The Filtered & the UNfiltered

Here’s the thing, I’m on social media waaaaay too much. On Facebook, I have my posts set to ‘public’ because I’m obviously a glutton for punishment. I get a lot of support, and a lot of well, ‘Trumpers’, (Trump supporters ya know), and they love to threaten me, or call me names, the usual crap. Sometimes these love notes are attached to posts, but sometimes, they PM me and it lands in my ‘filtered messages’ folder. Sometimes it’s spam accounts featuring busty women looking for ‘friends’ (uh huh) sometimes threats:

“Hey pussy...come to Michigan so i can kick your teeth down your throat.” (Real message, blocked and reported.) Sometimes it’s a thank you for speaking up, sometimes it just a comment. Which brings us to…

Today's unfiltered message:

"You must like to cause trouble."

Do I like to cause trouble. Nah, not really. I don't like confronting people, I don't like being an 'againster', don't really like to make waves.

But.

I was a little brother, and as a little brother, I got blamed for stuff I didn't do, and felt that the siblings above me got things I didn't (which is true, and not true), and felt that justice (my mom) was not really on my side (she really wasn't, but that's another day). So I had to form my own idea of justice. It was a powerless-versus-the-powerful view. I have that little brother view of justice to this day.

That's the key word here, 'justice'. As a kid, I was fascinated with American history, not the big stuff, but the margins, the back waters, the seedy alleys were the real history lies. I read everything contained in that rabbit hole of forgotten history. Forgotten? No, purposely shoved aside and stamped down into the darkness. I was a pain to my history teachers, wanting to know more, questioning what they were teaching and wondering what was behind Big History and the narrative it taught.

 Before the internet, I had to search, I had to go to the library, (when I could convince my mom to take me, which wasn't often) and dig through the Dewey Decimal System (970 for North American history) for things that would tell me the other history, the backstories, the behind-the-flats stories of those whose shoulders many stood on. I wanted to know what they weren't telling me, and slowly (usually pieced together through several different sources) I learned. Today, I am still learning. Thank god.

 So, no I don't like pointing out people whose arguments are canvas, paint, and paste deep, who are are coming at me through belief and not facts, who would rather address my picture and looks than my argument (this won't surprise women, but yeah, I get a lot of comments on my looks from angry white guys). Don't like any of that, causes me stress, and worries my wife, but I have to. You know?

I have to. That stupid little bother in me is standing up to my mom and saying 'nuh uh!'.

I didn't do that.

Your argument ignores the facts

Your argument ignores reality

Look around you, is this the America you wanted?

So, I cause trouble. I set up this site to try to throw a little more justice out there in the world. I have that little bother's sense of justice. I don't like it. I want a quiet, easy life, no confrontation, no worries, just let the world wash over me.

I wish I could do that, I really do.

Aw well.

Come back around, because there’s more to come.