Wayyyyyyyy back in the distant year of 2015 I remember hearing about what an absolute clusterfuck the election was turning into. I was a naive little fool that - if we're being completely honest - just followed opinion fads because it didn't take much thought or effort. I didn't particularly like Obama, but I had nothing really against him either. He was "the cool president" and seemed to more or less keep things stable (at least that's what it appeared to be). Because I had some vague idea of how messy and ugly the election was becoming but really didn't know much else beyond "it's messy", I used to just joke that we should just keep Obama for another term. Apparently there was some old crotchety New Englander that didn't own a comb and wanted everything to be free (I think his name was "Bertrand Sanderson" or something stupid like that) and there was Bill Clinton's wife - I had heard of her before and remember hearing that she messed up handling some embassy in the Middle East and some people died - I guess they were the two going head to head for the Democrats. But man, the Republicans were just a circus. There were your traditional Republican types and then there was this super weird dude named Donald Trump - I had definitely heard of him before through general media. I guess he had a crazy knack for just shoving his foot into his mouth over and over again and just kinda kept fumbling his way through the primaries.
The story I'm trying to say is that I was pretty naive to our process; to the pieces and their positions on the board. I had opinions and general ideas of what I did and didn't like - I wanted us to leave the Middle East, I generally supported lower taxes, stuff like that - but overall I was a pretty low info voter. I just honestly didn't really care for the world of politics or the sister fields and arenas - I was just someone going through college focusing on my STEM studies because science was my interest and passion. But one thing was for sure, I loved me some good laughs and, because of that, I frequented just ol' general Reddit.
Fast forward a bit and suddenly I hear one day that something big happened in Florida - particularly in a nightclub in Orlando. Now, I have loved ones in Orlando, people that mean the world to me and people that I could see being at a nightclub that particular night. People that, should they leave my life by, say, a gun shot to the head or a bomb that tore them apart, I would feel like part of my soul and heart has left with them. So I did what I always did when I heard jaw-dropping news was presented - I went to Reddit because it was just so darn good at amalgamating information and presenting it concisely. But... it was the weirdest thing.... Not only could I not find information on it, people were forbidding others from talking about it.
[deleted]
[deleted]
[deleted]
Every comment and every post was utterly scrubbed from the site. I just wanted information - was there a list of victims released? Do they know the total fatalities? Are there more attacks going on? What's the fucking story???? But nothing. Calls to these people weren't being answered, I wasn't able to reach anybody. I felt with each censored post that the worst had occurred simply because I didn't have evidence to put me at ease. But then I saw it, one fleeting comment on some random sub that caught my eye before it was inevitably deleted. "They're talking about this on r/The_Donald." So I went to this strange sub that seemed obsessed with this guy and read article after article and post after post. Yeah, you guys are fucking quirky and weird, but get the fuck out of my way I need to learn about what's going on in Orlando.
Eventually my mind was put at ease as I learned more (for those curious, they were okay and got a hold of me). But now I had discovered this weird ass sub that seemed to crack jokes and crank out memes - sometimes some weird as hell but hilarious - like no one's business. So I decided to stick around. Hell, I'll even watch a few of this "Trump" guy's speeches for laughs.
But something happened.... He was saying stuff that, well, actually kind of made sense. He was saying it in a very weird manner. He certainly wasn't talking like a politician, but his messages were strong and the underlying points actually had some genuine thought behind them. So I read more. I watched more. I lurked for awhile. Then did a few occasional comments, mainly just asking people what they thought of something. Then I started to join in on the jokes. And it wasn't just his speeches I watched, I read up on his life. I read several of his books (The Art of the Deal and The Art of the Comeback). I watched his old interviews. I read the news more and more - and not just "the news", I began reading about the same story but from three or four different sources to see how they compared. I couldn't believe it, I started watching C-SPAN. Eventually I had Pew Research bookmarked on my browser because I began reading from them so much. I bought a subscription to WSJ. I watched Sanders and read his articles. I watched Clinton and read about her. I immersed myself in this world. I began reading about the nuances surrounding so many things - from the Ukraine-Russia tensions to Garland. I didn't just know how the Supreme Court stood, I could tell you each Justice's age, who appointed them, how they tended to vote, what approach they took to interpreting the Constitution and how that differed from their peers, who would likely fill Scalia's seat, etc.
I became a HUGE regular at r/AskTrumpSupporters (before it became insanely neutered and filled with endless gotcha questions) and it wasn't uncommon for me to spend hours debating with people about policy decisions, economic issues, etc., where both of us would pull out source after source after source. (My old computer used to have a Notepad file saved with links to key articles and studies for commonly asked questions.)
I immersed myself in this world and it became a passion for me. (I'm even in a very competitive graduate economics program now and things only look positive from here.)
Those five years saw me change my life in a way I never would have predicted and I am now standing far better than I ever previously imagined I would.
Oh boy people, buckle up for a ride!
Wayyyyyyyy back in the distant year of 2015 I remember hearing about what an absolute clusterfuck the election was turning into. I was a naive little fool that - if we're being completely honest - just followed opinion fads because it didn't take much thought or effort. I didn't particularly like Obama, but I had nothing really against him either. He was "the cool president" and seemed to more or less keep things stable (at least that's what it appeared to be). Because I had some vague idea of how messy and ugly the election was becoming but really didn't know much else beyond "it's messy", I used to just joke that we should just keep Obama for another term. Apparently there was some old crotchety New Englander that didn't own a comb and wanted everything to be free (I think his name was "Bertrand Sanderson" or something stupid like that) and there was Bill Clinton's wife - I had heard of her before and remember hearing that she messed up handling some embassy in the Middle East and some people died - I guess they were the two going head to head for the Democrats. But man, the Republicans were just a circus. There were your traditional Republican types and then there was this super weird dude named Donald Trump - I had definitely heard of him before through general media. I guess he had a crazy knack for just shoving his foot into his mouth over and over again and just kinda kept fumbling his way through the primaries.
The story I'm trying to say is that I was pretty naive to our process; to the pieces and their positions on the board. I had opinions and general ideas of what I did and didn't like - I wanted us to leave the Middle East, I generally supported lower taxes, stuff like that - but overall I was a pretty low info voter. I just honestly didn't really care for the world of politics or the sister fields and arenas - I was just someone going through college focusing on my STEM studies because science was my interest and passion. But one thing was for sure, I loved me some good laughs and, because of that, I frequented just ol' general Reddit.
Fast forward a bit and suddenly I hear one day that something big happened in Florida - particularly in a nightclub in Orlando. Now, I have loved ones in Orlando, people that mean the world to me and people that I could see being at a nightclub that particular night. People that, should they leave my life by, say, a gun shot to the head or a bomb that tore them apart, I would feel like part of my soul and heart has left with them. So I did what I always did when I heard jaw-dropping news was presented - I went to Reddit because it was just so darn good at amalgamating information and presenting it concisely. But... it was the weirdest thing.... Not only could I not find information on it, people were forbidding others from talking about it.
[deleted]
[deleted]
[deleted]
Every comment and every post was utterly scrubbed from the site. I just wanted information - was there a list of victims released? Do they know the total fatalities? Are there more attacks going on? What's the fucking story???? But nothing. Calls to these people weren't being answered, I wasn't able to reach anybody. I felt with each censored post that the worst had occurred simply because I didn't have evidence to put me at ease. But then I saw it, one fleeting comment on some random sub that caught my eye before it was inevitably deleted. "They're talking about this on r/The_Donald." So I went to this strange sub that seemed obsessed with this guy and read article after article and post after post. Yeah, you guys are fucking quirky and weird, but get the fuck out of my way I need to learn about what's going on in Orlando.
Eventually my mind was put at ease as I learned more (for those curious, they were okay and got a hold of me). But now I had discovered this weird ass sub that seemed to crack jokes and crank out memes - sometimes some weird as hell but hilarious - like no one's business. So I decided to stick around. Hell, I'll even watch a few of this "Trump" guy's speeches for laughs.
But something happened.... He was saying stuff that, well, actually kind of made sense. He was saying it in a very weird manner. He certainly wasn't talking like a politician, but his messages were strong and the underlying points actually had some genuine thought behind them. So I read more. I watched more. I lurked for awhile. Then did a few occasional comments, mainly just asking people what they thought of something. Then I started to join in on the jokes. And it wasn't just his speeches I watched, I read up on his life. I read several of his books (The Art of the Deal and The Art of the Comeback). I watched his old interviews. I read the news more and more - and not just "the news", I began reading about the same story but from three or four different sources to see how they compared. I couldn't believe it, I started watching C-SPAN. Eventually I had Pew Research bookmarked on my browser because I began reading from them so much. I bought a subscription to WSJ. I watched Sanders and read his articles. I watched Clinton and read about her. I immersed myself in this world. I began reading about the nuances surrounding so many things - from the Ukraine-Russia tensions to Garland. I didn't just know how the Supreme Court stood, I could tell you each Justice's age, who appointed them, how they tended to vote, what approach they took to interpreting the Constitution and how that differed from their peers, who would likely fill Scalia's seat, etc.
I became a HUGE regular at r/AskTrumpSupporters (before it became insanely neutered and filled with endless gotcha questions) and it wasn't uncommon for me to spend hours debating with people about policy decisions, economic issues, etc., where both of us would pull out source after source after source. (My old computer used to have a Notepad file saved with links to key articles and studies for commonly asked questions.)
I immersed myself in this world and it became a passion for me. (I'm even in a very competitive graduate economics program now and things only look positive from here.)
Those five years saw me change my life in a way I never would have predicted and I am now standing far better than I ever previously imagined I would.
Trump 2020, 'pedes.