I decided to create this page as a way to write shorter things as opposed to longer articles that take way more time to plan. I love writing but too often I get in the habit of thinking writing can only be multi page essays that take a while to reserch and write. So this will be a place for shorter stuff. Lets see what happens!!! You may not agree with everything I say, but I hope you will approach new info with an open mind!
Today is the birthday of Thomas Jefferson, who served as the third president of the United States, as well as the primary author of our Declaration of Independence. In the modern US, he is somewhat of a controversial figure, and I'd like to give my thoughts about that. Jefferson was born in the 1740s into a planter family in Virginia. He was born into a slave-holding family and "inherited" hundreds of enslaved human beings. As he grew up, he became heavily influenced by the ideas of the Englightment. He had always been a vorascious reader, and was immersed in the politics of his day. He would eventually go on to serve as the governor of Virginia during the American Revolution. Before this, he was tasked by the Continental Congress to write the document that would official declare American independence from Great Britain. The words he wrote would later go on to become my country's creed. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." There is debate over how these stirring words were intended to be interpreted by Jefferson and other founders. But it was Abraham Lincoln, in his Gettysburg Address, who transformed it into our national creed. He read Jefferson's words and took them literally. All men created equal? That was a radical idea in a word of serfs, peasents, and slavery. The man who wrote those words, those words that define our national character, owned slaves. He likely did not believe that the people he enslaved were created equal. But his words would go on to inspire the great pioneers of freedom that speckle our national history, from Frederick Douglass to MLK. His words are larger then life, how do we gel that with his slave owning? Many people my age who are involved in progressive politics think that we should do away with monuments and things such as that commemorate Jefferson, equating him with the Confederates who rebelled against the United States in order to enshrine slavery. This, in my opinion, does a disservice to Jefferson and his role in our nation's history. Jefferson did own slaves, and very likely had children with one of them, and didn't ever free her or the children. But he is also instrumental to the rights we take for granted today. Do you like freedom of religion? Well if you live in the US, you can thank Jefferson (Among others) for that. Jefferson's words in the Declaration energized progress movements in this country. They were the rallying cry of the Union Army during the Civil War. Those soldiers took his words and made them real. As I mentioned earlier, a century after the war, MLK took those words, and charged America to live up to them. Are we living up to them? Many people in response to discourse about Jefferson's slavery believe that we shouldn't talk about such things, they believe that education about American slavery is "unpatriotic". I think this is more harmful then ignorance over Jefferson's accomplishments. We cannot look at our history and learn from it if we only pay attention to the good parts. Of course the reverse is also true, we cannot look at our history and learn from it if we only pay attention to the bad parts. In reality, our history is complex and gray. Just like Jefferson himself. He was a gray figure whose beautiful words define our nation, and whose righteous fight for liberal values enable us to discuss him today. At the same time, he was a slaver who owned hundreds of people, and had children with people he owned. We must acknolwedge both. This quote from Black American historian, Annette Gordon-Reed, really summerizes my thoughts on Jefferson (and George Washington but that's for another day) "No one puts a monument up to Washington or Jefferson to promote slavery. The monuments go up because, without Washington, there likely would not have been an American nation. They put up monuments to T.J. because of the Declaration of Independence, which every group has used to make their place in American society. Or they go up because of T.J.’s views on separation of church and state and other values that we hold dear. I think on these two, Washington and Jefferson, in particular, you take the bitter with sweet. The main duty is not to hide the bitter parts." Wise words. I hope that I am not the only one who took this day to reflect on one of our nation's most important figures.
Today marks the anniversery of the effective end of the American Civil War. On this day, in the village of Appomattox Court House, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee, surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. Just like that, the war was effectively over. There were other Confederate armies out there who fought on for a month after, but Lee's was the largest and most important. It was over. The war had consumed hundreds of thousands of American lives, white, black, everything in between. I could talk about the main cause of the war (slavery) but that's too big a topic for a little blog post. Instead, I want to discuss what a man like General Lee surrendering to a man like Ulysses S. Grant really met in the grand scheme of things. You see, Robert E. Lee was about the closest thing to old European feudal nobility that the US had. Southern society is often valorized by Confederate defenders as being "chivalrous", but as I covered in my post about modern Christian knighthood, medieval chivalry was not all it is cracked up to be in romances. Neither was the so-called "Southern Chivalry". Each plantation essentially functioned as a kind of fiefdom. A plot of land under the control of whoever owned the land, and owned the people who worked it. Lee's family had been in this "noble" planter class for centuries. Southern society was built on what was essentially modern American feudalism. But when Lee stepped into that building in Appomattox, dressed in full uniform, seated at the nicest desk in the room, he, and his entire "noble" background, were greeted by General Grant. Grant was not born into American "nobility". He was the son of a poor tanner from Ohio. He never had much money, what money he did have came from years of hardwork, as a farmer, and in the military. He was not in the position opposite Lee because of his birth, as Lee was, he was there because he had the skill, stragety, and grit to get him there. He was not fighting for the old, tired, and, literally, medieval, society that Lee was. Grant was fighting for freedom, for modernity, for the American expierment. Here in the US, you are not noble because of who you are born to. You are noble because of who you strive to be. At least, that's how it should be. In his service in the Union army, General Grant fought to preserve his homeland, he fought to liberate slaves, he fought to make our Revolution truly real. Grant was not born into nobility, Grant seized nobility through his actions and by his own sweat. This day in American history represents the old feudal ways, dying in the face of the American expierment. No more shall human beings be owned, no more shall nobility be a birthright. No, no, no. In America, we are not exceptional because of who we are, we are exceptional because of who we strive to be. We pursue our own happiness, we grab nobility and chivalry with our own two hands. The Civil War was the defeat of the Feudal America, and the beginning of the Modern America. With Liberty and Justice, for all.
I have grown very disillusioned with the "left-right" view of politics (This is from American politics so I am not talking about how that framing applies to other countries). I feel like many political nuts today are developing increasingly cult-like devotions to whatever flavor of "leftism" or "rightism" that they inhabit. Just look at MAGA, MAGA isn not about making things better for Americans. It is a cult based around one man and the idea he represents. These people are not really Christians, they claim to be, but they worship on the altar of MAGA, and whatever other right-wing ideology they might have. They are not interested in compromise for the sake of the greater good. They are interested in smiting their enemies and gaining power. Same goes for many people in this country who identify as some flavor of "leftist". I used to identify as a "leftist", but since October 7th, 2023, I have grown very disillusioned with the "left" side of politics. People who claim to care about Palestinain suffering embraced the same things that MAGA did. Xenophobia and Antisemitism have become features of modern American "leftism", if you are an everyday Israeli, or even just Jewish at all, you are somehow responsible for all Palestinian suffering, and should be treated like such. Modern day American "leftism" does not seek to make things better for this country, it eschews compromise and procedure in favor of embracing what the MAGA movement has normalized in American society. Uncivil behavior. "Leftists" do not believe in progress through procedure and reform, the way we have achived progress so far, they believe in progress by raptu-I mean revolution. Many of them seek to simplify complex problems into buzzwords like "abolish capitalism", that is not a realistic solution. But it is a snappy buzzword that you can chant at protests. Ultimately, both the modern "left" and "right" in this country have become fundementally illiberal. They do not seek realistic pathways to solve issues, they do not seek compromise and dialouge, and they most certainly do not seek nuance. They seek vengence, they seek an excuse to not think (Funny how many of them get their political opinions from TikTok or Fox News instead of reading and critical thinking.) They are both inherently violent groups because they see the Liberal order as being too slow to solve problems. "The right" manipulated its way into power in this country, but "the left" does not seem to have any interest in taking part at all. Many are content to watch this country burn so their revolution can start. Joe Biden had an agenda far more progessive then what he was able to achieve, and he still achieved quite a bit. Imagine what could have happened if all of these non-voting "leftists" voted for politicians who are willing to compromise to get stuff done. Modern US politics is defined by a lust for violence, a remarkably and proud uncivility, and a terrifyingly prominent leap into anti-intellectualism and conspiracism. Liberalism is the common enemy of both sides, far more then each other. MAGA has done a great job since January of 2025 of dismantiling the liberal order. "Leftists" look on and do nothing, nothing useful anyway. Democrats, for all their flaws, are doing things to fight back, they have been winning virtually every election since 2025. Illiberal political extremism/authoritarianism are the greatest threat to American democracy today. MAGA has power. MAGA is trying to destroy what has made our country as succesful as it is. "Leftists", while they are not in power, they aide MAGA by standing by and letting them do this. Left-wing influencers use their platforms to make people angry, while not offering substantial solutions. Abolishing capitalism, waiting for "the revolution", are not real solutions. They aren't working. Is it really no wonder why so many young people just give up and doomscroll all day? What else are the people we get our opinions from telling us? Nobody is educating themselves about how our government works, or how they can influence it. Why think if TikTok and Fox News can do it for you? This is one of our biggest problems. Our democracy is sick because we haven't taken good care of it. We need to educate ourselves, learn how to think critically, and take pride in what we have and what progress we have. If you would ask me what my politics are, I'd probably just say I am a liberal, if you want me to be specific I would say I am "at the intersection of FDR and MLK". Pragmatisim is key to my politics, at least I want it to be anyway. We need to be pragmatic and nuanced in our political thought, not give in to our lizard brain. No more "American carnage", no more "Amerikkka", we have so much to be proud of, we need to let that inspire us to be better. WE have to do the work. That's the price of democracy.
I feel like the vast majority of the people currently talking about the war in Iran do not really understand, nor care to understand the complexities at play. I certainly do not think Trump or Hegseth give a shit about Iran or it's people. I don't think Trump knows exactly what's going on half the time. But I also do not think all of these "Hands off Iran" people care much either. I have been following events in Iran since the protests began in late December. I have friends in Iran and I have been keeping up with reports coming out of Iran of the horrific violence that the IR has inflicted on it's people, many of them children. Do you know what the IR government has done to the people? Do you know the horrific and stomach churning things that government has done to it's people? ESPECIALLY it's women? Probably not. And yet people will defend the Iranian government. They will say this war is "unprovoked". If you think that this war is "unprovoked" then you must not have been paying attention to events going on in the Middle East. That regime has spent the past almost five decades funding terrorism across the region. They funded October 7th where thousands of Israelis were brutally murdered. They fund Hamas and Hezbollah, two groups that continue to opress the people of Gaza and Lebanon. In addition to the Houthis in Yemen, who continue to contribute the ongoing Yemeni Civil War, in addition to attacking ships in the Red Sea. This government has had it's hands everywhere in the regin of terror that has gripped this region for half a century. It's downfall would be revolutionary to our world. The Iranian people have a storied history and culture stretching back millenia. The new generation of Iranians have decided to resist the government that oppresses them, massacres them, and keeps them in chains. The fall of this regime would be a boon for Iran, for the Middle East, and for humanity as a whole. I do not think Donald Trump gives a shit about any of that, but I will not sit here and call this unjust or unprovoked. The IR has been provoking war across the region for decades. It murdered upwards of 30,000 people just a few months ago, and all of these antiwar types were silent. Appeasment didn't work for Hitler, it's not working for Putin, and it wouldn't work for the IR. I am not saying war is a good thing, but I will never defend this inhumane government that trafficks in human suffering. And neither should you. If war is the only way for this regime to be dislodged then that's just the way it is. *Not to mention the fact that thousands of Iranains have been praying for intervention for months.* A free Iran is a worthy cause. Javid Iran 🦁. Check out Iran International if you want to stay updated on what's going on, and talk to actual Iranians. Not ignorant westerners on TikTok.