Inclusion Should Be More Inclusive

You know, speaking of Family Guy, South Park did an episode a looooong time ago, back when they were better on controversial topics, that illustrated a lesson I think many people have forgotten. When it comes to comedy, either everything is okay or nothing is. And this applies to equality as well: either you treat everyone and all things equally or you don't. It's a fact that life isn't fair, and with humans being imperfect, we can't ever get things to completely balance. Equality, like freedom, justice and peace, is just another concept. We can come close and striving towards it is a noble goal, one we should continue to strive towards. But we have to accept reality if we are to improve it at all and the reality is: folks these days preaching inclusion are alienating people.

I happen to agree with the saying "Love trumps hate." Of course, during the 2016 election, the side used the phrase more as a jab at Donald Trump than anything else. Yes, once again, I'm laying blame on the PC crowd, the Leftists, the SJWs, my fellow Democrats and all others on that side- some of whom did not vote for "her" but did not understand Donald Trump. And here is another fact: Donald Trump, during the 2016 election, brought together more people and had a more loving campaign. It was INCLUSIVE. The conservatives are the underdogs, they've been the underdogs for quite some time and that's why they're willing to accept anybody into their ranks and why their opposition wants to isolate, defame and break them up.

Hillary Clinton referred to Trump supporters as a "basket of deplorables." Trump, while he wasn't kind to foreigners, he was at least kind to Americans. Honestly though, both Clinton and Trump are terrible and defending either of them in any way leaves a very bad taste in my mouth but the truth is, they BOTH had their good points. Clinton's camp was right; we do need a better path to citizenship for people, we do need to have a better impact on our environment and healthcare should be affordable to all Americans. And Trump is right in that we DO need to secure our borders, we DO have to protect peoples' jobs, rights and we do need to allow businesses to succeed, grow, expand and sometimes, the environment has to take one for the team within reason.

It doesn't seem like "within reason" is in the modern vocabulary any more. We've lost balance as a society and we're not compromising any more. I am more critical of the Left than I am the Right for several reasons, including the fact that the Left is larger as a group, more powerful and influential and they are the party of change and reform, having stated so specifically. Conservatives haven't changed much and neither have my views on these issues. I'm just stating them now.

But, I'm getting off topic here. I want to talk about inclusion.

The above meme of Steve Buscemi representing companies during "Pride Month" or "Pride Week" as it may have been was the first time I'd encountered a "pride period" of any kind. By the time I even knew what it was, it was already heavily commercialized. Like Christmas. But, at least Christmas is inclusive. People of other faiths enjoy Santa Claus and Christmas specials, everybody gets annoyed by the same damn songs on the radio(I actually like a lot of them except Mariah Carey) and everyone looks forward to a long break during the winter. Well, no, not everyone, but more than the people who enjoy Pride Month.

And there are a lot of things Christmas has going for it that I think Pride Month could take. Even with Christmas and the winter holidays' heavy commercialism, there's still a spirit behind it of love and togetherness, and a Christian message. The old Charlie Brown special has Linus speaking a lot on this and to be honest, it focuses the holiday on what is important. Pride Month could and I believe should have something similar if it is to continue the way it is. It needs a special, a single message to unify people behind and one of love, understanding and togetherness. Something good and wholesome.

Honestly, it seems like all the Left has is fear, anger and judgment. You can't build on those things.

I want people to have rights. My fellow conservatives dropped the ball when it came to LGBT rights and we pay dearly for it. We've alienated people who could have been our own allies. Honestly, we should've embraced the concept of marriage to fuck the government more.

"Marriage is defined as being between a man and a woman!"

Real conservative answer: "Marriage is defined as being between me and whatever the fuck I want to marry!"

As I've stated, I'm pro-choice. And I'm surprised at how huge the pro-life movement is despite that it gets little to no media coverage. The media in this country does want to blind people from the truth to push their agenda. More and more people are defying polls and statistics, going unreported, stories are happening by the millions and it's because of something stronger than hate or a unity against something derived from a sense of shared persecution. It's fucking love. Conservatives have it. They have hate, too, but it's possible to have both.

What I'm saying is, I see Pride from the LGBT community, but what I don't see a lot of is love. I'm not even sure what they have to be proud of- court rulings? I'm not saying that gay and non-traditional people haven't been persecuted; they have and continue to be. It is still illegal for gay men in some states to give blood for fear of AIDS. There's still countries where it's illegal to be gay and being gay can cost you your life. Suspicion of being gay can cost you your life. This is the world we live in. This is reality.

Pride Month needs a stronger foundation and it needs REAL inclusion. They need to support their allies more because I certainly don't feel included. It's taken this long to get a color on the flag and really, we don't need every color represented. My gay friends are puzzled by the addition of black and brown as colors added to the rainbow flag because Pride Month is supposed to be about sexual orientation, not racial discrimination.

To be clear, I'm not condemning Pride Month. I'm wanting to improve Pride Month and get it past the point where the only thing seen about it is a bunch of rainbow-colored cups and memes and people angry and being confused on social media. It needs a stable foundation and yes, it's only been around for a few years while Christmas has been around for generations.

I don't want to condemn the Left either. The reason why I'm criticizing both the Left and Pride Month at the same time is because they are at this time often related to one another. But there are plenty of gay conservatives, LGBTQ conservatives, just as there are Christian leftists and everything in between. Because of one simple thing:

Humans don't follow rules. We make them, we enforce them, and quite frequently, we break them.

People break rules, they break boundaries, they go outside stereotypes and defy things to prove a point. Even because they're bored. We strive to break natural laws and the physical laws of the universe. We won't be contained and we won't be stopped, even if it seems like we're heading towards destruction. Self-destruction, even. It's just another hole for us to dig our way out of and I like that attitude. We break things, but we also fix them. We're a pack of contradictions.

So, my message to supporters of Pride Month is simple: I firmly believe more should be done to be inclusive and a solid foundation should be established. Not just by adding more colors to a flag but by getting behind a single, resonant message of love. Bachman Turner Overdrive had a good one: any lovin's good lovin'. Love comes in all colors. All. You have to use the term all, not just letters on the alphabet or colors on the flag. A lot of people do, and they deserve the credit for being totally inclusive. It just needs to be more resonant.

And a wholesome holiday special wouldn't hurt anything. As long as it's not like the Star Wars Holiday Special. Nobody wants to be included in that.