Do we blame the internet or income inequality, the inability to rise above and get ahead?

Every damn day people tell me I’m an asshole online. And let me tell you, if I say something negative about you or your project, it’s open season, it doesn’t surprise me when you reach out and castigate me. But when there’s no nexus, I don’t know you and you don’t know me, why such vitriol?

Used to be society was divided into those who ruled and those who were ruled. And we kind of liked this, because we had economic mobility, we thought if we just put our nose to the grindstone we could get ahead. But then mothers were working alongside fathers and bills went up and income stayed stagnant and everybody started to scratch their head and say, “Wait a minute here…”

Now the paradigm’s been blown apart. The elites think they rule but they don’t. That  was the story of the Presidential election, those who knew better left behind those who supposedly didn’t and those on the losing end decided to give the middle finger to the winners of society, the educated, the advantaged, even if it was against their best interests, because as the bard from Minnesota once told us, when you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose.

And the artists are a black hole. Chasing a buck too. Anybody with power refuses to go on record in any meaningful way for fear of alienating a potential customer and the nobodies keep clamoring for attention, when they’re not hating online.

But now they’re tipping over headstones.

I want to know why this is the Jews’ problem, please tell me what my tribe did to become the most hated. Seems we’re decried even more than immigrants. But that bozo shot those Indians in Kansas and what’s even scarier is the nincompoops have guns, it’s like the wild west, if you feel safe…

You aren’t.

But what’s funny is those who feel most at risk aren’t. Those red state denizens where the terrorists don’t go, because there aren’t enough people there. Believe me, they’re going to Oklahoma and Idaho last. But we must beef up the military for a perceived threat that doesn’t exist, when we can blow up the world many times over and we cozy up to the real enemy, Russia.

Makes your head spin, doesn’t it?

But no one wants to accept any blame. Trump wants more facts before he weighs in on Kansas, even though he heard rumors of election fraud and cheering Muslims in New Jersey and had no problem rushing to judgment and pontificating on those subjects. Because golfer Bernhard Langer, not even a citizen, is a more trustworthy authority than the media.

If you’re educated, if you’re doing your job, you’re scorned.

How can this be?

I get it, people have been left behind. But does this mean we give up on facts, we give up on truth, we no longer respect those who are educated and informed? What next, rogue doctors performing surgeries after learning their craft on YouTube?

So the elites won’t acknowledge that globalism results in losers who must be helped and the losers keep telling us we need less government and more guns but we had better not cut their Obamacare.

This is the county we’re living in. One where no one seems to be in control.

We as a society should be excoriating hate. We should be shaking our fists and rallying for truth and understanding.

But everybody’s watching their own news and so much of it is biased and everybody feels powerless so they just yell at each other, over and over again, all the damn time.

But words hurt less than actions.

Once you start shooting people in the name of hatred, once you start vandalizing Jewish cemeteries, calling in bomb threats to Jewish Community Centers, you’ve got a major societal problem. One that we must be led out of.

But who is leading, who do we respect anymore?

I can’t respect a President who believes everything he sees on Fox is right.

And I can’t respect a Democratic elite that left the working man behind.

But I do know we’re only human, flesh and blood.

They teach us to be good citizens…

But now Betsy DeVos wants to eviscerate public schools, even though the latest research shows vouchers result in lower test scores. We want to segregate ourselves more. By race, by religion, by income.

And endgame is?

They’re coming for you next. Don’t think you’re immune. You can pray to your God all you want but that won’t make you safe. Your only choice is to love and understand your brothers and sisters, but this is hard to do when you have trouble making ends meet.

The media has been neutralized. Trump is fanning the flames of discord.

And I’m very scared. Because I’ve been on this planet quite a while and have never seen it this bad. Where anti-Semitism is legitimized. Where immigrants are the root of all problems. Where truth is for pussies and we make up alternative facts that befit our desired scenarios.

Come on, what kind of coarse society do we live in where every immigrant has to be afraid of being rounded up and kicked out while the poor aliens are picking out fruit and the rich aliens are aiding breakthroughs in Silicon Valley. I’m not saying people should be able to cross borders willy-nilly, but if you think the major issue in this country is immigration, you’re not looking at the real problem.

You and me. Who’ve been here from day one. We’re standing by as our society fails, feeling hopeless as we yell at each other online, pointing fingers at everyone but ourselves.

A change has got to come.

And it’s got to start with us.

We are America. We make policy. We have power.

And I don’t care who is in office, who won any election, this hatred has got to stop.