Top Ten Ways Trump Has Ruined My life (And Probably Yours Too)
10. People are less informed about the world.
Quite frankly, since Trump, the news is more and more depressing and more people are opting out of watching it. Also, he is constantly calling everything "fake news" with so much frequency and regularity, it has worked. People don't trust the Free Press anymore. We are skeptical about everything so people aren't being as informed about the world. This is bad for democracy. Right now, my province is experiencing a provincial election. I am seriously trying to take my responsibility as a citizen seriously and I can't even find what my individual candidates are intending to do with my vote. To be honest, I am not even entirely sure of who my candidates are. I guess I will find out when I cast my ballot. Atleast, I am planning to vote. I know whole groups of people of all ages who are not even bothering to vote. Democracy works best when we all contribute.
9. We think immigration is bad.
We now call people illegal. That, in itself, is ridiculous. But, that term has stuck. We think asylum seekers who are trying to flee life-threatening situations with nothing but the clothes on their back are somehow a threat to you. There is a party in upcoming federal election who has a key platform focus on reducing immigration. And, just ordinary people on the street are spouting off the sentiment that immigration is bad. Do people not remember anything about the past? 10 years ago, my generation was worried that we would not get our CPP that we paid into because there was not enough contributions anymore because people were having less children, etc. Economists all seemed to agree that immigration was essential to Canada's economy and without immigration, our country would cease to grow and decline economically. Immigration is not the problem, it is the solution.
8. We have no filters.
We say the President of the United States seemingly to promote hate speech and just randomly tweets unacceptable remarks about a group of people based on race or gender, we all think we can do it. Sometimes when I blog, I take my lap top out to a local coffee shop or bar just to get change of scenery. Last week, I went to a bar on a week night. There was just me and a couple of other guys. Perfect for me, I thought. No distractions. Except, there was a documentary on tv about Serena Williams and a "coach assist" controversy. It was really fascinating and I phoned I couldn't not watch. (Fair warning. A blog entry will result.) Anyway, these two guys were not watching and they were just enjoying too many beer and catching each other up on their exciting lives. So, despite the fact that they were not paying attention, they felt it was acceptable every few minutes to yell out to those in the bar (me and the bartender) derogatory, offensive, and unwarranted negative remarks about Serena. I wouldn't think these remarks about anyone, let alone yell them out in a bar. Yet, people think it is acceptable to do so. This is not an advancement in society.
7. We don't believe the truth.
Dinosaurs lived in a tropical climate, yet anthropologists are finding dinosaur bones all over Canada. That means that millions of years ago, we were tropical. That is just one example, but, the fact is that climate change is reality. It is not made up. It is a naturally occurring phenomena. Humans have evolved and are continuing to evolve. The Earth is also evolving and continuing to evolve. Climate change has occurred since the dawn of time. We are just accelerating it. Trying to leave a greener footprint is something that we attempted to do long before Trump. Now, we have climate change deniers. This denial of the truth is similar to those who believed that the Earth was flat, the moon landing was a hoax, and that Elvis is alive. It is like living in the book, 1984. Mind control. In the book, peace equalled war and love equalled hate. Designed to control people's thoughts. It is hard to have rationale conversations anymore when people blatantly don't believe the truth.
6. We have lost our compassion.
We have a government to the south of us that thinks it is perfectly acceptable to lock children in cages and separate them from their families. That is just one example of lack of compassion. There are so many more and we think that if the President of the US has no compassion, then, it is alright for us as well. I remember the first time that the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre came up for discussion in my life. I was with a family member and I said this was great. The member of my own family thought it was horrible and that a recovery centre was just rewarding addicts who had screwed up their lives by giving them a nice place to stay and free meals. Yes. A member of my own family. That was one of the reasons why I attended the first public form about the Centre. I wanted to be assured that this attitude of my family member was an isolated. I was shocked and appalled to find out that others felt the same sentiment and weren't afraid to share it. It is not just that issue. Decades ago, when I started receiving an allowance, my father taught me that with any money that I received, I had to divide it into three piles; one to spend, one to save, and one to give. I have kept that up, even in the days when it was virtually impossible to save or give. It was my dad's way of teaching me social responsibility. Last week, a friend shared a video he shot in Winnipeg of two men physically fighting over a corner to beg for money. If anyone should have had compassion for one another, it should have been these two, yet, it wasn't.
5. We don't trust democracy
Ok, so foreign powers interfere with elections. That has been drilled into our heads so much that we believe our electorate is manipulated. In Canada, we don't have to worry about foreign states interfering in our election, Elections Canada is already doing this. For the first time that I can ever remember, Elections Canada is not allowing ads from third party groups on the issue of climate change. What? Isn't this essentially the entire platform of one of our parties? It is a sad day in Canada. First, they ban free speech, then what? Ten years ago, I couldn't even envision Elections Canada interfering in the election. Now, they are so paranoid about others interfering, that they are doing the interfering themselves.
4. We believe it is acceptable to hit below the belt.
The President of Brazil has denied any assistance from other countries to fight the fires in the Rain Forest. He denied "free money" from the G7 to help fight the fires. That was enough to shake our heads, but he felt he had to explain and made a personal insult to French President Macron indicating he didn't want help from a man who couldn't even fight a Church fire. Most of the world was devastated by the fire at Notre Dame and we watched Macron publicly grieve. The personal insult was unacceptable, yet, it is acceptable in the new Trump Universe.
3. Niche Issues
Trump wouldn't attend meetings at the G7 summit that had to do with climate change because he thought that was a niche issue. A niche issue is something that is supposed to affect a small group of people. For example, I think there is too much algae in Sturgeon Creek. I don't think that is going to get too much attention because it is a small group that this affects. Climate change is not a niche issue. It affects us all. In the past, Trump has also called gender equality and sexual identity to be niche issues. Really. And, he makes it a personal policy not to discuss niche issues. So, anything that he doesn't want to discuss, he identifies it as a niche issue. This trickles down. I have noticed a dramatic increase of conversations that end with, I don't want to discuss that because it doesn't apply to me. How do we expect to move forward as a society without discussion?
2. Image is Everything and we don't laugh at ourselves.
I don't know or care how much money Trump has but I don't think it is as much as he portrays. However, he puts a lot of energy into telling us how rich he is and that is the most important quality in a person. Wealth. We start to believe that wealth is the only criteria that makes a person a good person. He has canceled the White House Correspondent's dinner. That may be a small thing but it was an annual event that encouraged everyone (Press included) to poke fun of themselves. I used to enjoy watching the high-lights. I remember Laura Bush joked that her husband was Mr. Excitement and went to bed at 9 pm and that she was a desperate housewife. It was hilarious and made the First Lady more interesting knowing that she had a sense of humour and that she could poke fun at her husband. She went on and on and he laughed until he cried. Trump will not laugh at himself and appears to have no sense of humour. Again, it is trickle down affect. We are losing our sense of humour at a time when laughter is totally needed.
1. Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
This may have existed prior to Trump but I don't remember it. Now, it is rampant. If the President can get away with only thinking of himself, then others can do it as well. Also, he accepts no responsibility for his behavior. It encourages this new norm where people think that it is ok to hurt people and then blame the victims. It is not pretty. Neither is Trump. And, the weird thing is that this man has supporters. Everytime I blog about Trump, I receive negative comments that he is a great President. Not only do these comments come on social media, there are people in my life that share their views and support of Trump. Oy. Vey.
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