Let's be honest, SpaceHey thinkers

*A rant I may delete later*

I see several of you posted these last few weeks about your frustration with the Trump administration. So much so, this subject has dominated the News and Politics section of the blogs. It seems I'm going through countless pages of the category basically saying the same thing: how did we get here?

The funny thing is, this wasn't the case in October and November. When I looked at this same section, it seemed it was pretty evenly split between people on the far right and left. You'd be shocked how many people on this platform have said casually "Haha get rid of those Mexicans." (I really call into question what kind of hell I've stepped into and I'm not even of Hispanic or Latin decent.) I almost wondered if this was actually a big conservative platform held by people who only dressed like goth vegans. Now that it's February, there appears to be a far-left dominance. I've been scrolling for a bit, and I can't find one recent blog post that I would call truly right-wing. Just like the last Trump administration, it seems people didn't really care about the consequences of this man's presidency until after election day. 

To my knowledge, I don't think SpaceHey has adopted any kind of preference-based algorithm where you're intentionally presented content the system believes you'll like and agree with it. Last I checked it was like the original MySpace where everything is posted chronologically or by general interactions (clicks, kudos, comments, etc). So this can only mean one thing. You people finally woke the fuck up. Pun not intended. 

Now I'm not blaming SpaceHey for our 2024 election turn-out, that's silly, but I think this is an indicator of a larger problem. Politicians like Trump are able to jump through all the hoops for many reasons. People like an underdog. People gravitate towards extremists. But when there's no defense for this, he's unstoppable. In short, YOU CAN'T JUST TUNE OUT WHEN THINGS SEEM SAFE. 

The public's inability to prioritize and care about things when it counts is how incapable Democrats like Hilary Clinton and Joe Biden become the party nominations. It's how people are able to overlook qualified Republican candidates like Nikki Haley who largely believe in the exact same things as Trump. It's the very reason we can't seem to find a reasonable candidate who doesn't fall on either of the crazy sides of the pendulum.

Trump is an easy person to like and to loathe. It makes sense that several people people would rally to his side. Well...not enough for me to do it but I digress. He's a showman. He has the ability to captivate audiences for better or for worse. And when he's able to spin impressive narratives about election results being stolen, or threats minorities pose to our safety, or how he barely escaped death after two assassination attempts (your ear looks completely fine dude), I can see how people would become enamored with him. On the flipside, he's a very easy person to hate. I can come up with several reasons to despise who he is as a politician and a person. Honestly, it's not hard to draft up a list of reasons to hate anyone in our government, but Trump truly takes the cake. That's why I'm not impressed when some of you are whining about how awful he is once he's president. I'm not telling you to stop by any means. Let's call a spade a spade, he sucks and he's threatening our relationship with multiple other countries, not to mention our domestic safety. But how can some of you seriously be shocked when you didn't vote blue or at all? How am I supposed to be surprised when you can only be bothered to do your cute online Instagram activism when he's in office. Biden absolutely sucked and the left's reluctance to call him out on it was telling. But not ensuring a better candidate would replace him in 2020 or 2024 in the first place was how we got here AGAIN. Paying attention to the government doesn't stop when someone blue is there. 

Now I'll give several people here the benefit of the doubt. Several of the American users on here are underage and cannot vote. Some of you are teens and maybe only developed a basic understanding of the United State's modern political system and issues like...two years ago. Obviously, you can't just age up overnight, so who am I to blame you? However, we still have our voices. Sometimes we have to use our voices even when it seems no one else is.

Make no mistake, as passionate as I am about politics, it's not something I want to obsess over 24/7. As of right now, I don't have any intention of running for public office when I'm older, and I'm sure a lawyer/detective can very quickly go through my internet or phone history and find something controversial enough to deter the puritanical, pearl-clutching boomers who consistently dominate voter turn out. Well unless I was a charismatic, lying rich man with 6 bankruptcies. Them's the breaks. 

But first and foremost I'm an American citizen and a lot of you are too. It's my responsibility and yours to keep up with what's going on and speak your mind when you find something wrong. That's a big reason I want to be a journalist. It's our responsibility to keep the big guys in check so they don't get away with shady things. This responsibility continues EVEN WHEN SOMEONE YOU LIKE IS IN OFFICE. 

I'm not sure what the future of this administration is going to be, although I do have some predictions. I think I'll save them for a later blog post. Until then, it's up to all of us regardless of where we lean politically to call out this administration when they are doing something wrong, just like you're supposed to with every president. Spot inconsistencies, cause & effect relationships, and dangers when you see them. 

Don't study for the exam after its already done. Don't let this shit happen again.