sometimes i cry (revisited)

they medicate children like me
they poke them and prod them
call it science, or worse, helping
you think the kids don't notice
when parents loudly demand
kindness, understanding, respect
while they ridicule the adults
who were born the same way?

...
more and more people are overly sensitive
to an increasingly toxic environment
and they want to fix us, instead

i wrote a poem about that
those words on paper
steal the land and claim
ownership over life itself
nobody wanted to see
what the mirror doesn't show
don't waste our time, we're busy

these things do matter, they do make a difference.

the earth is sacred, without her we would not exist, but she is not mother. mothers die. the earth will still be here even if we kill off everything that lives on it. you don't tame the wildness, you destroy it. you destroy it out of lack of respect for the sanctity of the earth. you are taught to fear that which should be held sacred and your mind slams shut at the thought that you might be responsible for what you have done.

football is a celebration of aggression, domination, and war. so how appropriate that the players would enjoy a board game during their time off that glorifies dominance over the earth? it's not a harmless game. #catan

green eggs and ham

incendiary divisive rhetoric
benefits only the state
if people stop listening
...***censored***...
invent a new bad guy
for the people to hate

anarchy is not an ism

to define freedom negates it. and then they call that negative freedom something else, anything except what it really is, control.

freedom is the only logical solution to all of the problems that control creates, but they say freedom doesn't count as a solution, because you aren't telling people what to do!!!

what's on your mind?

the game is rigged so everyone loses. same thing on a personal level as on the societal level. and the war god rewards those who are most destructive, because that is what war is all about and it doesn't matter which side you are on.  both sides are being played ...against each other.

depends on how you look at it

shame
and pride
two sides
same coin
or maybe
a sword
instead

the rules, a poem and a list

1. recognize that your poetry sucks
2. don't try to pretend it doesn't
3. write more poetry
4. it doesn't matter what anybody else thinks
5. write more poetry
6. you can't get better without practice
7. write more poetry
8. have fun writing your crappy poetry
9. not all art speaks to all people, and it shouldn't have to
10. if somebody likes what you write, that's just a bonus
11. write more poetry

copy/paste here

rational discourse doesn't rely upon emotional triggers and red herrings and ad hominem attacks and appeals to authority. such fallacies are all signs of persuasive/divisive rhetoric instead. bullies who are like that want you to fight back, because violence is the only thing they understand.

********

the wardens live in the same prison as the rest of us, they just get special status and privileges denied to others... tricks people into thinking the game can be won.
(hashtag panopticon)

the only thing the rulers were born with that the rest of us don't have is money
(friendstacy on the divine right of kings)

*********

who is going to want to take the energy to try to explain something you have already decided you don't want to know and closed your mind to the possibility? it's like running face first into a brick wall. no fun.

mind manipulations

manufacture fear
less freedom and
call it "security"
BE AFRAID
timeless battle
war rages on
point over there
not my fault
billions spent
broken machine
hungry people
without a home

because, trains

what if...

what if love was a gift
not an investment
and you stopped
expecting a return?

what if love were free?
no price to pay
no debt owed
no contractural fees,
administration costs,
nor balances due?

(your mileage may vary)

**********

what if love was a train?
would yours have wrecked?
where would it go?

"when my ship came in
i was waiting for a train..."
but that song grew old
like everything else

chattanooga choo choo
is just a fancy hotel
no trains go there now

and johnny cash
dead, still sings
about trains
and love

(from march, and edited august, 2014)

GamerGate

it's a troll war. the purpose of a troll war is to prevent any rational dialogue from happening on any particular subject through the unrelenting use of emotional triggers. trolls almost always play both sides against each other to achieve that end. you would think gamers know that game is rigged so everyone loses and would refuse to play, but then there's all this publicity, which just feeds the trolls more fuel.

ain't gonna work on maggie's farm no more

long wars
wage on
create debt
more taxes
to pay for
more war

strawman

lemme see
if i get this straight
you borrow something
an idea, but just a part
maybe steal it instead
twist it all around
then ridicule
the absurdity
of the train wreck
you made of something
you never understood
in the first place

there's a name for that

friendstacy remix

history keeps repeating
because we keep forgetting
it already happened before

some people will tell you
whatever they think you want to hear,
especially if they are trying
to sell you some bullshit.
and that's nothing new. it's a really old trick.

beware the jabberwock, my son
chop off its head (silence the voice of dissent)
and the poem ends the same way it started

and sometimes i cry

voting is like being forced at gunpoint to choose which rope you want hung with

none of the candidates are ever opposed to war.  they don't represent me.  when i sent letters, they would only reply to tell me how wrong i am.  they don't listen, they never did.  and now they don't even pretend to.

***
choosing between two or more options is not the same as making a decision. if no is not an option, you have no choice. voting is just a way of passing the blame around, rather than doing anything meaningful. facebook hid from me all those "go vote" posts. first time their algorithm got it right. but not until after i had already seen them, so i know they are missing.

rejoice!

laws don't prevent crime. the system of control is not fixable. it can crash and take us all with it, or we can dismantle it slowly, but it was always doomed to fail. getting rid of bad laws would be a great step towards just that. once they start throwing out bad laws, it won't be long before there's no law left.

hashtag guru

they don't put
"trigger warning"
on quotes from
mindfuck artists
extraordinaire
but maybe
they should

do what we say and nobody gets hurt

(or, a society based on fear, trauma and abuse)
what makes anyone any sort of authority over anyone else? when they assume authority over our actions, thoughts, beliefs, etc, that is the same as telling us that we are beneath them, that they are somehow better qualified to make our decisions for us. that is the greatest insult of them all. and when it hurts our feelings to be so insulted, constantly, by those who think they are superior in some way or another, those bullies blame us for it, it's our fault for being too sensitive, they were only trying to help.

where does this power come from? it certainly didn't come from the gods i believe in. it comes from fear. we are taught to be afraid so that we may think we want to be controlled. who puts this fear in our hearts? it does not come from within. who are the real terrorists?

and since i enjoy answering my own questions (even if i might be wrong) i'd say the real terrorists are the bullies, the ones who think they know what's best for other folks. the ones who claim to be "protecting" us from some threat, real or imagined doesn't matter which, so long as we buy into the fear that allows such abuses to continue.
(november 2010, revised september 2014)

are we there yet?

if we become aware of the attempts to control our minds, then it doesn't work the same way anymore. thing is, it's not in the future, but the past, and we just deny that, which allows it to continue. but not for much longer...