadly assault weapons.

After all, THE LAW SAYS that these weapons are readily available to anyone who wants them. Including mass murderers who slaughter schoolchildren. And I guess in that case it’s fuck EVERYONE’s feelings. Because even though assault weapons are literally a scourge on humanity and NO CIVILIAN should have one, we all know what Fuck-Your-Feelings Central (otherwise known as the NRA) says:

“I‘ll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold dead hands (even if it’s covered with the blood of elementary school children and people of color).

The NRA

Yet if THEY (The Fuck-Your Feelings goons) lost THEIR children or relatives to a mass shooting, they’d be the FIRST to scream about THEIR FEELINGS, regardless of THE LAW. They would have the NRA shut down within minutes, and I believe that every dickless wonder in Texas and every OTHER red state would be giving up their assault rifles in DROVES. Oh and laws involving civilian weaponry and armaments would start looking a lot different.

I’d really rather it not come to that. See, I don’t want to see ANY more deaths. Even those who would tell me to my face, directly or indirectly, “fuck your feelings.”

So Where Do We Go From Here?

I don’t know, frankly, and I’m running REAL low on hope. The only thing I can think of to do is to vote people into office who aren’t firmly in the pocket of the NRA and have no use for their blood money-errr, I mean, campaign donations. Vote people into office who WANT there to be background checks to buy assault weapons. Who WANT there to be red flag laws. People who care more about the lives of children, people of color, and the choices of women than what’s in their bank accounts, how much power they can wield, or pandering to the gun lobbyists.

Will that stop mass shootings? I don’t know. I hope so. I’d like to have SOME hope for humanity for the rest of my time on this planet. All I know is what’s happening now ISN’T working. Brown kids (or ANY kids) shouldn’t be afraid to go to school. A Black man or woman shouldn’t have to worry about driving (or doing literally anything else) while Black. Asian people shouldn’t have to be afraid of going to church (or anywhere else). And my husband and I shouldn’t be needing to plan our escape from a possible shooting situation (should it arise) at our neighborhood grocery store. But we are. Because to think it can’t or won’t happen again is not only foolish, but is downright deadly.

After all, nobody ever thought we’d see another Sandy Hook, but here we are.

Gun control is just the tip of the iceberg, but our problems go much deeper than that. And we all know it.

Final thoughts: IS There Any Hope For Humanity After All?

You know, maybe it’s my childish autistic brain trying to shield me from the horrors of the world, but I always think of Paddington Bear in times like this. Paddington said, “if we are kind and polite, the world will be right.” I think somewhere along the way, many people forgot this small bit of advice.

Sounds simplistic, but it’s worth a try. Could the “fuck your feelings” people become “love thy neighbor” people AND MEAN IT? Regardless of what they look like? Could they start with examining interpersonal relationships? For example, maybe stop yelling about what “THE LAW” says and instead, be courteous to their neighbors? Could Congress stop bickering and agree on a bi-partisan gun control plan so kids stop dying? And Black and Brown people could exist in peace? And students wouldn’t be afraid to go to school? I don’t know but…

One can only hope.

Since really, at this point, that’s all we have left.