Letter to Stop-the-Stealers

Dear Stop-the-Stealers,

Do any of you remember that Donald Trump began saying the 2016 election was rigged before the election had taken place?  And that he (and you) stopped being concerned about that once he won?  

Does it matter to you at all that every one of the 60+ lawsuits brought to court by him and his lawyers was dismissed, rejected, or lost for lack of or flimsy or specious evidence?

Do you notice that Mike Lindell, Mr. Pillow Man, has yet to produce the proof of election stealing which he has boasted for months is in his possession?

Have you tracked the fact that the Jan. 6 insurrectionists, originally accused by Fox News and its audience as well as certain members of Congress of being Antifa, crisis actors, members of the BLM movement, etc,. are now being called martyrs and heroes?

Did you ever stop to wonder if the insurrectionist would actually, literally, have hanged Mike Pence if they had caught him?  Would it have disturbed you if they had, or would you have cheered, because you want to live in a country in which a mob can lynch a Vice President and call themselves righteous?

Does any of this bother you at all?

Personally (and I know I may step on toes by saying this), I blame religion, in this case specifically Christianity, for the horrifying lack of critical thinking and discernment on display in the U.S. today.  In order to subscribe to Christianity (and most other religions), one must put critical thinking aside and swallow a lot of very silly stories.  One is discouraged, for example, from asking "How did penguins and buffalos and snakes get to the Ark?  And if every pair of animals procreated, who were their offspring supposed to mate with?"

I also blame Fox Supposed News for its formal agenda of misinformation, for seeking purposefully to stir its audience to anger and outrage.

But mostly, I blame you.  I understand that there are many forms of inequality in this country and that the natural human impulse is to find someone to blame for one's misfortunes and discomforts.  When a supposed leader points out who you should hate, it's tempting to direct one's wrath at those targets.  It saves you from having to figure out for yourself what is going wrong in your life and in your country.  We live in an incredibly complex world, where all of us are separated by borders and skin colors and languages and customs and histories, and yet are bound together by sharing this beautiful planet and its resources, as well as sharing our humanness.  So come on.  Open your eyes and ears.  Ask questions. Think.