Babble or brilliance? You have the freedom to decide

When I was voting, I saw on the ballot that one of the guys listed himself as a “Trump Republican.” Like, he wanted to make sure that he wasn’t just known as a Republican, but a TRUMP Republican.

“Meaninglessly high tariffs? I 100% support that. I also support measles for all children, the raw milk squirts as a cause of death, and a war intended to cause the End Times. All hail the Rapture!”

And seriously: Where has all the money gathered by the tariffs gone? What has it been used for? Is it just a free slush fund they can use for whatever they want with no public oversight?

And I really love the idea that afterward, when the law finally steps in and all that tariff money is returned… it will go to the companies. So like, the consumers will once again get the short end of the stick. The prices won’t go back down (because “The cost is the cost. It’s what you should expect. Don’t question the process, because the process is predatory capitalism sucking the lifeblood out of the economy.”) and the poor will continue to get poorer.

Sometimes it’s easy to fall into a sense of gloom and doom. Everything is darkness and despair and there’s nothing to do about it because we are small and helpless and alone in the face of massive opposition.

• Ridiculous tariffs.
• Life destroying medical debt.
• Rich people getting richer.
• Rising cancer rates.
• RFK, Jr.
• Religious zealots trying to bring about the end of the world.
• The hentai virus (hanta, lol).
• Wildfires.
• Governments dumping raw sewage straight into the ocean.
• Data centers destroying the landscape.
• ICE.
• Climate change.

But there are so many good things in the world too.

• Cats.
• Dogs.
• Panda bears.
• Koalas.
• Dolphins.
• Orca whales capsizing yachts.
• Copper wire in Flock cameras.
• Community outreach programs.
• Little Free Libraries have expanded to having Little DVD Libraries that are decorated like miniature Blockbuster stores.
• More people are realizing that current “AI” is not artificial intelligence but a waste of money.
• Taco Bell is coming closer to winning the restaurant wars by being the only company to care about consumers enough to warn them not to eat the diarrhea lettuce.
• Hummingbirds can be attracted to hang around your home with sugar water. (1/4 cup sugar + 1 cup water stirred together and soft boiled for 2 minutes. No dyes or additives. No sugar substitutes, just plain WHITE sugar. (Brown sugar has molasses. Powdered sugar has starch.))
• Ice cream can easily be made at home, and popsicles are even easier to make.
• Sunrises and sunsets are beautiful.
• Physical books, ebooks, and audiobooks can be borrowed for free from the public library.
• There are a lot of public resources available FREE from the public library.
• Talking animal movies exist (“The Sheep Detectives” was a good movie).
• Stretching like a cat everyday when you wake up and before you go to bed can have health benefits for humans. (Which means, for all us kids that spent recess pretending to be cats on the playground? Suck it, bullies!)
• Two cans of chickpeas can make “meat”balls and the bean water (aquafaba) can be used to make meringues or coconut macaroons.
• People are beginning to realize that Starlink is a scam, which will hopefully result in the spread of true free public Internet.
• Tai chi and pilates require minimal equipment and can be done by anyone.
• Flatbreads are cheap, filling, easy to make, multipurpose, and freeze well.

Everyone wants to have GREAT BIG HAPPINESS like what they see on TV and in movies and read about in storybooks. But really, it’s the smaller everyday joys that create a lifelong happiness.

People will spend every single dollar they have and go heavily into debt to have their perfect wedding, then wonder afterward why their marriage isn’t a happy one. Never once considering that financial concerns are one of the leading causes of stress and misery. ESPECIALLY if their relationship wasn’t a strong one in the first place.

I honestly feel that if someone wants to have a beautiful massive wedding as in their dreams, it’s better to be done as an event taking place on their 5th or 10th or whatever wedding anniversary.

You can get married without a wedding. The marriage is still valid and legally binding.

And it’s a lot easier to get a divorce if you’re not sharing $40,000 worth of debt caused by a massive wedding that might very well have been “ruined” by a hostile mother-in-law deciding to wear a wedding dress to the ceremony.

The desire for “a big beautiful wedding that everyone else will be jealous of” is just another form of overconsumption, which is itself a symptom of predatory capitalism.

Someone spends all that time, money, and effort to have the PERFECT wedding, expecting to get that big dopamine hit. And when things don’t go to plan, the drop in expectations can lead to anger, hatred, depression, and formless rage. And even if things go well, afterward when the bills come due? There’s a sense of “I would have been better off putting that money toward buying a house, a car, or saving for the future.”

Like, seriously: How would you feel if you were a child born to a couple that had a massive wedding that caused hundreds of thousands worth of debt? To grow up knowing that without all that debt you would have had a much better life. And it would be even worse if your parents got a divorce because of the debt.

People buying into every trend as they happen are Big Wedding Debt on a smaller scale. It’s spending thousands of dollars for junk, then later not having the money to pay for things that are necessary, such as food, shelter, and medical care.

It’s looking back on all the money you spent on JUNK and realizing that if you’d saved that money you would be living a better life now.

And that is the regret of constantly seeking GREAT BIG HAPPINESS rather than enjoying smaller everyday happinesses.

A big bag of sugar costs less than $4. And you can enjoy hummingbirds year round in some places, or for months and months if you live somewhere where it gets really cold. And the hummingbirds will come back the next year and they’re always just as lovely and charming as the first time you meet them.

And that is to say, there’s nothing quite as magical as watching a sunrise, then settling down with a cup of something hot as the morning spreads over the land, then hearing the buzz of hummingbird wings flapping and watching them enjoy the sugar water you provided for them. And as days pass and they become used to you and realize that you’re the one that provided that sugar water? It only gets better.

Because while GREAT BIG HAPPINESS is something every human being might dream of, it is the quieter everyday joys that bring lifelong satisfaction.

It’s the reason why fairytales usually end with a wedding and the words “And they lived happily ever after.” Because everyone’s idea of happiness is different and unique. There is no one-size fits all version that can be detailed without some people thinking “I don’t want that.”

A wedding is but a moment in a much longer life and is not the be all, end all of anything. It’s simply an expensive party to celebrate the signing of a legal document.

Meanwhile, the sun rises and sets EVERY DAY. And it doesn’t cost any money to enjoy.

Because true lasting happiness is free as-in freedom. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness–indelible rights that no one should be able to take away, whether through force or coercion via societal pressures. The antithesis of predatory capitalism is freedom.

To live the way you want as yourself. Not forced into a cookie cutter life predetermined by corporations, governments, or religions that view human beings as either money to be gathered or slaves to be exploited.

The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Simple joys exist to weave a soft blanket of lifelong happiness. A protective layer to ward off the cold of gloom and doom that are the truest weapons of fascism.

“There is nothing you can do. We are mighty and unstoppable. We are the silent majority. And you are small and alone. Give in to despair and allow yourself to be subsumed by our vision of bleak misery.” As though there aren’t more people that love sunrises and sunsets and gentle moonlight and hummingbirds and the work of bees than want to give in to the ridiculousness of letting a few worthless people proclaim ownership over all the wonders of the world.

They have money and that money gives them a sense of power. But once the majority of people accept the fact that money can take many forms and that those forms can be changed, their power will be lost.

Because their power over the people is nothing more than a dream. A nightmare that can be dispelled with the coming of the dawn.