Teleen's Journal

So I'm over at ontd_political, reading this post with live election results, and my brain breaks.

It's broken forever, poppets.  When a proposition in MO TO BAN  FUCKING PUPPY MILLS can't pass, my faith in the humanity of my fellow man in this country has taken a sharp dive straight into the Grand Canyon. 

Not to mention that my Governor, Ted Strickland, lost.  Meaning the my vote, DIDN'T FUCKING COUNT.  And don't give me some shit about how every vote counts.  If he lost by one vote or one million, he still fucking lost, making my state even more fucked up than it was before.

The only thing that gives me any shred of hope is that politicians fucking suck at doing anything. Oh, wait - that's DEMOCRATS.

Republicans are fucking aces at getting shit done.  Too bad it's mostly racist, homophobic, pro-rich, anti-environment pro-corporate shit.

Oh, and if you voted Republican and you make less than $250,000 a year?  Congratulations, you've voted against your own self-interest and in favor of the party that wants to turn back the clock to the 1950's (except, y'know, the part where the rich paid 90% taxes).

Fuck you, U.S.  Fuck you and the fail!boat you've decided to sail on.

That's what we all want to tell everyone who's ever been bullied.  It gets better.  At some point in your life, you'll look back and realize that those who hurt you were small-minded, stupid asshats who are probably unhappy with their lives now and who will never feel as good about themselves as you do now.

It's a beautiful sentiment and I've really loved seeing the outpouring of similar messages all over the internet. 

That said, I'm sorry.  I'm sorry to be the cynical, depressed voice that cuts through all of the love and says, "Hey, wait a second..." 

To someone who is being bullied, no amount of 'It will get better' from random strangers will necessarily help.  To someone who's in that dark place, they feel as though their pain is unique and nothing and no one could ever understand it, even if the person telling them has been in the exact same situation before.

Because the pain of someone else isn't mine.  What I went through and got through doesn't mean dick to someone who's still going through it right now.  All the, 'there's light at the end of the tunnel's' in the world don't make a difference to someone who's being systematically tortured every moment of every day.  

Again, it's a beautiful idea for people who aren't in that place any longer to reach back and try to pull someone forward with them, but speaking as someone who's both been in that place and had people tell me that it'll get better....  I was going to say that I can say that it might not help but then I realized - I'm speaking for those who are in that dark place.

I'm saying that my pain was comparable to theirs and because all those 'it gets betters' didn't help me, it won't help them.

I'm wrong. 

I'm depressed right now and it's clouding how I'm looking at the world, but not so much that I don't realize how wrong I am.  

Just because 'it gets better' didn't work and doesn't work for me, as a rule, doesn't mean that it won't work for someone else.  So if you have a chance to tell someone it'll get better, take it.

They might be lucky enough to be nothing like me, :).