There is a song by the 90s band Belly called "Untitled And Unsung" that for years I always misremembered as being called "Untitled And Unstrung". For the sake of this blog, both 'unsung' and 'unstrung' seem appropriate. And while you are welcome to look up the band Belly (I am told they actually reunited a few years back) and the song in question, I particularly recommend the album "Star" though the song is on the album "King", neither are necessary for the context of this blog.
You might notice from the date on this blog that I didn't post a blog last week. The draft for it is currently sitting here saved but I couldn't be arsed to finish it up. I even managed to have wrote it at the beginning of the week. I do plan to finish it up and go ahead and publish it this weekend though.
This happens periodically. I wind up starting on blog entries and abandoning them for one reason or another. It is something that, per my earlier post, I am aiming to improve upon this year. Doing so will be a bit of a necessity going forward. Usually, the unfinished blogs are a result of either getting distracted by other things or various pain issues forcing me to stop. (The pain issue being one of the things that has hindered a lot of my writing in recent years.) Neither was the case here.
The halted blog was (more or less) a political entry and this not meant to be a political blog. Though as I allude to in the blog, the political stuff is somewhat unavoidable in this day and age. And while there will not be many political entries on this blog but we are sadly at a point where modern political bullshit has become a poison that has seeped into so much of society. With that in mind, I figured it might be best to be up front with folks on some various things. In this case, my own personal political leanings.
For the most part, I have always considered myself an "independent" though I frequently have found myself leaning as much libertarian in recent years as I have in any other direction. An acquaintance of mine named Gothix, the Twitch streamer and YouTuber, used the phrase "politically homeless" to describe her own views recently to which I can somewhat empathize.
Personally, though?
For starters, separate "political ideology" from "political party" before going any further. I am equally critical of both the Republican and Democrat parties. For the better part of 30 years, the Republicans have struck me as not entirely understanding various domestic issues. (And even when they do seem to grasp that a certain problem exists, they seem to underestimate the severity of it or they misdiagnose what caused the problem.) Then you have the Democrats who simply see no need to fix problems, especially ones that they caused, are benefiting from, or they can exploit. And that is just the two parties in the past 30 years though it could be argued that not TOO much was different during the entire 45 years of my life. (Cold War ending and 9/11 type stuff aside.)
I am quite critical of the media. The unposted blog is actually regarding this to some extent. I have mentioned before in a now deleted blog (that I will be reposting soon) about my experiences in journalism. When I do get around to reposting that blog, it will likely include some references to some of my experiences in media production as well. A lot of my criticisms of media are from my idealistic hopes and expectations of working in those fields vs. the bittersweet reality of working in it. And the best or worst part of it (depending perspective I suppose) is that I didn't even see the worst of it. There were things that I did see though that were enough to make me quite cynical and jaded before I even made it out of my twenties. Much of my most recent criticism has been focused more on "social media" and also some various historical notes about the media. The short version of things is that "media bias" and "media manipulation" are both very real. And whereas it might have once been a case of such behavior being done for "altruistic" reasons that has not been the case in decades.
I am also relentlessly critical of academia or "the education system" in this country. And this is largely from having survived it and then seeing how much it has gotten since I went through it. The bits that are not related to that are more directed at various people who I have known over the years that are teachers. (And apologies to my friend Failed Hero who is one on this matter.) I will definitely be doing at least a blog or two on my issues with the education system on this topic. It is safe to say that that many school in this country (both high schools and colleges / universities) are more interested in miseducating and arguably indoctrinating students than anything. And while it is reasonably safe to say that it is not "all the teacher's fault", there is enough of it that IS their fault and many of them know it. (Screw you, "Mr. Jed"! And that is as nice as I can be about it.)
And last but not least on things: I don't do Identity Politics. (And there will be a blog on that one.)
Sorry for getting a bit off track. The point is that I tend to approach things by various issues and find myself disagreeing with both of the US political parties. That doesn't mean I don't vote for one or the other. I frequently find myself doing so begrudgingly given some of the wankers on both sides of the aisle. It is very rare that I will support any politician directly by name (or otherwise) and I am usually up front with people about why in the few cases when I do. And I've been known to play devil's advocate on a few issues to point out the flaws in a few opinions on issues.
Basically... if I do get off on any sort of political or current events stuff on here, I am doing so based on my own opinions and observations on the topic. And if and when I do comment then I will do my best to give you information on why I have those opinions. If I can, I will try to provide information to folks so they can investigate things for yourself further. Or at least start to investigate further.
And I will try to include this hashtag both here and on Instagram and Twitter to encourage folks to: #InvestigateForYourself
Cheers
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