I Choose Both

- jim Young

“Tell a lie loud enough and long enough and people will believe it.” - Adolf Hitler

I’m getting more than a little annoyed with how so many people ask why I am (as many Canadians like me are) so concerned with what Donald Trump is doing but not what our government is doing.

I can’t speak for everyone else, but I can’t help but believe that many others may share my thoughts on this.

First of all it’s an ignorant question which presupposes that I can’t be concerned with more than one issue at a time. How insulting is that?

It’s the old either/or syndrome. As if I can’t be concerned about more than one thing at a time. It’s led us as a whole down a very dangerous path. It seems we shouldn’t help ANY refugees until we help ALL our veterans first. We shouldn’t help ANY of the unemployed until we help ALL of our senior citizens first. God help the children of these people. What would they suppose they would ever do if both of their children were drowning? Save the oldest first while the youngest drowns? Or save the youngest first while the oldest drowns?

Why isn’t “do both” ever an acceptable option any more?

But I also find it a bit amusing that these same people seem to only ever read, or at least comment on, my posts about Trump and never about the posts I have made about our own government. Isn’t it a little hypocritical for them to comment only on my Trump posts that they seem to think are unimportant?

What does that tell me about their interests? Why are they only reading or commenting on my Trump posts? 

Are they assuming my opinions about our government will better align with theirs? Will they like my comments about our government any better? Be careful what you wish for.

Or maybe they are just trying to direct my attention to the issues with the Canadian government as a passive-aggressive attempt to censor my negative opinions about Trump? If they are supportive of Trump’s policies, why don’t they just come out and admit it?

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks." - William Shakespeare

It’s also a little scary that these people don’t seem to see that these are two very different topics that really don’t have anything in common at all. Do they not know the difference between apples and oranges?

Maybe it’s my fault. Perhaps as a writer I have simply failed to properly communicate my thoughts. 

When I write an article about some of the things I see wrong with the Canadian government, they are primarily political posts and are seldom personal attacks. And to be honest, for the most part, I don’t like to write a lot about politics. I openly admit that I am not well educated on that subject. That doesn’t mean I don’t care about our government but I’m sure as hell not going to spend my time and energy talking bullshit about something that I haven’t properly researched. Nor will I recklessly clip and paste or forward something that someone else has written just because I’m too lazy to properly research it myself.

I defy anyone to show me any post I have ever made that suggests that I have blamed Trump for anything that is messed up in Canada. But while we’re on the subject I also don’t understand how these same people can deny that Trump is to blame, at least in part, for some of the inflation and high cost of living not only here in Canada, but in other places around the world.

My criticisms of Trump are primarily non-partisan, challenging his moral and ethical standards, or lack thereof. Read them again and see if you don’t agree that my anti-Trump posts are moral and ethical critiques of a very ignorant, narcissistic, evil and vile man. 

Donald J. Trump, who happens to be a current world leader and President of the United States of America, is responsible for the dumbing down of America. He has legitimized lying until it’s become nothing more than an accepted “character flaw” expected of him and no longer treated with much regard or import. Trump has normalized sexism, racism, intolerance and hatred.

From the beginning of my anti-Trump posts from both closet Trump fans and flaming Trump supporters alike, I have heard the ill-advised excuse that Trump “is just trying to do what he thinks is good for his people.”

By that same logic isn’t Mojtaba Khamenei, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran “just trying to do what he thinks is good for his people”? Isn’t Vladimir Putin, the President of the Russian Federation “just trying to do what he thinks is good for his people”? And isn’t Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel “just trying to do what he thinks is good for his people”?

Yes I am well aware that Canada has their own problems that are independent of what is going on south of our border but what scares me the most is that every day I see more and more of Trump’s foul, loathsome convictions spilling into Canada contaminating the morality of Canadians.

Does good always triumph over evil? I have all but given up trusting that enough citizens of the United States will come to their senses in time to reverse their country’s descent into madness.

But yeah, I don’t want to see Canada follow that path.

So how you can arrive at the conclusion that I don’t care about my country from all that is quite frankly beyond my comprehension.

Get it?

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