The local newspaper recently expressed some frustration with divisiveness and people talking past each other, and requested that readers write in, particularly regarding concrete reasons why they voted for one candidate or another. And I wouldn't normally bother, but something about the tone of it just got to me, particularly with how so much of mainstream media has, for years, consistently been bothsidesing everything and refusing to take a stand on anything, facts and consequences be damned.
I ended up toning down some of what I wanted to say and cutting out some relevant but perhaps overly verbose side rants, like noting how WaPo's billionaire owner decided to kiss up to fascism instead of allowing the actual writers to publish an endorsement of Kamala Harris, or how I wish she had been even half as much for they/them—which is a good thing to be!—as the opposing campaign claimed instead of remaining silent, or that most Democrats aren't even reliably progressive let alone leftist, or how the incoming Cabinet is composed of people who aside from general incompetence are openly hostile to the entire purpose of the departments they'll be in charge of, or...
...yeah, I think some editing was for the best. It's enough of a rant already without all that. Anyway, here's what I ended up sending them.
