While Not Admitting to Any Wrongdoing
After an attempted coup, the nation’s emotional temperature is decidedly varied. On one hand, there are those who recognized all along that certain people were unable to manage the idea of consent, and would act violently to force their will on the populace. On the other hand, there were those who had been enabling the fantasy of somebody who refused to acknowledge that he had been wrong — at any point in time. While Mary Trump has gotten a lot of attention for claiming to understand a great deal about her dysfunctional uncle, everybody else knew that he was a narcissist. Many people had been pointing out his inconsistencies the entire time. Honestly, people who were enabling him were less about enabling him, and more about enriching and granting power to themselves. Now the mask has fallen, and we have actually seen the real people who this facade was supposed to protect. Everybody who was enabling him and enriching themselves wants to use a legal phrase very common in settlements, designed to further alienate: “While not acknowledging any wrongdoing.” It is critical that the populace not let any of these cretins get away with any of that kind of behavior.
First of all, they have yet to even acknowledge that their behavior, words, and actions inspired this attempted coup. They deflect on Antifa, BLM, or anyone else they dislike — just like Cult45. They are glossing over the parasitic businesses that helped enrich their campaigns, and all of the abusive policies that they created over the last four years. They enjoy saying, “Look at those people instead of me!” Deflection is a very common tactic of abusive people, and the obsession with deflection proves that all these people understand that they lack actual integrity. When they refuse to actually acknowledge their harmful behavior, we should never allow them to do it. We become even stupider for accepting that behavior; words have power, and words have been weaponized for years against their “inferiors.”
Second of all, no one should get credit for doing the right thing after deliberately and willfully doing the wrong thing. Stephen Miller has done nothing but continue to traumatize Central Americans because he is so insecure that he stresses out when he has no control. Why is nobody paying enough attention to that to stop the abusive policy? All Mitch McConnell and his ilk have done is continue to fill their pockets. (I refuse to focus on him because he is not the only enablers.) Gatsby DeVos has been abusive to the education system the entire time; she had no reason and no right to come in and traumatize students throughout the country. She did it because as a billionaire, she felt entitled to manipulate people. No politician did anything but talk, despite many of them being wealthy enough to soften the blows of the pandemic. At what point do we acknowledge that there is no amount of supposed good that someone can do to negate the fact that they were inspired to behave badly? This is part of accountability: not giving people credit for doing the right thing when the abuse has continued for far too long.
If anyone thinks that I mistakenly worship private citizens, think again: many of the nation’s wealthy people have been so abusive during the reign of Cult45 that they deserve to be bankrupt and banished. So many enablers tell you to fill the pockets of Bezos, Buffett, Gates and all the other billionaires who keep buying our attention. Bezos’ crimes against humanity are so great that he literally ran a commercial during the holiday season, talking about all the supposed good that Amazon had done, because he realized that his reputation was in danger — as if that matters. Elon Musk admitted to funding a coup in Bolivia, and yet here we are, talking about his fortune in the United States, as if he never received a tax incentive in his life. Gates was testing the vaccine on the African continent because he is a White supremacist, and Buffett never did anything to lower the rents/mortgages on any of the properties he owns; people still speak fondly of Warren Buffett, and Gates has been on “The Daily Show” more than once. None of these people are good or positive people. They did nothing right.
Finally, none of the damage that these people have done evaporates once they leave or retire — including that of Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg, who enabled Cult45’s social media that stoked the flames of hatred. None of the rhetoric any hateful people spewed is forgotten from the minds of the people who had hoped to continue this abusive charade. None of their policies are wiped clean. Nothing is “done.” There is no stimulus promised, even though people have gone almost a year with $1800, as if that pays for anything for an entire year. All that remains are the people who supposedly fought against it — feebly, because too many of them are rich creeps, too. Everybody is too busy trying to play political games with other people’s lives, and using vapid talking points to pretend like words are the same as acknowledging the pain and trauma that supposed leadership has caused.
Bad news: everybody will stay in pain, because people who want attention more than they want the well-being of society will not create any kind of positive society. They will continue doing whatever gets them attention, which these days is talking without any substantive action to support their words. Therefore, the solution is to stop listening to these creeps, everyone from every party. For the people who just got there, we will wait and see what happens. However, there should be no more giving people credit and accolades simply for existing in positions of power. Leaders are supposed to do the right things; they have the power and control. Leaders are supposed to look after the people who trusted them. No more giving people credit for doing what they should have done in the first place. They can have some credit and some accolades — and we can all breathe easier — when they prove that they are actually going to do something.
This elongated process takes months. The public will have to hear tweets, read news clippings and endure videos. Leadership can give talks, go on talk tours, etc. We should believe that any of this is going to change when people show us that things will change. Truthfully, the people in power and with money have no interest in changing anything because many are abusive people who can never be satisfied unless they are in control. There is no solving that, and I have no interest in continuing to feed those egos. Stop giving undue credit to leaders who deserve no mental real estate until they can actually restore any kind of balance that allows everyone to survive; not just comfort and entertainment for quiet, skinny, rich, young White people. None of these people have any interest in doing anything other than sustaining the dominant narrative, and it is actually up to them to prove otherwise. They simply are not owed the benefit of the doubt.
For more information about racism and the built environment, visit deciphercity.org.
