One of the fundamental truths of current American politics is that trust is gone. Fundamentally, we don’t trust our institutions, our media, our politicians, our doctors, our teachers…

That is, unless they’re on “our side”.

This is my moment to say – early on – I am a self-identified independent with what many in the US would consider far-left beliefs (the universal healthcare, higher minimum wage and pro-union, shift to green energy, corporations aren’t people, fuck the billionaires, just let everyone make their own medical decisions type) who voted for Harris, but ultimately thinks that both parties in their current forms need to go. I also don’t believe blowing anything up by throwing dynamite haphazardly results in much but rubble.

The right, to me, is filled with grifters. The manosphere operators remind me of the diet pill/fitness guru/body-builder hacks that I dealt with growing up. The answer (simplified) to losing weight and building muscle is to have a mostly-healthy diet with few treats and a malleable fitness routine that increases difficulty, but what sells (and doesn’t work) are diet pills and unsustainable fad diets, plus bs workouts that promise unrealistic results. The answer (simplified) to the loneliness epidemic of men is building emotional and supportive bonds over time, developing acceptance of emotions other than anger, and teaching healthy emotional expression, but what sells are $10,000 3-day alpha camps and blaming women for all their problems.

Now, the left has fewer outright grifters, but they sure do love to chew out their own for lack of “perfection”, and virtue signaling is the drug of choice. Some on the left will yell at someone for (metaphorically) giving a shirt off their back just because said shirt has a small stain on the front – even if they themselves have never given even a rag to someone in need. The left claims to be the anti-racist party, but when Harris didn’t win, huge swaths of blame was immediately spewed at non-white individuals for how they voted – despite it clearly being white voters who majority voted for Trump. What has become apparent is that many of these white anti-racists never bothered to actually understand the mindset and circumstance of those non-whites they claim to represent.

Of course, as with all topics on this little vent-blog of mine, this is incredibly simplified – but I’d like to think it captures at least some of the essence of each side. On top of this, people subscribe more and more to individual media, but without also considering that, at least in capitalism, people cannot divorce their incomes from their opinions if their opinions are what make them income. Maybe one day I’ll have some ideas for how to deal with that issue, but today, I got nothing. Cuz I also like a lot of those people giving opinions for money.

I don’t know who to trust, so right now I’m starting back at the beginning. Who, in my most inner circle, do I trust? What sort of people would I like to surround myself with? What is the sort of world I’d like to live in, and what can I do to build towards that? I suppose my fear is that the US (and maybe the world) has already united together, as much as it ultimately can, with a vision of the world they want – one that values lies and bullies over kindness, entertainment over (rather than alongside) truth, and entitlement over equality. After all, people that value, above all, getting one over someone else will be eternally searching for their next victim, knowing that in a game of pointed fingers, if they stop pointing the finger, the finger will inevitably find them.