Those of you who read my stories – thank you for that, it makes me happy – probably realize I have pretty clear political leanings. I consider myself progressive and in favor of a lot of left leaning economic policies. I’ve studied business economics for four years and even got a degree in it. It took me a while to realize it just made me sad and I didn’t like the way the world worked, but I did learn a lot in that time, some of it fun and interesting, some of it depressing. You don’t need a degree to realize marketing is just trying to manipulate people into buying things they don’t need, but it certainly hammers the nail in just a little bit deeper.
When it comes to being progressive I consider that to be just letting people exist in their lane. I don’t concern myself with other people’s gender, race, culture or sexual orientation beyond being interested in what we can learn from each other. Trans people exist? Good for them, I hope they’re happier after their transition. Gay people get married? Good for them, it doesn’t change my life in any way. Immigrants move here? Cool, maybe we can learn something from their culture, or the other way around. The grim reality is that most people are just like you and me, trying to get by. Just because I was born the correct gender, have blond hair and blue eyes and like women doesn’t make me any better or worse than anyone else. Let people forge their way towards their own happiness and they will do the same to you. I’ve met many people who weren’t born in my country but moved here and are some of the kindest folks you’ll ever meet. I have friends that are bi, gay, straight, asexual, transgender and non binary. They’re just people. And just like me, they might enjoy watching react content on Youtube.
Now, this isn’t a post about the recent “react drama” that’s been happening on Twitch and Youtube. I have my opinions on that, but that’s not why I’m here. It’s about a kind of content I enjoy, which is people reacting to music. I love hearing other people get excited about hearing songs for the first time. It gets me giddy with excitement when someone discovers anime music for the first time and then uploads their reaction to Youtube. Watching their eyes open to this vast amount of amazing music that you’d easily miss out on is just a joy to watch and it lets me listen to the songs again as well.
There is an unfortunate side effect I’ve noticed with these kinds of reaction youtubers. This might be indicative of my own failure to find the right channels to watch, but I keep coming across a channel I like, watching it for a while and then seeing that they react positively to some psychotic right wing messages. Think about people like Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh or Jordan Peterson. Today I watched a video of a Youtuber I really liked – I’m not going to call anyone out, this is a relatively small youtuber and I like most of their reactions – react to a right wing song that just spews a bunch of hatred towards some hot button topics. Think trans rights, masks (how topical, it’s still 2020 right?), abortion rights, gun violence and police defunding. I will give credit where it’s due, the reactor was fairly neutral, but it just breaks my heart to watch the comments filled with agreement with the song.
Now, I firmly believe that we should be allowed to hold opinions. If you think abortion is murder and having a mother watch her child be stillborn is salvation that’s your right. I’m free to think you’re a monster for having that opinion. But I also struggle to look at someone who I completely disagree with the same as before. If you don’t respect my trans homies, how can I respect you? This might be a shortcoming of me, but there are too many kind people in the world for me to spend time trying to relate to hateful people. My idea of a perfect world is an impossible one, which is why I turn to fiction and try to create beautiful characters. Mana is what I’d like to think I would be like if I had all the confidence in the world. Someone who cares for others, respects everyone and does not discriminate. Someone who questions the world around her, but not in a way that spirals down into hatred.
I’m rambling again, I tend to do that when political opinions are involved. I got into a spat with some guild members in the MMO I played the other day as well, but there’s some really vile people on the internet. Luckily they got banned because our guild leadership are good people. I just get so sad when I see people who seem nice and reasonable buy into unjustifiable hatred for minorities just because it’s sold well. I told a friend of mine who teaches a course on politics and societal issues that I could never do his job. I can teach English just fine, but my politics are far too progressive for a bunch of Christian teenagers. I’ll end up telling them crazy liberal concepts like “it’s okay to love the people you love.” That would be bad of me. But teenagers will learn on their own, hopefully. I was incredibly transphobic when I was younger and calling someone gay was the biggest insult possible when I was young. But we grow, and we learn that our words can hurt people, and we apologize for our past and move on. I hope this post stayed somewhat coherent. Before I go back to my youtube video, let me give you the words of John Farnham, from the song I’ve had on repeat while writing this:
We’re all someone’s daughter, we’re all someone’s son.
How long can we look at each other, down the barrel of a gun?
Respect your peers and thanks for reading.
Opal Kaharis 