My Face Is Not a Fucking Political Argument
If I talk too fast, I’m angry. If I talk too slowly, I’m drunk.
I don’t even drink. Apparently, we’ve reached the stage where people are getting offended by imaginary alcohol.
I’m a conservative woman who makes content. That means I can post an opinion about politics and get responses about my face, my intelligence, whether I’m secretly a man, and whatever else some miserable asshole thinks will shut me up.
Horse face. Trans. Stupid. MAGot.
Compelling stuff. Did you put that argument together yourself, or was there a meeting at recess?
What the fuck is wrong with these people?
I put my name, my face, and my opinions behind what I say. You’re welcome to disagree. Tell me where I’m wrong. Challenge the facts. Pick apart the argument.
But my face has never voted on a bill. My speaking speed doesn’t determine whether something is true. And inventing a drinking problem for a woman who doesn’t drink is a strange way to announce that you have absolutely nothing to contribute.
There’s a particular kind of troll who produces nothing but hostility. Their entire public contribution is crawling through other people’s work looking for somebody to humiliate.
You don’t have to create content to criticize it. But being able to type underneath somebody else’s video doesn’t automatically mean you have something worth saying.
Some of you confuse access with importance.
You can reach me. That doesn’t make you relevant.
And this goes way beyond the shit people say to me.
Other people get their children dragged into arguments. Their spouses targeted. Their disabilities mocked. Their grief turned into entertainment. People receive messages telling them to kill themselves because they expressed an opinion, supported a candidate, or simply became the day’s designated punching bag.
Someone loses a loved one, and strangers go hunting through their politics to decide whether compassion is required.
How fucking broken do you have to be to need a voting history before you can behave like a human being?
I’ve seen people laugh about death and then carry on lecturing everyone else about decency. They’ll spend an afternoon trying to emotionally dismantle a stranger and somehow leave convinced they’re the good person in the exchange.
Explain that to me.
Explain how you get from “I disagree with her” to “let’s attack her appearance, her family, and her right to exist in public.”
Show your work.
And if you preach acceptance while using “trans” as an insult against a woman whose politics you hate, explain that too. You’re the one treating it as something humiliating. You’re the one rummaging around for a category you think will hurt.
Apparently, all those principles come with an exception for women who vote Republican.
I’m conservative. I’m not applying for your permission to speak. But I’m also not going to pretend this behavior becomes acceptable when it’s aimed at somebody on the left. If your contribution to a political disagreement is threatening someone’s family or celebrating their suffering, your party affiliation doesn’t improve it.
You’re still an asshole.
And spare me the usual excuse: “Well, you put yourself out there.”
Yes. I posted a video. I didn’t sign a fucking permission slip for strangers to harass my family.
Public criticism comes with having a public opinion. Why have we decided that targeted cruelty belongs in the same package? Why is the person receiving it always expected to develop thicker skin while the person delivering it is never expected to develop basic self-control?
“Just ignore it.”
Fine. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I block. Sometimes I laugh.
And sometimes I’m going to tell you exactly what I think of it.
I’m not performing endless amusement so the people being nasty can feel unsuccessful. Some days the comments are exhausting. Some days you’ve already dealt with enough real life before opening your phone to find a stranger explaining why you’re ugly and should disappear.
Admitting that doesn’t make someone weak. It means you managed to annoy a person. Congratulations on the towering achievement.
The whole setup is cowardly. You demand that creators put themselves on camera, get every word right, never stumble, never react, and never have an off day. Meanwhile, you want complete freedom to behave like a vicious little shit with no scrutiny at all.
And the second somebody answers back?
Suddenly, manners matter.
Suddenly, you’re being attacked.
You threw the punch and now you’d like to speak to the manager.
I’m going to keep making content. I’m going to keep being conservative. I’m going to talk at whatever fucking speed the sentence requires.
If I’m wrong, bring the facts. If you disagree, make the argument.
But leave people’s kids alone. Leave their grief alone. And stop pretending your inability to behave is somebody else’s responsibility to tolerate.
You came to a political discussion and ended up yelling about my face.
That’s where your argument ran out.
Mine didn’t.