It turns out that the highest price of living expatriated from the country where I grew up is that the distance between me and my home prevents me from physically participating in the politics that matter right now.

In turns this makes me angry and incredibly sad.

I want to help. And being a very lucky, very privileged white dude, I feel a responsibility to use my body to amplify the action and voices of those whose damn turn it is to be heard (and no, it’s not the fucking neo-Nazis). And because I am physically unable to use my body to help (ocean’s can be a real downer sometimes), I will use the little bit of digital platform and voice I have.

Where I’ve gone wrong

I made the mistake of trying to argue about what is happening over Twitter, and made a bigger mistake of backing down on calling Damore’s bile hate speech while trying to have a civil argument. I wish I hadn’t. Technically his BS is a “logically flawed conclusion… [drawn by] selectively citing… science” (to paraphrase my own tweet), but it’s also friggin hate speech.

This happened after my congresscritter retweeted Vox Day and talked about Damore being fired as if it were a civil rights violation. At first I was furious, then I tried to ‘be the bigger person.’ I tried to reason with people that no, it was hate speech, not protected speech, that no, it wasn’t political, it was trying to be science and therefore not partisan (we should be so lucky), and that no, it wasn’t science, it was bigoted sophistry. Didn’t go down so well. I just ended up helping some idiots build up their own confidence by giving them a cuck punching bag to shout at on Twitter.

And yea, Damore’s BS and the horror in Cville are two very different things. But what I did after Damore made me second guess myself when it came time for me to fucking do what little I can for Cville.

What I am doing now

With the memory of my recent twitter fuck up freshly in mind, I’ve been reticent to say a damn thing about Charlottesville. I don’t know how to productively be part of this conversation at a distance. I don’t want to help the ass hats. Thankfully, some legitimately cool people on the internet have written smart things that have helped me sort through my thoughts, and anger, and shame, and helped me clarify where I stand and what I can do, even from here. Here we go:

1. These fucks’ opinions are not worth the gorram time of day, they are not worth considering (this was my first mistake)
2. I’m not friggin reasoning with any Nazis
3. I’m a white (cis male) person, and what is happening not fucking OK. I have the life that I have because I am white, and because other white people, more than likely including at least some of my family, profited by exploiting other people. We probably even justified it because they had different colored skin, or hair, or religion, or genitals, or who the frack cares. Racism, sexism, whatever is not OK
4. I am donating money to BLM Charlottesville, and to Black Women Being
   • These are recurring donations. The ability to plan and budget ahead is as important to an organization as the big one-off donations (maybe more so? I’m not an accountant)
5. I am offering what web skills I have to people who need them
6. When I can, I will use my body to help others too

And I reserve the right to change how I do this. And I hope to gods someone points out when I’m doing dumb shit so I can help more.

For now, this is what I got. You should do something too, because this shit is only going to get worse unless we fucking act.

Let’s go.

Comments are available on this post, but they all get moderated, FYI. If you want to be a fucking bigot, go spout your shit elsewhere on the internet. Not here.