#where were the memes with his face? where were the people en masse calling him names and harassing him?

[schrodingersgirlboss]

The whole thing is so gross, but what I always come back to is like.........how did anyone ever think even the very first thing Kanye did -- asking if the lyric was okay -- wasn't disgusting? It's the most "is it okay if i hit you????" bs. I have never been able to bring myself to listen to the recording more than once b/c the strain is so obvious in her voice -- the "if I don't say yes I'm a bitch oh god I guess I have no choice" going through her head. A position SO MANY women have been in before, and is SO COMMON and SO DISGUSTING. Being asked something unconscionable, but you know if you say no you'll be punished, but you know underneath that how wildly unfair it is that the question is even being asked. But you can't do anything about that, because it's so fucking normal. It's such an insane no-win scenario and it's so insane how normal it is. It doesn't matter if she says okay, WHY DID YOU ASK IN THE FIRST PLACE? Why is it fucking normal for men to write lyrics like that about real fucking women in the first place? IT SHOULDN'T BE A POSSIBILITY IN THE FIRST PLACE. To say nothing of everything else he and Kim did afterwards. And the fact that yeah, it was inescapable. I wasn't even an online Swiftie then, and it touched me -- people talked it irl everywhere.

If she wanted to write an entire fucking album about it it wouldn't be "too much." Fuck, I hope Kim and Kanye are hounded by this until they die. I hope they never stop getting mean comments and questions about it. I genuinely consider it one of the most disgusting public episodes of misogyny of the past decade, up there with the Heard trial, the 2016 US election, and everything people put Megan Thee Stallion through after the shooting. I don't think it's a coincidence it (and those other events) came right after an uptick in feminism and women gaining power and presence in multiple fields -- it felt like punishment. It felt like a big fat fucking lesson meant to teach women and girls to shut up. Which is, frankly, still at the heart of nearly every stupid backlash she suffers. No, she's not perfect, but she's a woman who's become powerful because she's spent years creating art entirely about women's interior lives, appealing directly to women through everything from her lyrics to her videos without any real interest in earning male fans or interest, and started explicitly considering herself and her work in a feminist context after a man tried to destroy her. Now girls and women fill stadiums and then the hills behind them because they love her for this. And lots of people are desperate to punish her for it. But fuck them. She's made sure she'll never be erased and I thank god I've lived to see it. (Omg that turned into a stump speech. THAT'S HOW MAD I STILL AM ABOUT 2016)

god GO OFF. i'll forever be mad about 2016 and i was just watching the whole thing go down so i can only imagine how taylor felt. i agree that she could write an album about it, hell every single song she writes from now on could be about that and it still wouldn't be overreacting. such a gross display of misogyny that most people applauded, like this is what you get when you stand up to a powerful man. and now that you can't possibly look at it without admitting it was misogynistic, the solution is to say she's dramatic and that it wasn't that bad. i even saw an article once talking about how manipulative taylor is for writing songs putting herself as the victim in that situation and making her fans spend money on it. as if writing about their experiences isn't something every singer/songwriter does, and as if we don't interact with and buy her music because we LIKE it. the mental gymnastics to make her into this evil witch who's manipulating everyone are truly impressive.

and you're so right about the phone call too!! like why are we focusing on whether or not she agreed with the lyrics and not asking ourselves why is it okay for a man to ask something like that in the first place. why did people instantly take kanye and kim's word for it, judging by a phone call that wasn't even released in full, instead of trying to analyze the whole situation? and why are we, including a lot of feminists, STILL acting like taylor swift is the only woman in the world immune to misogyny

the fact that taylor's music is clearly for women and doesn't cater much to men is definitely why i felt drawn to her from the beginning, and definitely why people can't stand it that she's so successful. but oh well, she's out there selling out stadium concerts all over the world and living her best life like she should

[aamy2100982]

I AM SO MAD RIGHT NOW!

So as a little context, because I'm writing this in English for no reason when this is a Hispanic topic

(not even a Hispanic topic, if I don't live in Argentina, but I also have a stuck hatred even though I'm Chilean) xd

Cristian Dzwonik better known as "Nik" is an Argentine cartoonist who created the character Gaturro

this cat with an ass face.

The issue with Nik is that many of his comics were "reported" for plagiarism. In 2018 (if I remember correctly), Internet users created a document in Google called "Black Book", where they show plagiarism in Nik's drawings, in the Gaturro strip, with other cartoonists. Some were minimal plagiarisms, others were plagiarizing entire comics. It also seems that most of Nik's comics are devoted to his character Gaturro for children, it would not be a problem if Gaturro was not also the representative of this man's political humor, politics and children like not many go. It goes without saying that Nik is a hypocritical person and he boosts his ego based on merit that is not his.

Now the main topic. Argentina has many well-known comic book writers and several of them have statues of their most representative and/or famous characters. So Nik was also given his own Gaturro statue. But since nobody likes Nik, the statue of Gaturro was vandalized en masse, which became a meme among Latin Americans

they had to remove the statue and Nik started crying on Twitter about how his statue would come back better and revamped with "Anti-Vandalism Technology". Everyone laughed in his face and not long ago we were able to see the impressive "Anti-Vandalism Technology" that was put on the statue

a fence XD

Now, the reason for my anger. Someone out there said "wouldn't it be fun if they vandalize Gaturro, but leave the fence intact?" and they all agreed to leave the fence alone (after all, it wasn't it fault for protecting such a nefarious character).

but someone, an asshole, lightning the fence

You know? all this is fine (it literally takes 3 days xd)

But this

There are very bad people in this world

(I never support vandalism, but Nik is a horrible person and does not deserve a statue, all his efforts are based on palliating the work of his own colleagues. Nik is such an unbearable person, even other comic writers say they would never work with someone as nefarious as him)

[mustangshelby04]

Ad Infinitum

This is the original short story I wrote for my Fiction Writing Workshop. It’s my first class as a college Junior. I’ve had the idea behind this story for ages and I’ve always planned to (hopefully) turn it into a book. I still haven’t gotten the grade back on it (my professor is quite slow on grading), so I can’t tell you how it was received by her. I can tell you that I’m kind of proud of this story and I hope you all enjoy it.

The office doors burst open and Minerva walked in holding a print out. “Another one has popped up.” She made her way across the ornate office to stand in front of the old mahogany desk where Constance Devoy was working.  Minerva waited for Constance’s eyes to leave her computer screen before dropping the print out down on its surface.

“Who is it this time?” Constance asked.

“Radcliffe.”

“Again?”  

“That guy has a real love of the camera.”

“He always has.” Constance sighed. “They’re making it harder and harder to hide.”

“I think that’s his point.”

Constance shot Minerva an affectionate smile. “I’ll deal with it.  Thank you, Minnie.” The French doors shut behind Minerva and Constance picked up the print out, glaring at the image of John Radcliffe. “Arrogant prick.”

The rules of being an Immortal were simple: keep your head down, don’t leave a trail behind you, and start a new life far away from your current as soon as people start to notice that you don’t age.  Unfortunately, the Immortals were now in the middle of a conflict over those rules. For the last century, some of them had gotten a taste of fame and wanted to come out of the shadows.

Constance Devoy was not one of those Immortals.  

Born in 1598, she had stopped aging at the age of eighteen.  No one knew how they became an Immortal.  It just happened at random.  Like all the others, she had woken up one morning and felt completely different from the person she had been the day before.  Luckily for Constance, the Immortal Freya had been in Sussex at the time. Freya had felt the pull they all felt when another Immortal was near and she had followed it to Constance.  At just twenty-two years old, Constance had been forced to fake her own death and move on to another life.  

Freya had taken Constance under her wing and taught her how to survive. 

Freya, as far as she could tell, was the oldest of them.  She had stopped aging at the age of thirty-nine when the Vikings had walked the Earth.  Her rules had kept Constance safe and away from the notice of mortals.  Her rules were passed on to each new Immortal they found and it was inevitable that Freya became the official leader of the Immortals.  She had appointed Constance as her second in charge.

Now, in 2018, there were 372 Immortals in the world.  There hadn’t been a new one born since 1902.  Constance didn’t see this as a bad thing.  The less of them there were, the easier it was to hide.  Mortals en masse couldn’t be trusted.  The conflict among the Immortals had begun with the invention of the camera.  A painting or a sculpture of an Immortal could easily be explained away since features weren’t always accurate.  Artists loved to take liberties to please their clients.  But when photographs were invented…. Some Immortals became enamored with the life-like pictures.  They began refusing to burn their portraits and instead began hiding them away.  It only got worse as the technology advanced to video cameras.

And then came the lure of fame when Hollywood began making moving pictures.  

Fame is an addiction all its own and Immortals aren’t immune to vices.  The mortals began to worship the famous.  They put up giant movie posters outside buildings and bought magazines with their favorite celebrities in them.  Some Immortals couldn’t stay away.  Egos usually get inflated if you’re always young, beautiful, and can’t die.

John Radcliffe was the worst of them.  

Constance dropped the picture of him on her desk and stood up, walking across the room to look out the window at the city below them.

He had been born sometime in the late 1800s and had stopped aging around age seventeen.  He had been vain before he had stopped aging and it had gotten worse after he noticed he had stopped aging.  He was beautiful, sexy even, and that made him stand out. Tall with dark hair and piercing blue eyes, his body had seemingly been chiseled from the finest marble by the most caring hand.  Women and men swooned when he was in their presence.  Artists were commissioned by him constantly to have his portrait done. Once he had gotten a camera in his hand, he couldn’t stop taking his own picture.  He was always leaving a trail behind him for others to follow and clean up.

His carelessness could be labeled legendary.  Most times, he left it until it was almost too late before he would move on to a new life far from his old one.  

Mortals would begin to notice his eternal youth and the whispering would begin. He, of course, relished the gossip. He seemed to thrive on it.  He believed others should thrive on it, too. This was why he was the one leading the Immortals who wanted to “come out of the closet.”  

He was also the one that had betrayed Constance’s trust and broken her heart.

The two of them had become quite close when Freya had brought him to her.  As conceited as he was, he had a surprising depth to him. He was gentle and kind with a wit that could have her laughing for days.  It was a depth he never showed anyone, but somehow Constance wasn’t just anyone to him.  They had both let each other into their hearts like they had let no one else before. Every waking hour of those first ten years was spent together.  When it came time to part for their new lives, they made a vow to come together once a year for two days.  It didn’t matter what they did in those two days, as long as they were together.

After two lifetimes apart, John came to Constance and suggested they make a new life together. He had gone into his plan to live in the light.  He was working in Hollywood and had just had his “big break.” He was famous and he wanted her to be his wife in his “last life.”  He had laid out a plan to tell everyone about the Immortals.  He had saved the pictures and portraits of the two of them instead of destroying them like he’d promised.  He had wanted to use them as proof and he wanted her to join him in stepping out into the light.

Constance had been horrified.  This was no refusal to destroy a photograph or to leave before the rumors started. This was throwing open the curtains and exposing the Immortals, laying them bare to the scrutinization of the mortal world.  Mortals could be incredibly cruel to things they didn’t understand.  The Nazis of Germany and their ghastly experiments on the Jewish people was evidence of this cruelty.  The thought of what the mortals who excelled in science would do to the Immortals was terrifying.

Constance and John had fought.  Angry words were exchanged that couldn’t be taken back.  He had declared war on Constance, Freya, and the “old ways.” And since then, he had made good on that promise.  The Immortals had divided into factions.  The battles weren’t waged on battlefields, though, but behind the scenes.  News stories were buried, internet sites were taken offline, mortals who knew the truth and took a side suddenly disappeared.

When Immortals wanted to take a break from life before the split in alliances, Constance had used her training as a doctor to put Immortals in medically induced comas. After John had begun the fight for “freedom”, the comas had turned into prison sentences for out-of-line Immortals. Constance had been forced to turn the basement of her estate into a cozy prison for the comatose Immortals.  

Her cell phone began to chirp and she grabbed it, answering it without looking at the caller ID. “What?”

“I hate the way you answer phones.” John said on the other line. “It wouldn’t kill you to show some kindness.”

“I’ve shown you plenty of kindness and you keep spitting in my face.”

“You keep making me.”

“How?  By putting a stop to you destroying us?”

“What are you so afraid of, Connie?”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Why not?  It’s what I’ve always called you.”

“Only my friends call me that.”

“Am I not your friend?”

“Not since you betrayed myself and your kind.”

He let out an exasperated sigh. “It doesn’t have to be like this.”

“No, it doesn’t.  Stop trying to tell the world about us, call the others off of it, and everything will go back to normal.”

“It can’t go back to normal, Connie.”

“I told you not to….”

“The entire world is connected now.  Criminals can’t hide from the system thanks to technology and neither can we.  It’s only a matter of time before they discover us themselves.  They’re already questioning it.”

“They make memes about time travelers because you and your merry band of egotistical fools can’t follow basic rules.”

“Freya’s rules are outdated. You know this, Connie!  This is the 21st century.  We need to change with the times.”

Constance stayed silent, debating with herself on hanging up on John.

Before she could make the decision, John continued. “Mortals aren’t as horrendous as you make them out to be.”

Constance looked at the picture on her desk of herself with a twelve year old Minerva beaming at the camera as she held up a little spelling bee trophy. “No, not all of them are, but there are those who would capture us and experiment on us.  Find out why we are the way we are.”

“And is that such a bad thing?  Don’t you want to know why we don’t age or die?”

“What could that knowledge possibly accomplish?”

“If we knew how it began for us, we could find out how it could end for us.”

Constance blinked, staring blankly for a long moment. “You want to die?”

“It’s the ultimate adventure, isn’t it?  It’s the one thing we can’t do.”

Surprisingly, she felt her heart squeeze with the emotional pain at the thought of losing him.  The pain gripped her entire chest like a vice. “John….”

“I’m not saying I want to die now, but I want the option.  Don’t you want the option?”

“I like seeing the world change.”

“No you don’t.”

“Of course I do!  The changes are fascinating!  I’ve embraced technology and….”

“That’s not what I’m talking about.”

“I’m done with this conversation.” Constance hung up and dropped her phone on her desk.  She began to pace, once again allowing herself to get lost in her own mind.  

She couldn’t lie to herself. There were times when she thought John might have a point.  Technology was advancing so rapidly and it was becoming increasingly difficult to stay unnoticed.  The internet was an insanely wide world and evidence of immortality could easily be missed. The fact that she was finally seeing John’s logic was not something she was willing to admit out loud yet, but she just knew that he could sense it.

And he knew he had Minerva to thank for it.

When Constance had met Minerva Fraser, she had been an eight year old foster child, bouncing from home to home, all but abandoned by society.  She had found her way into Constance’s large estate in Yorkshire, hoping to steal something of value to sell for food.  Somehow, she had won Constance’s affections and the Immortal woman opened her heart and home up to a mortal for the first time in her very long life.  Now, Minnie was a celebrated doctor, running a successful practice in London with her husband, Ashton.  

The office doors opened again and, much to Constance’s amazement, Freya marched in. “Constance.” The woman offered a chilly greeting.

“Freya!  I had no idea you were coming in today.” Constance walked over to hug her mentor, but Freya didn’t make a move to reciprocate. “Is everything all right?”

“No, it is not.” Freya gracefully sat down in a chair and Constance followed suit. “It seems that Radcliffe has been wearing you down.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what you mean.”

Freya reached into her bag and handed her an article she’d found online and printed off.  It was a picture of Minerva and Ashton at the grand opening of their second office.  Constance could be seen clearly in the background, smiling proudly at the couple.  Next to it was a picture of Constance at her university graduation almost 40 years ago.  It was clear that she hadn’t aged a day in all that time.  The article was titled London Doctor With Fountain of Youth Secret? 

“You’ve been here much too long.  You know the rules.  I never dreamed I would have to speak to you about them.  Why haven’t you moved on?” Constance glanced at the picture of herself with Minerva sitting on the side table near Freya.  Freya sighed, “You’re attached to the mortal.”

Constance couldn’t meet Freya’s eyes. “She’s…. My daughter.”

“We can’t have children.”

Constance held Freya’s steely gaze. “I’m aware of that.”

“We must stay together and uphold our rules.  This is the way it must be.  We can’t allow the others to destroy us all with their carelessness.” “I…. understand that.”

“I once assumed you did.” Before Constance could retort, Freya stood up. “Get your affairs in order and move on.  I don’t want to do anything drastic to uphold our standard.”

Constance watched Freya walk out of the room, leaving the doors standing open and the fork in the road clearly laid out behind her.

Forever Taglist

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[trendingnewsb]

The Right Can’t Fight the Future

It seems axiomatic that the past and the future cannot exist at the same time. Thanks to the space-time continuum, people from different centuries cannot live simultaneously. The same goes for a nation, which cannot survive pulling toward the future and toward the past at once.

The United States is at a fulcrum. We are two countriesone lurching for the future, one yearning for the pastthat cannot live together, because we cant be both things. Donald Trump may have brought on the breaking point, but he didnt create the schism. It was already there for him to exploit. It was there during enslavement, when President Lincoln declared that the country could not survive half slave, half free, and it took a civil war to force these two nations: one brutal but pastoral, the other urban and focused on finance and technological innovation, often with its own kind of cruelty, to remain under one roof.

Today, Trump is speeding us toward declinethe very decline his supporters so feared. His imperious leadership; his familys grubby pretense at royalty and the apparent mad dash among members of his cabinet and White House team to hawk their positions for cash and luxuries have the feel of a decrepit regime looting the palace in its final days; stuffing the silver in their coats as they flee into exile.

Trumps announcement of anachronistic trade tariffs this week was portrayed as out of the blue, but it was no such thing. Trump ran on ending multilateral trade agreements and recreating an America of the distant past that culls every human and material resource from within. Republicans who are now in full blown freakout over a potential trade war voted for exactly what theyre getting.

In every way, Donald Trump is a president built for the past; a benighted, late 19th Century figure who spun his supporters a tale that he could restore a bygone era when coal fires burned, factories hummed, steel mills belched out soot and opportunity and a (white) man with a sturdy back, a high school diploma and a song in his heart could buy a little house, marry a little wife and have 3 cherry-cheeked kids he didnt ever have to cook or clean for, plus if he can afford it, a hot mistress on the side. Trump is the slovenly but brash, gold-plated emblem of a time when in the imagination of his followers, black women hummed a tune while they cleaned your house or did the washing, black men tipped their hat on the street but didnt dare look you in the eye, and neither would dream of moving in next door. A time when women asked their husbands for an allowance, not their boss for a promotion, men were allowed to be men complete with ribald jokes and a slap on the fanny for the pretty secretary at work, and there were no gays, no trans people, no birth control they somehow just didnt exist! The rural folks were the salt of the earth and we only let in a certain kind of immigrant whose only goal was to shake off his ethnicity and assimilate. Everyone went to (separate) church on Sundays and everyone got along. Its a plasticine world that for many must feel like it truly existed, though of course it never did.

Going backward, to a world without ambiguity on race, gender and work is a powerfully attractive idea, particularly for those who fear losing their cultural and social hegemony as the nation browns, and their economic ascendancy as technology creates new industries they scarcely understand.

But heres the thing: the past really is past. Coal is still a dying industry and America will never again have an industrial revolution. Its other countries turn to do that now. Black and brown people arent giving up our dignity, including the right to protest and to survive mundane encounters with police. Immigrants arent going away (and in fact we need them to keep the economy and the safety net flush). LGBT people arent going back into the closet. And women are staying in the workforce, with many aiming to become the CEO, while insisting on hanging onto our reproductive liberty. There is indeed a sizable minority of Americans who want to go back to the old times. But we arent going back.

Neither is the world.

While we regress, the rest of the planet will go right on trading without us. Tariffs on other countries will invite tariffs on us (Europe is already considering levying them on everything from Levis to Kentucky bourbon to Harley Davidson motorcycles). And protectionism will protect zero American jobs, while hiking the prices of everything we buy thats made with aluminum and steel, from cars to washing machines to pots and pans. Donald Trump, who never built a building with American steelpreferring the Chinese variety insteaddoesnt care about any of that. He only cares about the show. And he always gives his people a good show. But the economy does care. And America will pay a price for their P.T. Barnum president and his temper tantrums.

Meanwhile, there is another America, which is busy concerning itself with the future. Its the America that produces two-thirds of this countrys economic output, though it represents just hundreds of counties versus Trumps thousands. Its the America that objects to Russian interference in our elections, that welcomes immigrants and their economic contributions, that recognizes that even ancient institutions like marriage can modernize, that views womens full equality as a boon not a threat to civilization, that doesnt want to be ruled from Biblical texts or by a savage gun lobby, and that wants America to be a part of the world, not its creaky, cranky, lonely adversary.

In particular, young AmericansMillennials and post-Millennials, have had enough of our tired wrangling. Theyre sick of the Baby Boomers social agonies and the clenched grip of the World War II generation on American social and political life. They want an end to throwback rigidity on guns, gays, and religion. And they neither respect nor revere the current president of the United States.

Far from becoming more conservative with time, young Americans are staying right where they were when Barack Obama was first electedon the left of centerif not growing more progressive. Its why Republicans are so keen to suppress their votes. Where my generation, Generation X, polls at 51-41 percent blue over red, for Millennials the Democratic-over-Republican preference is a daunting 62-29, while Boomers are 48-46 D versus R and their parents, in the Silent Generation, tilt Republican 51 to 45 percent. The main reason for the increasing liberalism of the younger cohorts? These generations (including the youngest group, Generation Z) are chock full of young people of color. They are the most racially diverse generation in modern American history. And by next year, Millennials will be the single largest generational group in America, with their ranks swelled by immigrants (which explains the urgent right wing push for mass deportation.)

Does anyone really believe they will somehow morph en-masse into NRA-obedient, Fox News-zombie, anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-immigrant, maniacal healthcare destroyers wholl vote for serial sexual predators? Sure, the so-called alt-right can nab some Millennials to conduct their meme wars and more extreme members for their torches and khakis brigades, but truth be told, the majority of their peers are abandoning them or even refusing to date them. Young Republicans are more likely than their older counterparts to have left the party after Trumps election, with nearly a quarter of those aged 18 to 29 doing so during Trumps first six months in office. They live within a popular culture that tilts overwhelmingly to the other side; one where NBA players are hanging out at the museum rather than going to the White House, and openly calling the Republican president a bum.

With its broad and seemingly absolute power over the country, the Republican Party may not feel like it is dying, but it is dying nonetheless, at the hands of youth and multiracial population growth. The GOP can rush to install voter suppression traps and other restraints on change to try and keep the tide from coming in. But it will come anyway.

For the Democrats, the challenge is that they havent exactly built themselves for the future either. They will benefit from the coming wave because they are the default vehicle for the futurists ambitions. But that doesnt mean they wont have to change as well, by delivering on the soon-to-be largest generations demands, so they truly believe that political participation is a meaningful path to progress.

Perhaps the biggest challenge future-facing America faces is that past-craving America has a dogmatic and consistent voting base and a determined and persistent ally: Russia, which alongside its embedded mercenaries from the so-called alt right are harnessing maturing modern tools like social media to keep the futurists at bay. But we wont have a president who cuddles up to Russia and neo-fascists forever. Eventually, the fight against them and their propaganda will be joined in earnest and won.

The future is coming. It cannot live alongside the past. And in the end, it cannot be stopped.

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-right-cant-fight-the-future

from Viral News HQ http://ift.tt/2GC1MlX via Viral News HQ

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In defense of being obnoxious on Facebook

TL;DR: Don’t post political opinions to change your opponents’ minds - do it to empower those who already share your values. by Danielle B Throughout 2016, I stayed mostly quiet about politics on social media. I’m a big believer that virtually no one’s mind can be changed by any debate or argument, let alone by a Facebook post or a clever meme. The limited space provided by social media posts makes them ill-suited to complex, nuanced arguments that can’t be summed up in 140 characters. My mantra has always been that if your entire opinion on a broad and complex topic can fit on a bumper sticker, then it’s probably not a well thought out opinion. (Ironically, that mantra itself might be able to fit on a bumper sticker if the font was small enough.) Essentially, posting politics to my followers and friends felt like it would be preaching to the choir for those who already agreed with me, and just plain annoying to the few who didn’t. It wouldn’t change the election’s outcome, so why bother? So election day came and went, and I was upset, but not shocked. Then, as the inauguration drew near, I started wondering how groups like white nationalists, white supremacists, misogynists, and xenophobes of all kinds had come out of the woodwork like never before in my memory. Where did they come from? Trump didn’t convince these people to hate Mexicans and Muslims, or to have a dismissive (if not outright hostile) view of women - they already did. They had just hidden their awful opinions in the past, to the point that pollsters, politicians, and most Americans didn’t realize how many of them there truly were. What changed? Days before the Women’s March, as I was printing out my protest signs, it hit me like a truck. These people weren’t created by Trump. They were empowered by Trump and his supporters to speak up, to rally, to come to the polls en masse in a way that hadn’t happened in a long time. When Trump called Mexicans “bad hombres” and proposed banning Muslims, he didn’t change anyone’s mind - he made the people who already agreed with him realize they’re not alone. We can all take a lesson from this. So now I post my protests and opinions on social media - not to change anyone’s mind, but to let those who share my values know they are not alone. I don’t have the huge national audience of a presidential candidate, but I can do my small part anyway. I may have lost a few Facebook friends for it, but the beauty of that is that now my Facebook “friends” list is mostly actual friends. I have also gained new friends and followers who agree with my politics and want to stand together to face the next four years and beyond united. And that’s the value of preaching to the choir - you realize your choir has more members than you thought. I will encourage them to speak up as well, and organize in the community alongside me and the rest of the choir, and draw our own supporters out of the woodwork to do good, and ultimately to take back our own government. If they were afraid to speak up before, I will encourage and amplify them until they know they have the full support of a large community that wants equality for them and for everyone. I will continue to be obnoxious on Facebook because it is difficult and intimidating to be the first of your group to stand up and speak out. It is much easier to stand alongside another and say, “Me too.”