Yesterday, my world shifted.
Sure, the entire world did too, but within mere hours life as I knew it came crashing down around me. Today, I’m struggling to sift through the debris and piece any of it back together.
It might be a melodramatic reaction to the Presidential Election of a country I’ve never even visited, let alone belong to, but Wednesday the 9th of November 2016 was a shellshock. The announcement that Donald Trump – misogynistic reality TV star – would soon hold the most powerful position in the world felt like two hands reaching into my stomach, clutching onto my intestines and twisting, twisting, twisting.
That nausea is still lingering, and it probably will for a long time.
And that’s not just because every vile thing this businessman grandfather has said about women has now been validated by the American people. It really isn’t. It’s also because I have begun to doubt everything about my own life.
LISTEN: Mia Freedman and Mamamia staffers debrief about the US election. (Post continues…)
My view of the world. My politics. My Twitter feed. My Facebook circle. My internet search history. My upbringing. My openness. My values. My privilege. My naivety. My ignorance.
The same questions are playing on a loop in my head. How did I not see this coming? How was I so blind to what the majority of the American people want?
Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton convincingly, while every article and poll I read leading up to the election predicted the opposite. Despite immersing myself in election material for the better part of three months, I was utterly blindsided by the result.
And at 5pm last night, like a train slamming into a cement wall, it hit me: I shut myself off from the real world.
Even as someone who doesn’t neatly side with Clinton, I just couldn’t bear the thought of a wall-building, pussy-grabbing man assuming office.
So what did I do? I only paid attention to the information that cushioned my little cocoon. I only visited the news sites that vocalised my centre-left values. I only listened to podcasts that told me what I wanted to hear. Barring my boyfriend’s only pro-Trump friend, I surrounded myself with like-minded people who reinforced my feelings.
Because yesterday I was shown that what I think the world is, and what it actually is, are two entirely different things. And now that the vast distance between my perception and reality has been determined, I want to observe the world that baffles and terrifies me.
That's why this morning when I sat at my desk, I did something I've never once considered doing before - I visited the Fox News website.
I scrolled through the entire front page, then the politics and opinion section. I read a few of the articles including 'How this SOB knew that Donald Trump would win big' and, after about ten minutes, I retreated back to the world I know.
I didn't do it because I suddenly wish to align with far-right-wing views - quite the opposite - but because I so desperately want to understand why Donald Trump was voted President. I want to actually listen to the opinions of his supporters, and open my mind to theirs.
For my entire life, I've shut myself off from political conservatives. I've never ventured into their territory as it so deeply rattles my core. Worst of all, I've participated in the kind of condescending chatter that only drives a wedge further between us. And that's going to change.
I gain nothing by not listening to the views of people who disagree with my own.
Yesterday, my meticulously-crafted fantasy world crumbled. Now, I'm going to make it my mission that I no longer insulate my own naivety.
Top Comments
It's really great that you have acknowledged your insularity and isolationist approach to politics and life in general so far. It's also fantastic that you are prepared to finally hear opinions that differ from yours. This is how we thwart bigotry.
Yes by installing the biggest bigot and sexist of them all!
Yawn
In the analysis, almost every county that flipped from Blue to Red voted twice for Obama. Suddenly consistent Obama supporters were racist and voted against a white lady?
The ranting is boring and it's also patently untrue. The votes in, she lost. Try being a grownup about it, you're not impressing anyone.
The biggest concern for women now, as always, is whether our bodies will again become politicised. As frequently happens in Arab nations when women ride the roller-coaster of being veiled or unveiled, based on whether conservatives come to power, again we find ourselves subjected to potential changes to laws governing our bodies and abortion.
Perhaps if Trump legislates against abortion, women can protest by banning sex. Trump would have to legalise rape. Wouldn't that create an interesting public discourse?
Our bodies simply must cease to be a political football to kick around. Conservative women are actually a greater enemy to women in this than a whole army of Trumps. While they happily hand their bodies to legislators, all our bodies are controlled. Women have to unite first or else no help by men matters.
And Roe v Wade will be first item of business once the Republicans get their Supreme Court justice picks on the bench....
Why wait? They can justness convene an article 5 convention now they have a 2/3 majority of state legislators and the run of Washington and can legally alter the Constitution now without a vote of the people. It's legal, but they won't do it because Trump really couldn't care less about abortion law, your feelings or gay marriage. He cares about trade reform and bringing back manufacting and construction jobs, ending illegal immigration and protecting the US from global terrorism.
Trump isn't a fanatic conservative, he smashed the Bush Dynasty as hard as the Clinton Dynasty. He, like Reagan who as governor of CA let 6
Million illegals stay, used to support Democrats. He is not an extreme ideologue, although there are some in his party.
Its not an extreme ideologue? Well could have fooled me! That is absolutely how he positioned himself while on the campaign trail and in the debates.
The Trump administration, with Pence as VP, will have the reversal of women's reproductive rights and SSM and other LGBTIQ rights on the agenda, his track record proves it.
Yes, fooling you is easy because you just sit in your own echo chamber and become actually angry with an alternate thoughts. You have learned nothing from this. Rather than take even a moment of self reflection, instead you double down on the hateful language and scorn. You're your own worst enemy.