Sorry, copy desk. I wanted to get kind of political today. Not political enough to provide facts for you to check, but political enough to make you groan at another one of these columns. If it makes you feel any better, I regret this column, too.
I don’t like politics for obvious reasons — an obvious reason is that politics is silly, dumb, dumb and silly. In regard to politics, I’m not well-read in local, countrywide or global policy. I’m as uninformed as a newspaper copy editor can be, and I don’t mind that at all.
I pretty firmly believe you can devote your time to anything you love, and that time spent is not a waste or an abuse of privilege. If I took the time to become informed, watch various news outlets and peruse op-eds and editorials, I’d lose the opportunity to create art and improve as an artist. I don’t care if it’s an extra five minutes out of my day to read an informative article. I don’t have downtime to do things I don’t love.
That being said, the election affected me a whole lot more than I expected it to. Had I not been a copy editor at a newspaper, I would have been home working on art during election night. I would have offhandedly checked Facebook and noticed Donald Trump became the president-elect. I would have shrugged my shoulders and went back to the art I cared so much about. That’s what I was hoping I’d do, and that indifference is what I expected to feel up until election night.
I’ve seen plenty of Trump on social media; he’s a pretty hateable guy for obvious reasons — an obvious reason is that he is dumb, silly, silly and dumb. But I didn’t hate him. If anything, I just assumed he was Andy Kaufman in disguise and let him continue his hilariously unending running joke.
When Trump won, folks around me broke down. Folks I cared about. Folks I loved. The Alligator endorsed Hillary Clinton, and Clinton did not win the presidency. The implications of the Trump presidency crept into the minds of everyone around me, and those implications hit them like a truck.
And so, on election night, I did something I thought I’d never do: write an unironic political cartoon about a presidential election. I made art. Not out of hatred for the man who had just won the country, but out of love for the people around me who were broken down and without hope. It was the least I could do, given the circumstances.
I think it’s toxic to assume that another person’s opinion is automatically valid because it is their own. People can have silly opinions; haven’t you read, like, half of these columns? Especially when those opinions spew hatred and disdain for others — you cannot let that crap slide.
But, you cannot spew hatred in response. Memes, political cartoons, comedians and the word “deplorables” only added fuel to the fire, because every retort was based in hatred for the candidate, rather than in love for those who are targeted. Making fun of Trump’s hair alongside actual political criticism is incredibly counterproductive, folks. That should go without saying.
That being said, he looks incredibly goofy.
Solving the whole “half of the U.S. population needs to shape up” problem won’t be easy. But the solution is not passivity. Don’t let those hateful opinions be spread. The solution is not hatred, either. Don’t be a hypocrite; retorting hatred with hatred is probably the reason we didn’t get our first female president. Do things out of love for other people. Don’t do things out of love for this delusion of what you think America is or should be — that’d be pretty conceited if you’re assuming what’s best for more than 300 million people. Don’t do that. Just love people.
Michael Smith is a mechanical engineering junior. His column appears on Tuesdays.
