The Fallout

So, you came out as a Lib to your Facebook friends and family. Did it go well? Of course not. Did it go worse than you expected? Actually, yeah.

After making my post and sharing the link, I expected people to be mad that I talked badly about Trump. I was prepared for that. What I wasn’t prepared for were the messages I was sent and the absolute insanity coming from people in my life who disagreed with me. I received messages telling me that I would “find my way back” someday and that “I know where to find the truth,” basically saying I’m not following God based on my post. While I am upset at these messages, they also very clearly prove my entire point. In my post, I made it very clear that these were my opinions based on what I’ve observed that I do not agree with. I said it was an open letter of my frustrations and my anger, not towards any individual or even a specific group of people. So why did it become that? Why is the response to disagreeing with me automatically anger and “the devil is behind this”?

As if I murdered someone, I was told that what I said is ripping my family apart. Why is that all on me? My family all have their different opinions. My dad flies a Trump flag. I don’t agree with it or like it. So, when I say my part, it’s my responsibility that people are upset? That’s unfair and also exactly my point. Trump will be defended before anything else. Anyone who comes against him is on the wrong side of things. I guess, if anything, I at least I have some more real-life data to back up my claim. I want to address a few things in this post, just to make myself clear. (Quotes are paraphrased from messages I received.)

• “You shouldn’t talk about your parents in that way.”

  • This one took me by surprise because I did not think anyone would read it that way at all. I didn’t really say anything about my parents, except use the fact that I was raised a certain way and then changed my mind about certain things later.  That was just a preface to the rest of the post, illustrating that I changed my mind as time went on. I addressed this to American Christians in general.

• “Don’t listen to what she says because she doesn’t go to church anymore.”

  • Does anyone here have any idea what I do on Sundays besides God, my husband, and my cats? No. You may think you do, but you have no idea. I don’t owe anyone an explanation or any personal information I don’t wish to share. This is another thing that I think proves my point. “She doesn’t support Trump, so she doesn’t go to church”. That is just inherently not true.

    
    

• “You believe this because of Taylor Swift.”

  • Short answer? No. I love Taylor, and I think she’s a great person and role model. Her music has helped me through a lot, and I'll actually put some examples of lyrics I relate to in this moment throughout this post. Saying this to me is beyond disrespectful. It also brings up a lot of feelings of not being able to defend myself because I didn’t really know why I believed certain things were right. I am an educated woman, and I can read and watch my own news. This is the other thing I’m talking about. Why do you assume I don’t know anything? Because I’m a woman? Because you think I’m stupid? Because you don’t agree with me?

• “I’ve never seen anyone say Trump is Jesus.”

  • For this one, I’ll just cite my own post: “Now, you may say that no one has ever actually said he was Jesus, but you don’t have to say it when you live it. I’ve seen people in my life support Trump no matter what he says or does. They excuse him for things (like sleeping with and paying off porn stars or lying through his teeth at every opportunity or spewing absolute senile nonsense) that they would never excuse for someone else.”

What I’m basically trying to say is, if you feel like sending me scriptures and condescendingly telling me that you know I’ll find my way back or that I just don’t know what I’m talking about or whatever it may be that you think of me: just don’t. I purposefully posted this on my blog, sharing the link with the post (which was taken down) saying that if you read it, read it all, and if you don’t want to please continue to scroll. You had to click a whole link to take you to a different website to make yourself mad.

To everyone who has sent me sweet messages and who my post has resonated with, I posted it for you. I debated for a while whether or not I should, but I thought that if even one person read it and understood, then maybe I wouldn’t be so alone in feeling this way. And it seems like a lot of you feel the same way. You’re allowed to give your opinions, and though it apparently causes the world to split open, I am allowed to give mine as well. I see things on my feed all the time that I think are disgusting and I don’t agree with and I continue to scroll past. Yet, somehow, I’m to blame for all this discontent. Very interesting.

I’m still disappointed in a lot of things and angry as well, but I feel like a weight has been lifted in a way. I’ve been scared for a long time about losing everyone if they knew how I actually felt about things. It used to bring me a lot of anxiety and grief. But now, I’m not alone. And I can stand on my own if I have to. Please, please, please, just think about why people may think differently without saying they are living wickedly and that the devil is using them to break up their families. That’s really not okay. I hope I do not receive any more messages saying these things to me, but I’m sure I will. I’m sorry you don’t know me and think I would actually believe or follow anything out of malice or evil. Some part of me actually thought that maybe some of the people who got so angry and upset with me would listen to what I had to say and think about it. Maybe even understand where I was coming from, just a little bit.

I’m not a victim, and I’m not trying to sound that way. I’m just disappointed. And I think I’m going to continue to be disappointed as long as I continue to use my voice.