No offense, but it is only white people like you who are panicked about what you see happening today because now its either directly affecting you, or its about to. I do not have the luxury of panicked despair or throwing up my hands in defeat. That is not an option. Even though some things have not changed, we still have come far from where we were, and we are not going back.

People like trump and his followers have always been around menacing the marginalized, regularly bashing, abusing, and even killing us, and we yelled about it a lot, and tried our damndest to warn all the fine upstanding straight white people that the problems they ignored would be coming home to roost in their backyards. These people have simply become bold enough for ALL to see and not ignore them.

When I say I take the long view I mean it. I'm talking the last hundred years and the next. This isn't new behavior from them, and each iteration of extremism has gotten weaker and more desperate over time.

I've been researching the social history of this country for several years now, and the people have moved to the Left quite a lot, which is the reason we are seeing the reactionary extremism we have today. It is their last chance to hold on to the dregs of power they have left to them. Remember, these are men who used to have their way in ALL things, everywhere, and they know it, and would like to go back to the last time they did: the 1950s!

But time doesn't move backward, and all they can do is a holding motion of, at best, a decade or two. Each successive generation has been more tolerant, more inclusive, and more importantly, less violent towards people who look like me. They were always here, loud, and wrong, but now YOU cannot ignore them, because social media has given them a bullhorn.

But that doesn't mean we should be slacking. It always takes us a minute on the Left to get our shit together, but when we eventually do they do lose, and we take another step forward.

They lose when we fight back.