#blue rants

As someone who lives in a red state that is full of former maga people finally deciding to turn against trump for one reason or the next, I am a slight bit torn whenever I see these people talking about how hard it is to leave that cult behind. Because it is a cult. It’s almost a textbook definition. And leaving a cult is hard. But at the same time…I simply cannot find a care whenever I see their novel-length Facebook posts and teary-eyed tiktoks about how difficult it is to be shunned by everyone they knew and how badly they were shafted by the administration because “that’s not what I voted for” and now that they’ve actually left and are therefore a good person now, all these meanie leftists won’t accept and be nice to them and pat them on the head, telling them how good and righteous they are. For anyone like that who somehow stumbles across this post, I am taking your face firmly but gently in my hands as I say this - you voted, possibly multiple times depending, for a person who is responsible for hurting so, so many people, and you have to accept that forgiveness is very much going to have to be earned on your part. People are going to be angry and unaccepting because your choices have made their lives miserable. You voted for the guy who bungled Covid, installed the Supreme Court that struck down Roe, has enabled the rise of open, vocal fascism throughout the world, and dragged us into an illegal war that only benefits him and a handful of vultures. People are going to yell at you for that, and they have every right to. Don’t misunderstand, I’m glad you got out, but that’s as far as the grace will go. Until you actually start putting your money where your mouth is and proving to me that you are actively, sincerely unlearning the bullshit maga has pumped into you, I will, at best, regard you with suspicion. You are a grown adult who made a bad choice and helped cause untold amounts of damage that will hurt people decades into the future and YOU MUST OWN THAT. And once you do YOU NEED TO BE PART OF THE SOLUTION. Stop posting about how hard it is to experience social discomfort and pick up a protest sign, donate to a charity, read some books that challenge your worldview, listen to voices that your vote tried to silence, and vote for candidates that care about making things better instead of maintaining power for its own sake. Yes, I understand that it was hard for you to leave maga. But I can assure you, the people hurt by them, the people that party killed - directly and indirectly - have had it much, much worse. And some of them? They’ll never forgive you. That’s their choice. You are not owed forgiveness, no matter how much work you put in. And if you whine and moan about how no one is telling you “good job on not being a douche”? Then that makes you sound like you don’t really care about ethics and being better, but just getting into another social group that doesn’t have as much baggage. And that’s…not a good look either.