Fuck Civility

     Now these are 50 Shades of Grey I can actually live with. In a long series of tweets last night, Ethan Grey puts his finger on the origin of the problem that progressives are facing- charges of lack of civility. Over the last several days, I got a taste of that on Facebook when I chimed in on a video posted by some racist right wing nut job by one of my (now former) FB friends. Just criticizing this nut bag resulted in scores of comments from other like-minded morons who didn't or couldn't comprehend there are some well-informed people in this nation who simply don't like Trump and for some very good reasons.

     But Grey nails it when he says this attitude of holding progressives to a higher standard of civility to which they feel they don't have to be held begins in white families. I know exactly what this feels like.

     Back in 2006, my (former) stepdaughter, barely 17, brought home a 21 year-old guy she met at Job Corps in Exeter, Rhode Island. Within no time, he began making his racist and right wing views known. He started brow-beating and threatening members of our family and no one had the guts to stand up to this assclown but yours truly. This was at a time in my relationship with the girl's mother in which I couldn't say or do anything right but everyone thought Josh DuBois was the greatest thing since sliced white bread. Those of you who were reading me back in the spring of 2009 may recall some of this.

     The girl's mother didn't wish to be reminded by me that her future son in law was a racist asshole and was all wrong for the family. Even after he cheated on my stepdaughter while she was pregnant with their first child with two other women and removed all the money in their joint checking account, I was still in the wrong for pointing out the obvious. She went back to him 18 hours later, I was thrown out of the family the following year and he was allowed to marry into it. Since then, they've gotten divorced but no one will ever give me credit for being right about this monster from Day One.

     So, during family dinners in Auburndale, MA, this douchebag would be allowed to hold court and I would be expected to keep my rebuttals hidden for the sake of family unity and harmony. I still do not know to this day why they decided to side with this asshole and throw me out of the family but these are the facts- Being on the left side of an issue was wrong but if Josh wanted to expound on how lazy blacks were, hey, he had the right to speak his mind (It ought to be mentioned here that I have two biracial sons and he was very well aware of that).

     And this is what Grey is talking about in this series of tweets that puts the finger squarely on the pulse of the problem- That demanding civility of progressives without feeling the need to live up to the same standards is the start of fascism. It's a way of suppressing dissent so they can advance their own rancid opinions without challenge or rebuttal.

     Fuck that. I will NEVER shut up. I'm a proud liberal and only death will silence my mouth. I've had it up to here with right wing psychopaths telling me to shut up while impugning my considerable intelligence and erudition so they can spout their bullshit without opposition.

     And I don't truck in this bullshit I see once in a while from my FB "friends" about how both sides are deplorable and we need to listen to the opinions of those on the "other side of the aisle." No we don't. I've heard them. I know exactly where they're coming from. I've been blogging about them for going on 14 years. They're sick, twisted, hateful cunts and I don't have to give them the other side of the street when they march up and down with their misspelled signs and scream about "blood and soil" and confederate statues. There is no "both siderism." 10 months ago, one of us was murdered in Charlottesville and several more of our number were beaten with wooden sticks right next to the Charlottesville Police station. There is no other side to see, hear and respect.

     And when Donald Trump's dittoheads inveigh against immigrants and supports his policy of kidnapping children from their parents, each and every one of us has a moral obligation to lushly spit in their faces and inform them they're unAmerican, fascist and inhuman. Fuck civility. Civility got us nowhere and that's the whole idea, folks. Follow up your vote this November with rude and nasty resistance. Don't go back to being silent after Election Day. Election Day is just the means, not the end.

     Fuck civility. Civility never won a damned thing. Civility didn't defeat the Nazis and it won't defeat Trump's little Hitlers. Civility didn't end slavery nor did it give women the right to vote. Civility didn't get us unions. When fascists ask for your civility, they're really demanding your servility.