Words Matter

If you ask me, everything that’s wrong with society today is an issue of word choice.

Why did we elect Donald Trump as President?

Because words matter and we haven’t been choosing our words carefully enough.

Why do we allow Sinclair, the Fox News of local news, to buy local news stations and literally abuse people?

Because they have money and they use that money to find the smartest people they can to help them sell the lie that we should let them do that. Why do we have no power to stop them from doing that? Because they have enough money to pay lobbyists like me, with unbelievably convincing stories, to believe me.

Meanwhile, you have no idea why you believe me. Because I’m literally sitting there in front of you a living, breathing contradiction: a Sarah Lawrence educated democrat who worked in the Obama White House, saying I’m okay with my conservative employer buying more local news stations, even though they feed reporters stories about Hillary Clinton’s hot sauce consumption and force them to air content they don’t want to air.

But I’m saying no, it’s okay, I promise you they’re not that bad, I used to work for them. I was a journalist, I was a Sinclair journalist, and I’m telling you the truth. Because if I wasn’t telling you the truth, you’d think I was a straight-up fucking crazy person. Right?

Problem being, I am. I am crazy. This is why words are so deliriously important. Our words matter so much, because when we use the wrong words, people get hurt. Like right now, you’re thinking to yourself wow I am witnessing this girl having a moment? But you don’t want me calling myself crazy.

And you’ve made my point. Because the accurate way to describe me would be to call me bipolar.

You’re bipolar?!?!?!?!? Are you sure? Have you talked to your doctor? But really, like are you sure, because if you’re not, you can’t claim that you are, that would be like, really offensive to the real bipolar people and inconsiderate of their experiences.

Yeah, thanks for your opinion but yes I have confirmed my diagnosis. And as much as I love you, that's really none of your business. Yes, it's become your business because I put it out here publicly, but as much as I'm willing to share this publicly, I'm not accepting feedback at this time.

I need you to believe me when I say I promise you I know what I’m talking about and I know my experience better than you do. So if you have anything you need to say or feel or express to me, that’s fine, but I’m going to need you to go do it over there in your corner of the world, because there’s no room for you and your negativity here in mine.

See all of this sounds crazy to you right now but it doesn’t to me because I’m the crazy one. So like, for example, I’m going to tell you something and it’s going to sound crazy, but I think it’s true so I’m going to tell it to you anyway. I think I could be the president of the United States someday.

Crazy, right?

Word choice, my friend.

I’m not running for president, I’m just saying, I don’t think any of my diagnoses make me unqualified to be president. Just look at who just left office. We’re already had a crazy person in The White House!

And guess what…

We didn’t all die.

But what’s scary is a lot of people did.

We cannot look back at Donald Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 Pandemic and ignore the blood on his hands.

We need to learn a lesson from this moment in history we’re having.

Because if we just call crazy people crazy and move on with our lives, we can’t blame anyone else when the world starts crumbling around us.

Just look at what’s happening in Ukraine right now.

We don’t have the luxury to ignore the atrocities being carried out. We’re hugging our kids a little tighter at night and looking to our neighbors and saying “this man must be stopped.”

Don’t you think they would have jumped in on Donald Trump before he started World War III?

Thankfully, there’s checks in balances in place in the United States. It’s the reason why the president doesn’t just run off with the nuclear football one bad day and end it for all of us. It’s not just one person.

This is why I get so pissed when people dismiss the idea of a woman being president. We live in a world where the fact that I’m a woman is probably worse for my chances than my bipolar diagnosis. Because we don’t trust women to not go rogue and deploy the nukes unnecessarily, because, you know, her period?

See how ridiculous you sound?

If not, here’s one more example to help you understand. Going back to President Donald Trump. Yes, President Donald Trump. Feel however you want to feel about him, the man is really just a misunderstood genius with undiagnosed mental health challenges.

See?

Actually, let’s do one more example because I cannot, for moral reasons, use Donald Trump as the final word on anything.

Hillary Clinton. Not a bitch. Not a courage-less social climber who only stayed with Bill Clinton so she could run for president. Not a bad role model for my kids. Can you agree with that one?

Maybe not?

Well how about… crazy?

Crazy?

Oh fucking for sure. The woman is married to Bill Clinton and ran for president of course she’s fucking crazy. But that’s okay. That doesn’t make her any less of a woman or any less of a leader or any less of a deeply brilliant public servant who has helped the United States more than you’ve ever imagined.

Our earth is burning to the ground while we run around and fight over whether or not that’s a true statement because some people don’t believe the issues that we’re facing are a shared problem that we should tackle together.

There’s this basic economic theory I learned back when I was at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville New York. It’s called the tragedy of the commons. Basically, the tragedy of the commons is that if we can’t all agree on what the rules are, we are going to fuck this world up.

We, my friends, are living in the fucking tragedy of the commons.

Everything that is wrong in this world is a matter of word choice.

The only way we can save our world is by being more careful with our words.