The next four years will be interesting

[ibneko]

Likely in a bad, terribly, horrible way. Hopefully not, but I expected Trump not to win, but still, it happened.

That said, I think we're doing something wrong if Hillary won the popular vote by only 200k out of 12m. According to Google's numbers, 47% wanted Trump. I'm trying to wrap my head around the idea that 59,611,678 of my fellow human beings in the United States who can vote decided that this man would be a better choice.

This isn't going to be a complete set of thoughts - there's a lot on my Facebook and some tweets, although most of it has been sharing or retweeting other people's content. I think... my primary next step is to figure out the steps I need to take to set up safety nets for those who are likely to be impacted the most and do what I can to minimize the damage to my friends, then their friends, then those that they identify with. I've been thinking about this for most of the past 24 hours while I was conscious and that hasn't changed, so I think it's likely an ok choice.

Beyond that, however... climate change? Getting more involved in politics? I don't know - I loathe the idea of getting involved in politics. I'm not educated enough and even if I were, it's really hard to convince people sometimes.

Comments

[shanrina.livejournal.com]

You don't have to be the one convincing people, though. You could use your computer skills to, I dunno, build apps or improve apps that already exist that would help organizations and people do what needs to be done. I'm crap at convincing people, too, and given who I am (Jewish, coastal, urban/suburban, not-straight, daughter of a retired federal employee, etc.), I'm probably not the best person to work at convincing rural whites anyway because they probably feel like they can't relate to me (and, honestly, I'm having a really hard time even wanting to relate to them right now). But there are definitely behind-the-scenes things you and I could be doing if we look for them. We need all skill sets.

This isn't a complete thought, either, because I'm still having a really hard time processing everything, but I suspect there are probably lots of things we could do that don't require convincing others.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Don't worry about complete thoughts. FSM knows, I'm still in shock for the same reason: this isn't even about politics and policies - so many people voted for someone who embodies sexual abuse of women, racism, white power, climate change denialism, and even fiscal ineptitude and vengefulness. And we're already seen reports of middle schoolers chanting "build the wall!", women being attacked (on University campuses, even), racist/white power graffiti, the KKK announcing victory rallies..

At least California's comparatively safe, with election results showing Trump rejected across the state, and especially in San Francisco. (I admit, I've always had to chuckle at the conservative rallying cry of "San Francisco values", as if inclusivity were regrettable!)

I'd certainly agree that getting more involved in politics will be useful, and donating to any number of organisations that will be feeling the strain, like The Trevor Project, the ACLU, the Transgender Law Center, the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, and so on. Even further afield, it's difficult to see any wars winding down, so Merlin and Doctors without Borders can continue to use donations as well.

On the political front, you might try SLUniverse's "Politics, Religion, and Society" forum - it's a great community, and a superb resource, with folk bringing together not just the major headlines, but the later articles that go into the specifics as well, along with plenty of discussion. It's a heady brew, though - don't worry about reading first and only posting later. =:)