that nobody really is.
It's deeper than that -
when someone says to me
"Well because you have these particular views (which they completely misunderstood) that's all I need to know about you"
Then the other chimes in
"Well now we know the real you"
Both of these people are far more destructive to a communal society than I could ever be - even if I were to go out of my way to live up to all this monstrosity that they are sure belongs to me.
I can't put this together; I get so caught up in the surreal conflict of being accused of something my accusers are far better examples of that I can't let go of the anger.
At the same time, a "friend" says this to me - a guy who I did think I had a unique relationship with -
"All you want to do is argue"
Um - can I get an objective voice in here? - It takes two to argue; any time someone wants to end the argument it's simple - concede and let the other guy win. Otherwise, whoever is still contesting an issue has just as much desire to 'argue' than the other person.
Someone pulled this on me a few years ago; a dentist who refused to give me copies of my dental records (who would only release them to a dentist). That's a violation of the law; I printed out the law and provided links to the state and federal government websites where the law is posted and still there had to be a big production. At the actual face-to-face meeting where the records were being surrendered, the representative from the dentist's office says to me
"Well, I'm not going to argue with you"
Hey, I don't want to call you stupid - but you're too late. You're already arguing with me, and you can end the argument simply by obeying the law and I'll be all smiles as I leave the office with what is my legal property and right.
But for the love of anything lovable,
not for Christ's sake but ours - as mortal beings who have to share a planet whether we can see Christ or not -
don't tell someone you "are not going to argue with them" while you're standing there arguing.
If what you actually mean is "I'm going to pull rank, use my authority, or just be a stalwart bump on a log and stand here and pout while you try to tell me that's not allowed" - go ahead and say that, but you might want to check the brutal clarity of a mirror before you tell anyone that you're
"not going to argue with them"
It's petulant, it's petty, and it makes you look silly (unless you really do have the authority and power to end the argument on your terms)
Either way,
perhaps all the parties who'm I've severed ties with, or who severed ties with me, can have the intellectual integrity to look at whatever they think is an objective adjudicator in the universe and tell all of us and answer for me:
If you are a student in school, does it get you a passing grade to tell your teacher "I understand plenty. The answer to the question is XXXXXX" - which is the wrong answer?
If you are being handed a traffic ticket by a law officer, can you get him to drop the charges by saying "I understand plenty"?
Can you go into any situation, given any number of people, given any amount of time you've known one or all of them and say, "Well, based on what you've said in the last five minutes, now we know the 'REAL' you" -
...and in either or all of these scenarios think that really does put a lid on the matter and settle the issue?
Let me know, because I'm confused.
If anyone knows me so well that I don't even need to be party to the conversation (or am excluded from it)
then what am I needed for at all?
And if that drives me to spend time in isolation pondering where in thsi world I fit in, so that the answer arrives in the form of "You don't; get over it" - every one of the people who went out of their way to make goddamn sure I did not fit in
can just shut the fuck up
if that puts the idea of suicide into my head
It's fascinating how people want to drive home the idea that they are right and I am wrong with a 16 pound sledgehammer to my face, but if I take it seriously and take it to heart and that somehow gives me the feeling that this planet doesn't want me
that doesn't get these people off the hook who spent so much energy and grabbed my ears so that they could be god damn sure I heard them when they told me what a piece of shit I am
It's fascinating
these people want to shout as loud as they like
in a canyon full of loose rocks
knowing the canyon is full of loose rocks that are unstable
(that's what they're ranting about)
and after they scream and shout and make goddamn sure the rocks heard them at all the volume they can manage
they blame the rocks for falling in the avalanche.
You have free speech to say whatever the fuck your little heart feels like saying
PROVIDED
that you have the courage, the integrity, and the honesty that when you ring the bell because you have the right to ring the bell
you can't un-ring the bell.
Have some courage, people. Your free speech is indeed not free; not because someone fought and died for you to have it, but because you now own all the echoes, feedback and consequences of whatever it is you want the world to know.
You can tell us how you feel
you cannot tell us how
or have much control over
how we react to it
if this be the case
where's the freedom for anybody else?
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