Touché'.
Yeah, the propaganda got to me so bad that I went through a dark night of the soul and thought I could make things better by un-aliving myself. I lay in my bed, slow tears of shame and self-hate oozing from my eyes and thinking of various ways to go about it. Then I thought of those who love and depend on me and said, "God, if you're there, please help me out of this funk."
Immediately, something switched over. It was like changing the channel on the TV. I saw the error in thinking that someone with a notion of a better world can help make it so by leaving this world --instead of sticking around to make that notion real. The idea suddenly seemed so ridiculous that I burst out laughing!
The propaganda was just that -- propaganda. It wasn't Truth. It didn't have to affect me unless I agreed to let it affect me.
Thinking things over some more, I realized that when people talk in generalities, eg, "white people," "men," "immigrants," "magats," "libs," etc.; they're not talking about you or me or any other actual human being. They're just talking about abstract concepts in their heads. So what they say does not apply to you, me, or any other human being, and what they say needs to be taken with a grain of salt.
Now I keep a small ornamental salt shaker by my computer as a reminder. Trolls will troll regardless. The only way to win is not to play.
Sometimes, when feeling down, I do a good deed because it helps me feel better. So yesterday, I donated whole red blood cells in response to an urgent call from the Red Cross. The procedure took a while, so each station had a screen for donors to watch movies. I chose The Simpsons Movie.
Springfield is in trouble, and Homer accidentally deals its death blow. The people turn on him and his family. One outrageous thing leads to another until Homer collapses on the Alaskan tundra in his dark night of the soul. An Inuit medicine woman finds him, drags him to her lodge, and says, "I have to save you because you have to save your people. " Then they both get to chanting and dancing.
After a short while, Homer asks, "How long do we have to do this?"
"Until you have an epiphany," she replies.
"What's that?" he asks.
"The spirits will take you apart until you know the answer. Then they will put you back together."
The chanting becomes so intense that Homer's head explodes.
Next, we see Homer's Epiphany. Spirits come from the trees, dismember him, and torment him until he settles down and realizes that "we're all in this together" and "other people are people, too." Then his parts come back together and he awakens. He thanks the medicine woman (whom he calls "Big Boob Lady") and returns to reconcile with his family. He remembers a bit of physics that Lisa told him earlier, gets on a motorcycle with Bart, and saves his community in a wild, death-defying finale. Cue happy ending and credits.
We all have to go through our own dark nights of the soul, and soon, many of us will do just that. That's what we chose in the recent election -- to hit bottom together, to go through a dark night of the soul together, to awaken together with the answer:
We're all in this together. Other people are people, too. And -- um -- take the trolls with a grain of salt.
