Life Skills for Fanboys: Why Hillary Lost
written by Tony DiGerolamo, Copyright 2016
To further my goal of helping fellow fanboys, I have included an index of links of previous columns with their topics. Don’t take it personal, I’m just trying to help. Previous columns are indexed at the end.
Calm the Fuck Down
I say this to both Trump Supporters (don’t be sore winners, fellas) and especially to Hillary Supporters (not that I am one since I’m Libertarian).
People are losing their shit on the Internet and for those of us on the outside of this contest we say, “How the fuck didn’t you see this coming?”
We Libertarians have been working to take over the world to leave you alone. But while working on that, we get derided by Conservatives for being a bunch of pot-smoking hippies and derided by Liberals for being gun-toting racist a-holes. We are neither. We’re just a group of people with a different political ideology from you. Part of that ideology involves recognizing the Republican/Democrat duopoly which has dominated politics in the U.S. for too long. Everyone talks about a third party, but when you ask them to actually vote for one, you get, “Are you crazy?! Do you want the OTHER guy to win?!” No, actually. We want a Libertarian to win. That’s why we formed a party.
A Little Background…
I live in New Jersey, probably the third most blue state in the Union. I was always taught that Republicans are for the rich and Democrats fight for Unions, civil rights, stopping war and the little guy. At least, that’s the way it was in the 1970’s. Back in those days, there was a revolt. Racist Southern Democrats (the ones that voted against Civil Rights legislation) were being driven out of office. People were dying in a senseless war in Vietnam. The new Democrats came to the rescue and it all culminated with taking dow Tricky Dick Nixon. Even though Gerald Ford pardoned him, the Democrats were looking pretty good and a nice guy named Jimmy Carter walked into the White House.
I thought Democrats were awesome. I hated Ronald Reagan. Voted for Bill Clinton twice. But like most Americans, I only skimmed the news. I trusted that the news told me (mostly) the truth. Then I went to college.
Seeing Sausage Made
I was a communications major in college. I saw how television worked. Most of my classmates went on to local news stations to be reporters, sports guys and weather girls. (I, of course, hung out with the clowns on the comedy show.) Still, in class, you saw how stuff was done on video. How you could manipulate a story for emotion. Most of all, I saw my idiot classmates.
These people were going to report the news, but they didn’t know shit about anything. One woman, a Katie Couric-ish waif, was probably one of the stupidest human beings I have ever met. But she was perky, camera-ready and probably went on to host some morning show in Des Moines somewhere. But this chick was more concerned with how her hair looked on camera than she was about the accuracy of a news story. She literally asked in class if she could just “fill in” the facts if she couldn’t confirm them.
In the early to mid-80’s, TV news started to deteorate. Cable TV news would drone on and on about the same disaster or news story that was “hot”. They’d hold on a ratings booster just because it was ratings. Understand, this was the era before Internet was really a thing.
The Internet
Almost immediately, when the Internet became a thing, it was pretty obvious it was going to dominate. When you could learn something within the hour instead of within the day, obviously the faster source was going to win out. Sure, there were a LOT of messed up stuff on the Internet. Plus you have to take any source with a grain of salt, but almost instantly it started eating away at the media’s dominance in newspapers, TV and Radio.
As that dominance faded, cuts were made. Stations that once hired large news staffs, cut back and back. They couldn’t compete with Cable TV news and as the Internet rose, they had to cut even more people. Less money, meant less quality. And my classmates, the new generation of news caster, weren’t exactly high on reporting the news to begin with.
WikiLeaks Emails
I voted for Bill Clinton twice. For years, I liked him. Then I read on the Internet the details about what happend to Kosovo. It was and is, pretty awful. Lost a lot of respect for him, but even still, I sorta excused it. Told myself, he’s still probably a decent guy.
Then I read the WikiLeaks emails and you should read them too. It’s bad. It’s as bad as you imagine and totally true.
Bill and Hillary paid for their daughter’s wedding (and ten years of living expenses) from the Clinton Foundation, a supposed charity organization. Hillary doesn’t use email. She had her assistant print out emails and read them to her. Then her assistant got so lazy, the job got passed down to Hillary’s maid. Not kidding. Her maid.
All this was done on an unprotected computer server which her own staff warned her time and time again (again, in the emails) that it was “fucking insane” to do that. If you believe we’ve been hacked by a foreign power (the WikiLeaks source seems to be someone on the inside) Hillary certainly made it easy for them. It’s a sad state when one of the most powerful politicians in the world acts like an old lady who doesn’t understand Outlook.
It’s bad. I can’t overstate how bad the emails are and the shit they say. And if you’re a Bernie supporter, you’re going to lose your God damned mind. And WikiLeaks still has thousands left to release.
President Trump
As if this writing, Trump is the likely winner. Just 16 electoral votes shy. He basically needs one more state (MN, MI or PA) and is winning two of them. He certainly has an excellent shot at a recount if Hillary pulls it out at the end. You gotta get over it. It’s probably happening. People were just as nuts over Bush vs. Kerry, but just like that race, if you can’t beat a horrible Republican candidate that says all sorts of stupid things, should you really be president?
So many people pushed Hillary because the media told them to. Told them she should win and would win. And that “we” all had to band together to stop Trump. That was bullshit. You were played. It was a Clinton brand, sold through their media surrogates. Everyone from Wolf Blitzer at CNN to (and it pains me to say this) Stephen Colbert were mentioned in the WikiLeaks emails as being somehow “in” on helping Clinton. It’s fine if you want to support someone. But it’s not cool if you present yourself a “news organization” or a comedian that goes after worthy targets for satire.
As a comedy guy, I went after Trump plenty of times, but I also went after Hillary. But between the two, Hillary was a more deserving target. Yes, Trump has said and done terrible things, but he’s never killed anyone. Hillary Clinton has a lot of blood on her hands from the NATO Libya bombing. A lot. And that’s a lot worse that even, yes, alleged sexual assault. Plus, she was in power as a Senator and Secretary of State. That’s much more of a worthy target than a reality TV star.
It’s also a lot worse to blame Russia, a country with nuclear weapons, for your problems thereby risking nuclear war. This was another meme floated by the Dems that simply isn’t true and their mavens in the media failed to inform you about that. They instead choose to ignore it or downplay it because, you know, “we” had to stop The Donald.
Revenge of Rednecks
The same people that failed to criticize Clinton reveled in calling Republicans right-wing nutbags with too many guns. That they were all sorts of horrible things. To be fair, yes, there are SOME of those people in the mix. But to paint all of them with a broad brush for so long, especially during the eight years when supposed tolerate and wonderful Democrats were in power was wrong. Obama should’ve been held to the same standard as Bush. He wasn’t. In fact, he let Bush go. A war criminal and his thuggish VP, free to go, after they started the worst war in American history. Top that off with not stopping said war and starting several more— Not too many “liberals” spoke up. If you’re one of them, you’re a hypocrite and one that doesn’t know a damn thing about Classic Liberalism. If you did, you’d probably already be voting for Gary Johnson or Jill Stein.
Trump supporters have their problems, to be sure. And once Trump takes the office, I will happily welcome back my Democrat brothers-in-arms to the antiwar forums and websites. But I will have to ask, “Where have you been for eight years? Asleep?” Trump’s feet has to be held to the fire on a lot of things. Democrats can’t only do it for “the other” guy. They should’ve done it for their guy or girl. You didn’t. So get over it. Remember, I’m standing on the outside of this. I can see it.
I have no doubt that Trump is going to be trouble. But citizens of ANY country need to hold their leaders accountable. I hope Trump holds Clinton accountable for the stuff in those emails. I’d like to see him go back and prosecute Obama and then Bush. He probably won’t, but I’d like to see it. If he doesn’t, it’s up to us to consistently pressure him to do so and not blindly side for partisan reasons.
Everyone was yelling at me to vote yesterday. No one told me to think.
Think. Know. And then decide.
Previous Columns
Obesity at Cons
The Art of Conversation
Grooming
The Line Between Fans and Pros
Geek Elitism
Convention Panels
Convention Volunteers
Food Gifts
Women and Cons
Get Your Room Party Together
Stop Bringing Your Kids to Cons
The Face of Geek Needs Work
Fixing the Face of Geek
Franchise Worship
Presenting Your Project
The New Image?
Stop Trying to Make Geek Cool
Rethinking the Comic Book Con
Zombie Stories Should Still Be About People
Geek Stereotypes and the Big Bang Theory
Con Locations
Traveling to Cons on the Cheap
Con Economics
Comics, Sexism and Trolling
Searching for the Words
How to Fix Comics? Stop Reading Them
Shopping at the Con
The Hollywood Double Edged Sword
Beware the Geek Scams
Success Kills
In Response to Chuck Dixon, Paul Rivoche and Janelle Asselin
Fanboy Reporters
Dealing with Critics and Haters in the Internet Age
Who Are the Creepers?
The Cosplayer Treaty of 2014: A Proposal
Female Thor
Comics’ Non-News
Geek Feminists and DC’s T-Shirts
Cosplay Blowback
Charlie Hebdo and the Other Stuff You Should Know
Customer Service
The Intolerant Internet
Superhero Movie Moral Compass
