What Can You Do?

A little bit before the whole election I was discussing some political things on social media.

I shouldn't even say that it was "political things". A hurricane (Helene) hit in western North Carolina and it absolutely devastated the area. I just so happened to have been traveling south the Friday during the hurricane and there were already signs on the road telling everyone to stay the hell away from WNC. Great warning because it will be years and years before that area is the same. Google literally took an entire interstate, I-40, off the map. 

The discussion that I was having with a then friend concerned misinformation that he was spreading. First he was upset that apparently little to no funds were going towards WNC. This wasn't true. Anyone affected in the area just needed to apply and they'd get $750 immediately while being able to apply for more funds. I shared links, etc, and asked him to vet his sources. 

The same friend was then upset that some random dude with a helicopter was not able to drop off supplies to WNC and that "the government" was preventing people from getting help. Publicly I told him "Jesus Christ, would you vet your sources" and once again I shared links that explained this one random dude was not coordinating with the FAA and that his efforts, while well meaning, could easily have caused more harm than good. 

This friend reaches out to me and tells me that he loves me no matter who I choose to vote for. I told him this has nothing to do with any election; it is harmful to continue to spread misinformation when all he has to do is google correct information. He then tells me that he has to rely on his faith in such matters.

Seriously, what in the hell does that mean? If your faith leads you to post stupid information then I question your faith. I question your entire belief system, to be blunt. Your faith prevents you from looking up factual information? Weird ass faith.

So I made the decision that I would simply unfollow this person on Facebook. Easy enough, right, I'll keep the "friend" but I don't have to read their stupidity. I wanted to keep this person as a friend because I knew I would have to see this person on a semi regular basis. When I go to his page I found that he'd already unfriended, not just unfollowed me. He said I made him uncomfortable with me disagreeing with him.

Well, I learned long ago that growth is never done in comfort, but I digress.

At that point I was rather short because hey, if a light disagreement is enough to terminate a friendship then so be it. This is someone I stood up for numerous times and went out of my way to help. But this person decided that he'd rather listen to lies from random sources as opposed to listening to someone who was a good friend.

What can you do?

Same day, seriously, a guy from a former place I lived reached out to ask about the hurricane and if my wife and I were ok. I said yes and the conversation went to politics and how Trump literally was lying about every part of the relief effort for no other reason than to make himself look better.

I want to pause here and mention how much this should and should have INCENSED anyone who actually have a lick of damn common sense. Taking advantage of a tragedy, literally coming to the state of North Carolina to lie his bulbous ass off about what the federal government is doing is something I will NEVER forgive. Donald Trump is a disgusting human.

This guy tells me that Donald Trump is uniting people and he's gonna vote for Trump but "he's not about any of the racist shit, you (talking to me) know that". 

What can you do?

A couple of days ago, I linked a story to my Instagram that was a reel that essesntially was asking "why don't white people believe their black friends (particularly black women) who have told them over and over what a clear and present danger that Trump is". I had a friend reach out and led with "come on, you don't think Sleepy Joe actually got all of those votes, do you?"

What can you do?

Last, another friend reached out to me about Biden doing a prison transfer from Guantanamo Bay. The tweet that he linked showed how Biden HATES AMERICA and how the people that the United States is releasing are TERRORISTS. 

Sigh.

I googled it and found out that not only will this move save American taxpayers millions but these prisoners, long ago not deemed a threat, were being transferred to a neighboring country of where they come from. The guy, after taking a small snippet from the article out of context tries to ask my why would we let them go and I told him the answer and he says he ignored that because I'm still mad about sending them back.

What can you do?

I told him that I gotta leave him to being mad then.

The guy before that? I literally shut it down and said I will not discuss this with him. Much to my surprise he didn't say another word.

The guy before that I told that friend I guess I'll see him later because Trump has proven so many times what a disgusting racist he is. That friend says he has to maintain his dignity (ha) and I can't tell him who to vote for. Which I never did. I just know who you should never have voted for under any circumstances. 

The first guy I have kept my distance from ever since.

Y'all, I do not know what the hell you do when people decide that they would rather stay angry and believe in lies and their idiot friends and their lying ass celebrity personalities. I don't know what to do when I have friends who decide they will continue to stay plugged into the same streams of poison that have clearly gotten them so sick. This is hard for me because not only do I consider myself a good friend but I also consider myself a good leader. 

As a good friend it hurts to see people I like or even love fall for some of the most obvious, viscuous, con job and misinformation that I have ever seeen in my lifetime.

As a good leader it hurts that I see people I care for and even the ones I want give in to hatred and meanness to where they have given their hopes and dreams to people who have no intention of honoring any of them; who fly in the face of every tenet of actual real leadership.

What can you do? What can I do?