And just like that…

And just like that, I lost more friends. This time it was on me, admittedly (well, sort of), but still…

As most of you know, someone attempted to shoot at Trump yet again. I really tried to avoid anyone I knew in regards to this. I didn’t want to know their opinions on it. It’s faire season, and I just wanted to go to faire and relax and have a good fucking time. But nope. One person I’ve known for a decade, who I considered (until last night) to be a reasonable, rational person, said (and I quote), “Too bad he missed.”

Do they have the right to say that? Yep. They do. Being an asshole, being wrong, that’s protected in this country. And don’t get me wrong, though it irks me greatly to know people I considered close friends are actually assholes in disguise, I would not want our country to be any other way. But lately I have found myself asking, too many times, whether free speech should reasonably include lies.

I am reasonably certain that most of the people I’ve considered friends who’ve been taken in by the bullshit spewing out of the media would NEVER have gotten as bad as they are without the media helping. They may have still disliked Trump (hey, I’m not a die-hard Trumper, either), but they wouldn’t be actively wishing death on him. This is the fault of the media, and/or whomever controls the media. And I know they have a 1A right to spew their garbage up to a point. I just can’t help wondering… when do we reach that point?

There are so many people saying so many vile things that Trump can’t possibly take them all to court. He’d be doing it for a hundred years and never make it past discovery. Even though he would probably win most of the cases. But it takes money, and it takes time, and let’s be honest… he’s not going to live long enough to take most of these jackwads to court. He’s going to be 80 in a couple of months, which is a fairly advanced age for someone of his weight, and all these threats on his life and his family’s lives must be weighing on him. I am hopeful he’ll make it through his 4 years, but I have to be blunt and honest that he’s not likely to make it to 90. So most of those vile words will go unchallenged.

Someone once said that the victors write history, but I’m not so sure that’s true these days. Whoever has the most memes and bots writes history, and it’s being REwritten right underneath us. It doesn’t matter if it’s even related to the truth, because it was said on the internet and somehow we’ve brought up a whole-ass generation who can’t logic their way out of a paper bag. Present them with cognitive dissonance and they faint from panic. They can’t follow a thought through to it’s logical conclusion. They just can’t.

Those who don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it, yes… but those of us who DID learn it are doomed to watch the vast majority of idiots repeating it. There’s only so many facepalms I can do before I get a major headache. I’ve taken to bitching at grok, because I don’t want to whinge at my family anymore. They don’t need to be exposed to my upset and anger.

So yes, I deleted someone on FB who I’ve considered a good friend for a long time. If I run into him at faire, which I likely will, I will be forced to walk away. I am not going to hug someone or spend “quality time” with someone who advocates murder. Not even if “it was just a joke.” Or whatever the excuse de jour is. One more person to avoid. One more person to step away from. I’m running out of people, folks. And I’m damned tired.