Hey, look. I’m going to rant right now. I’m going to vomit out an angry bile that a college senior living off-campus would be disturbed to see. I can’t help it, I’m mad and I want to get it out. We all ought to be mad, and we know why. It’s complete Bethlehem out there! And honestly, at 25, I just got here. So y’all been underperforming for a while, if you know what I mean. I’m out here trying to be clutch; voting and volunteering, reading and asking questions, being kinder and more creative, calling my goddamn representatives. And most y’all just making it harder or just being silent, I don’t know which is worse. This is me speaking up. If it makes you mad, it better make you so mad you write me a goddamn strongly worded letter in the comments. Or more likely via fb messenger, you vile creature of habit.  At least if you didn’t listen, it made you speak up.

Here’s the deal. If you didn’t vote in this mid cycle election, you officially have to shut the fuck up about politics. You have to shut the fuck up about gun violence, racist cops, deficit spending, taxes, healthcare, North Korea, China, Obama, the refugee crises in Yemen, Myanmar, Syria, and Nigeria, any of the hurricane relief, gerrymandering, Brexit, education funding, NASA funding, the EPA, the Drug War, Republican, Democrats, the 1%, the 99%, the KKK or BLM. You have to shut the fuck up because you volunteered to keep quiet the only time it really mattered, and that means everything you say now is farts in the wind.

Mad bro? How bout this? You are an ungrateful, selfish, stupid, lazy SJW snowflake. You live in the richest, most powerful country in the world, protected by the 1% of people in the service, with every goddamn privilege the entirety of history the human species (including billions right now) would sacrifice an eye and a thumb for. If you want to just lounge in the riches bestowed upon you, earned with none of your sacrifice, in all of your ignorance, go ahead. But don’t also be a bitchy drama queen about it, and fill my facebook feed with your vapid, weightless complaining. I don’t want to hear it.

You live in a country that isn’t perfect. It’s great and exceptional, make no mistake, but it’s got a lot to work on. But when that country askes you to step forward, and you don’t, then you are the failure. Democracy only works if you participate. Show up, or shut up.

I’ll barely give you a pass from the primaries if you’re a hard independent or Third-Party supporter.

No one gets a pass from the general.

Look you know why, after fucking Sandy Hook, Pulse, Vegas, Fort Hood twice, San Bernardino, we can’t even get gun legislation on the floor? It’s not NRA money, the anti-gun Lobby outspends the NRA. It’s not Republicans. It’s not even the vast majority of responsible gun owners. No. They just have a voting block. That block comes out every election, en masse, and actually votes. Furthermore, they call their representatives. They show up at town halls, and Q&As. They write letters to the local paper or mayors office. They. Participate. And you can be as fucking furious as anyone about those 26 angels from the Dec 14th morning, but it is helping nearly no one to post about it on FB. If you’re not voting on it, you’re the problem. You’re why the single-issue-2nd-amendement fanatics are winning. And I can’t even be mad! That’s how democracy works! They get counted, just as anyone else. They’re just less lazy than you. They actually care about something enough to do some work.

You wanna talk that it’s all unfair? That the system is rigged from the beginning? Electoral college nonsense? One, unless you’re drafting new District lines and bringing them up at your open State Congress meetings, or the only candidate you care about is the Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig; you’re just making more excuses for yourself.

Two, your local elections are decided in numbers ranging from the thousands to the hundreds. NYC has a 14% turn out for this mid cycle. For a city council seat, a total of 3000 voters determined multiple elections in Queens and Brooklyn. In. New York. Fucking City. What do you think moves the needle in Lawrence, Kansas? You matter, it turns out, in the neighborhood!  Mr. Rogers would be disappointed and the guy’s a fudging veteran.

Three, you wanna know what you take for granted you POS? That you even get a chance to have a voice. China’s one party keeps its internet gated, the news press in-line, and monitors every social media outlet anyone in the country uses. Xi is in charge, which is Council, for the foreseeable future. Hong Kong loses autonomy every second. No one argues shit, unless they want to argue in a black jail.

That’s the best of ‘em. Russia has a de facto totalitarian leader. Saudi Arabia’s Prince just consolidated power by jailing anyone stupid enough to be a threat. Turkey’s doing the same. Venezuela is on the brink of civil war over their government crackdown. Zimbabwe is so corrupt they can’t even squeak out an election anyone can agree one, between restricted polling, military blockades, and actual ballot stuffing; all on top of one of the most corrupt regimes in the world. They just had the military coup that isn’t a military coup according to the military. Who knows.

No, we’re not perfect, but if you think the system is so bad it’s not worth participating, you’re wrong, you’re ignorant, and/or you’re just justifying your lazy.

You think you can halfway care and be halfway happy. Well this is that fulcrum. You’ve got the DOW at a high, a fucking phone, running water, no war, and traffic lights. Healthcare’s a solid maybe, and no guarantees on education but you can read this. But Paradise Papers, sexual assault, Trump, kneeling, Afghanistan, ISIS, immigration, race, sex, bathroom bills, campaign finance reform, appointments, nepotism, ignorance, apathy, and everything else you possible complain about over the dinner table is your just desserts.

You’re goddamn right I’m mad. If that simple bar of “voting-in-the-goddamn-elections-of-your-democratic-republic” catches you on the chin, I’m mad at you. There’s a million more moral/ethical standards, and they all have consequences, cascading down upon our countrymen and communities. From recycling and waste to attitude and tax burdens, they all matter. But this one’s heavy, and important. I’m 100% venting, but at the end of the day, I have a point. So I’ll judge you from my ivory tower, stomach twisted, ulcers from the toxicity of today’s challenges, unable to count on you to be roused by anything.