Brainwashed not brain dead

What you hear at the gym, and what you wish you’d say

Battered…but not beaten…yet

Today at the gym, the two guys next to me were having a loud discussion about politics. Apparently, everyone who will vote for Biden is brainwashed. As I turned up the volume on the Law & Order SVU episode I was watching, I started thinking about what, exactly, did I believe due to this brainwashing.

• I believe society can do better taking care of those less fortunate
• I believe in universal health care — no one should go without healthcare, and no family should go bankrupt caring for a loved one
• I believe corporations and the ultra-wealthy have a duty to pay their fair share in taxes and that all income should be taxed at the same rate
• I believe the immigration issue is complicated, and there is no easy fix. But I also believe that we can help with the situation by:
• A pathway to citizenship for immigrants already here
  — A pathway to citizenship for those brought to the U.S. as children
  — Broader access for immigrants with special skills needed to help American innovation
  — Additional resources to make our broken immigration system work for everyone
• I believe women should have access to legal abortions and that the decision is between the pregnant women and medical professionals
• I believe IVF should be legally available
• I believe in birth control
• I believe that outlawing the dissemination of pornography, abortion pills, and sex toys through the U.S. Post Office should be legal, and any attempts to take away this right is in direct opposition to the first amendment (see Comstock Act)
• I believe President Biden is old — he’s 81
  — That does not make him incapable of performing his duties
  — He is an excellent negotiator
  — He surrounds himself with people of knowledge and ability
  — He actually is interested in helping working Americans
• I believe in equal rights for all
• I believe my same-sex marriage is equal to any opposite-sex marriage
• I believe American history cannot be told without covering the subject of slavery and how the enslaved helped to build this country
• I don’t believe in censorship or book burning
• I believe in separation of church and state
• I do not believe the government should be run under the rule of one group’s interpretation of the Bible
• I believe in science
• Vaccinations work
• Climate change is indeed influenced by man and we must do everything in our power to curtail its disastrous effects
• I believe the U.S.A. must fight tyranny and fascism in all its incarnations
• I believe we should stand up for democracy globally
• I believe in Social Security and understand it can be fixed with a simple adjustment to the tax code
• Ditto Medicare
• I believe in unions
• I believe in raising the national minimum wage
• President Biden is a man of deep faith and empathy. A long-time observant Catholic, he does not follow the Bible as a government document.

I’m stopping there. But you get the point. All of these things, all of these “beliefs” or brainwashing, as it were, are based on a fundamental need to support humanity, to accept change, and to advocate for human rights. I believe that our taxes must be used for the common good, and that a politician’s job is to support the people and not corporations and big money.

I’m grateful that this brainwashing started at an early age, and that throughout life I was taught kindness and empathy and see that serving your fellow humans is the one great law we all must follow.

Now, my two pals on the neighboring bikes don’t believe they were brainwashed. They’re willing to accept the following about their chosen leader, no brainwashing needed:

• 23 of Trump’s former aides, cabinet members, plus the vice president publicly say that Trump is unfit for office. But, hey…what do they know?
• The 2020 election was stolen, even though there has been no solid proof
• The invasion of the capital on January 6th was just a group of passionate tourists
• The only way 45 could have lost the 2020 election was if it was rigged
• Sitting on your hands and scarfing down hamburgers is a fine reaction when congress and the VP are in danger of a mob
• Guns don’t kill people and we should all have free access to as many weapons of mass-killing as we want. “Well regulated” means…no regulation.
• A twice-impeached, 34-times convicted felon is the best choice for President
• The U.S. is a “Christian Nation,” operating under the rules of the one and only Bible (King James version, translated 1600 years after the death of Christ, which is the verbatim word of god)
• The former guy isn’t that old, just 78. And sharp as a tack, just listen to him talk about sharks and batteries and windmills and water.
• The Ten Commandments posted in every classroom: good
  Free lunches and breakfasts for school kids: bad
• 45 “loves the 10 Commandments,” and is trying to break all of them. So far, he’s got:
  — He golfs on the sabbath
  — He’s committed adultery
  — He regularly bears false witness
  — He covets oligarchs and dictators
  — Only 6 to go!
• Lowering taxes for the rich and corporations will benefit us all
• To lower taxes for the rich and corporations, it’s okay to fiddle with Social Security and Medicare
  — 70 is a great age to retire
  — Most people are just cheating the system anyway
• Tariffs on foreign imports is a better way to get money than taxes
• Putin, Orban, Kim Jung-Un, well, they’re really great people. Look how admired and successful they are by their own people!
• He doesn’t literally mean he would grab women by the pussy, that’s just locker room talk
• It’s okay to have an affair with a porn star when your wife is busy with her newborn child
• Six bankruptcies are an indication of a successful businessman
• It’s okay to steal money from a charity for kids with cancer
• Jared Kushner earned that two-billion-dollar deal with the Saudis (but Hunter Biden…!)
• A self-made man always inherits hundreds of millions of dollars
• Abortion must be made illegal
• IVF must be made illegal
• Birth control must be made illegal
• Same-sex couples should not be allowed to marry
• Of course, Jimmy Carter should have sold his peanut farms, but you can’t expect a president to remove himself from his real estate business!
• Every successful ex-president should sell gold sneakers!
• The money will trickle down
• Unions restrict business and must be abolished
• Slavery was okay for the enslaved
• He didn’t build the wall, but he meant to! Give him four more years!
• The only way to handle immigration is close the borders, call out the army, shoot people trying to enter the country illegally, put all the others in concentration camps…and round up all those working without papers, no matter what their status or where they were born. We’re a Christian nation, dammit!
• He doesn’t have a plan to fix healthcare, so let’s get rid of Obamacare anyway!
• The former guy is a man of deep faith: ask him about Two Corinthians, or how to hold up a Bible when having protestors gassed, or just order his bible with the constitution included: for a mere $59.99! That’s the Holy Spirit right there.

Again, I could go on. The point is, if I have been brainwashed, then isn’t that better? Isn’t it better to believe in a world in which we help each other? Isn’t it better to believe that humanity is best served by protecting the working class, labor, and the “social safety net” over shoveling more profits into the pockets of the wealthy? I promise you: if you would not allow anyone to horde over a billion dollars each, their quality of life would not change one iota.