Where We Go From Here: Understanding

Alright, this happened. Donald Trump will be president. And that’s incredibly disappointing to me, for many reasons that have probably been articulated by other people way better at writing this stuff than I am. Below will be lots of rambling, a lot of it is me sorting my thoughts.

So, there’s a couple other things I want to focus on. First, it’s worth remembering that the vast majority of people who vote are voting in good faith for the person they believe can do the best job governing us. Regardless of who they voted for. Everyone has a different way of looking at the world, and different priorities, and those lead to different perceptions of who will do the best job as a leader.

Now, before continuing, one thing you need to know about me is I’m very liberal politically. No surprise to most of my friends.

And as a liberal, it’s hard to see that, much like some of us like to talk about the conservative bubble where they see things the way they want to, we have a liberal bubble where we do the same thing.

We all need to learn to get out of these bubbles. Seek out opposing viewpoints. Find out why people politically opposed to us believe what they do, and why they’re voting the way they are. Something I’ll guarantee is that most Trump voters are not themselves bigots, racists, or misogynists, even if the candidate they voted for is. They most likely voted for him despite those traits in him, not because of them. They saw other qualities in him they deemed positive, and they either didn’t notice or didn’t care about the other negative qualities, because in their estimation, the good outweighed the bad. Or perhaps, in their estimation, he was the lesser of two evils.

And, after learning each others views of things, we should talk, discuss, and debate. All the time. And we should accept that any person involved in such a debate may not change their views, and that’s ok. It’s about understanding and learning first. People may change their views, and we may change ours as we learn something new or recognize a good point made by someone who disagrees with us. And we also may not. The hope, of course, is that with enough constructive discourse the best views will become accepted by the largest number of people possible.

Also, we need a narrative. Not just the facts. A narrative frames the debate on a personal level, makes it understandable and relatable. It provides a framework so someone with an opposing viewpoint or understanding of the world can be invited in to see your view of the world, whether they agree or not. But once they’re able to see your view, then the facts supporting that narrative become easier to accept and digest, because there’s something there to relate them to.

So yeah, I guess what I’m getting at is, we can all do a lot better when it comes to understanding others. And for us to progress forward, it’s vital that as many of us as possible do as much as we can to get there.

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I Don’t Shop on Thanksgiving or Black Friday

In fact, I don’t even shop on the weekend of Black Friday. Thanksgiving is spent with my family or my girlfriend’s family. The following weekend is spent with whoever we didn’t spend time with on Thanksgiving. Black Friday, I usually work (thankfully not retail anymore), but even if I didn’t, I wouldn’t bother going to any Black Friday sales. It’s just too crowded and mobbed to be able to relax and look for what I want.

However, even if I had the time and inclination to shop during this time, I would not show up on Thanksgiving to go shopping. Frankly, it’s ridiculous to pull people away from their families to make an extra buck on one of the few holidays that was, until recently, considered off limits to corporate greed and encroachment. Because of this, I could not in good conscience show up to a Thanksgiving day sale since it’s not ok to support this kind of corporate behavior.

Wal-Mart’s Executive VP Duncan Mac Naughton had this gem to say when asked about employees working on Thanksgiving: “Wal-Mart associates are really excited to work that day, it’s a pretty high energy day for associates as well.” This is laughable because it’s either corporate doublespeak of the worst kind, or he is completely out of touch with the people who work for his company. Maybe both. I’ve never met anyone who wanted to work on Thanksgiving. These people may exist, but I do not expect they are the norm. When I worked retail, I didn’t want to. Fortunately for me, this was never an issue since most retailers in my state simply aren’t allowed to open on Thanksgiving, but this isn’t the case in most states. As for it being a high energy day, sure, it’s high energy, in the sense that it take a high amount of energy to make it through, and anyone working this day is going to be drained of energy by the end of it.

Because of this, I think I may even take this a step further, if possible. If I can put together a list of stores that did not open for Thanksgiving that I can complete all of my Christmas shopping through, then I will not do any Christmas shopping at any store that opened for Thanksgiving. That Christmas season that is such a big deal to them? Take it away so they know in the future, if they open on Thanksgiving, it will hurt them. I’d like to encourage others to do the same thing. And don’t just do it, but be sure to call and/or email corporate for the businesses pulling this and tell them why you’re doing it, so they know why they are losing your business this Christmas shopping season and how they can get it back next year. Be sure not to mention any specific location when you email or call into corporate, we don’t want individual stores taking the blame for bad corporate policy. Make sure there’s no way corporate for any of these companies can place the blame elsewhere, or they will.

Daily Kos has put together a quick (and likely incomplete) list of stores that will be open and closed on Thanksgiving. If you plan to avoid the stores opening on Thanksgiving for the Christmas shopping season, that list isn’t a bad place to start. That said, it won’t hurt to do your own research for additional stores, and to note some odd situations. For instance, Apple is on the list of stores closed for Thanksgiving, yet they do intend to have three Apple stores remain open. Why these three stores? No idea. But something to take into account depending on how much credit you want to give them for going most of the way, but not all the way.

In the end, is this something we can make a difference on? Who knows, but there’s only one way to find out. Tell people you know what is happening, why it’s important, and ask them to take a stand with you and anyone else who believes this is an issue. Flood the corporate headquarters of these stores with calls and emails letting them know if they want you to shop there during the Christmas season, they’d best start giving their workers this holiday, as it’s one of the few that is left for many workers these days.

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