The Newest Outrage

            Every time I look at my Facebook news feed, it’s like I’m gazing into a battlefield. On one side, we have people screaming—and I do mean that these people are doing everything in their power to be loud and be heard—about the inhumane treatment of children in family units coming to the American border to seek asylum and/or citizenship. On the other side, there are people saying, “Get over it.” It’s constant.

            I got a new phone and I am grateful for one thing about it: The Facebook app is not built in. I haven’t downloaded it, either, because it’s a large app and it takes up a lot of space. It takes a lot of time, too, as it’s a major distraction. I dislike working for free and I don’t like coming into a conversation and being the only level-headed person who uses real reason and logic to support the points I make.

            It’s important to me to make the distinction that most people in these arguments online have no idea what’s actually going on in the situation over which they’re crying for their perception of justice. I’m of the opinion that the Americas need an agreement similar to the European Union that allows citizens of these neighboring countries to enter and leave one another at will. In the European Union, a person can live in Germany while working in Belgium. I don’t see why someone close to the border shouldn’t be allowed to live in Mexico and work in America, or live in Canada and work in America, or vice versa for either place.

            At the same time, the enforcement of our laws is nothing new. It was the Clinton administration that put into place the policy that separates children from their families at the border, but now that Trump is in office and it’s somehow national news, everyone on the Left is in an uproar and a tizzy. Especially noted by those on the Left is the hypocrisy of the Right, wherein we marginalize and stereotype Latinxs and use them for cheap labor at the same time. We don’t want them in our country, but we take them and pay them under the table for jobs regular Americans don’t want.

            What happened to the uproar over gun laws? What happened to the rage over school lunches or the obesity epidemic? What happened to the rage over the anti-vax movement? Well, somehow, it’s all pretty well buried under the newest outrageous sensation: Border control. Now we’re focusing on the inhumane treatment of illegal immigrants and the putting of children into cages.

            Don’t get me wrong. People don’t belong in cages outside of the kink community. The Americas, in my opinion, should have a border agreement much like the European Union. But we don’t, and the policy that is on the chopping block now is not new.

            I’m tired of the smoke screens and distractions. I’m tired of being fed a line of shit, expected to get into a tizzy over it, and ostracized and belittled by those who are outraged when I remain calm. There are many more important things happening behind the scenes that nobody wants to look at. I’d rather go live with Tibetan monks.