Sympathy For The Devil

I just want my MAGA friends and family to know – I don’t hate you.

I feel sorry for you.

I feel sorry for you because I know that many of you didn’t grow up surrounded by books and empathy.

I feel sorry that you never had a teacher who told you that learning and education is so important because knowledge is the one thing in this world that can’t be taken away from you.

I feel bad that you think that the constitution guarantees you the right to a gun and almost nothing else. 

I feel bad that you have been so easily manipulated. Brought up under the idea that you need someone to tell you what to do and that unwavering faith despite all fact is the only way to prove your loyalty. 

I feel sorry that you have been taught, by your parents by and your “religious leaders” that loyalty to power is more important than morality. 

I truly do feel bad that you have grown up surrounded by con artists disguised as religious leaders who have used your faith to manipulate you. 

I hate that you were never taught to question things, especially the authority which has suppressed your knowledge and your empathy and replaced it with fear. 

Fear. 

Most of all I hate that you live in constant fear.

That the world is filled with things that you don’t understand and that because of this ignorance the world is scary and evil instead of beautiful and full of possibility. (Of course there is evil in this world but it usually comes in a form you are both familiar and comfortable with.)

I hate that you were taught that fear and confusion were weaknesses to be shoved down until it turned into blind rage. 

That instead of seeking help to understand and grow you have been taught to see help as weakness thus leaving you permanently stunted with anger.

I hate that you have been taught to see empathy as weakness and not strength. 

That you have allowed yourself to be absorbed into a religious movement that wants you to hate that which is different from you more than you “love thy neighbor”. 

I feel sorry for you, for not being able to see that this current movement toward christian nationalism has done more to end your religion, to turn people from your God than anything in history. 

You have been taught to worship the wolves.

These wolves have lied to you while they devour your children’s future, and regardless of how big you are or how tall your truck is, to these people you have given up all authority to, you will always be the sheep.

No matter what your shirt says. 

I hate that this divide between us has grown over the past ten years. That I no longer know how the gap can ever be bridged. 

Even now as I type the words that I feel sorry for you, I know that is this sympathy that will cause you rage. That you would rather me be angry with you because somehow my anger will justify your own.

While I feel frustrated and sometimes flustered, I refuse to be brought in with your rage bait.

Don’t get me wrong. I am angry. Angry at the ones now pulling your strings. The ones pulling strings to do evil things. People you’ve never met that have become more important to you than the ones you actually know. Yeah, I hate them and I rage at them.

For you though, I just have pity.

Pity that outside of your bubble- your church bubble, your new chosen community bubble, the family bubble made up only of those who agree with you- you are seen as evil and ignorant and nothing else. 

Pity that you don’t understand that you are the one being left behind.

Those of us who grew up with you, we know there is humanity inside you. We’ve seen it and this is why we’re all so sad about it. We’ve laughed with you, we’ve cried with you, and we now grieve for the loss of that bit of humanity that you have forgone in order to “fit in”. Even though it will never be enough.

It’s why so many of us feel so sorry for you. We pity you.

We see you drowning. 

We also see how you refuse to be in a lifeboat with even one person who is different from you. You’d rather be in the water with the sharks. 

Telling us it’s somehow all our fault you’re being eaten alive.