Just Say No

The prompt for today is to make a list of things you would like to say no to.

I would like to say no to free market capitalism. I think it is bad. It allows the strong to prey upon the weak, and it has demolished the middle class. We need regulations and oversight to protect one another from those who would be predators. They just found lead in baby food, for heavens sake. We have a whole generation of kids with lead in their heads. What will they be like in 20 years? Things need to be checked, regulated, and watched to ensure half the population doesn't die from e-coli in lettuce or that children aren't smashed in cribs, or that cars just die on the highway, causing horrific crashes. That is what regulations should do. Protect people. That includes regulating costs. For example, we pay more for our prescriptions than any other country in the world. Why is this allowed? Free market bullsh*t, that's why.

I would like to say no to the word "should." As in, I should get up off my butt and do this or that. I should have been, or should be, doing this or that, or be this or that. I should be better, smarter, stronger, healthier, happier, prettier, etc. etc. No, I shouldn't. I yam who I yam.

Say no to worrying. I worry over everything. Money, health, friends, family, this or that. I can worry over whether or not an asteroid is going to hit the planet. No to worries!

Let's also say no to organized religion. I know that will offend pert near everyone, but religion makes the whack-a-doodles even more whacky. It also perpetuates the patriarchy by putting men above women, and helps to create this sense of "other" that has festered and become a big pile of pus in the landscape of America. If people need to believe in something greater than themselves, that's their right, but they don't have the right to foist it upon me or anyone else. If everyone would keep this stuff to themselves and mind their own business, things would be better. I worship how I want, and I don't particularly care what people think. Nobody actually knows my "religion" because I've never spelled it out. At least, not that I can remember.

Additionally, let's say no to fascism, authoritarianism, totalitarianism, oligarchies, kleptocracies, and monarchies. (Say yes to looking those words up, even if one thinks one knows what they mean.)

Let's say no to the Electoral College.

Let's say no to children going hungry - to anybody going hungry - and to a minimum wage that's out of step with the times, to a world without a social safety net, and to plain ol' meanness.