Political rant (and you have been warned)

People can be really stupid. I generally hate when I read that sentence online because it's so vague and rarely results in explanation but since I plan on explaining I am exempt from this specific group of stupid people who write vague opinions about other stupid people without saying why. My that was a long sentence.

So, politics. I don't talk politics very often to avoid conflict. After all, there really is nothing better than a political debate to end a friendship. But today I am angry and today I want to talk politics. So I will.

I started getting angry last night when one of my friends shared a post praising the judges in Alabama for ignoring the Supreme Court's ruling in favor of same-sex marriage. According to this post, judges throughout the state are planning to reject those seeking same-sex marriage in spite of the law. I sat there in the dark, my face illuminated by Gideon's computer and quickly became enraged.

See, this is why I've always been kind of uncomfortable with religion. Religion, I've found, is more often a medium through which judgmental people come together to hurt others, in turn boosting their own agendas. Of course there are exemptions to this; I have known many kind Christians who disagree with this line of thinking. Still, I see so many of my acquaintances on Facebook posting about how the law should subscribe to their religion.

Same-sex marriage is a popular subject for them, and I don't understand why. Christianity preaches love, right? This isn't a sinners-in-the-angry-hands-of-God situation anymore, is it? Part of love is respect - a very major part of it, in my opinion - and if you can't respect someone else's faith/sexual orientation/political views, then you are not being the Christian you claim to be.

This really sucks and it's incredibly hurtful to those viewed as aberrant by certain religious groups, but you could say it's all an opinion at the end of the day. You can always rise above an opinion. You can't, however, rise above a person using his or her personal views to dictate how you live your life. That's when you fight. That's when you get angry.

Same-sex marriage should be a non-issue. The fact that our legislators have to draft bills and vote to allow same-sex couples rights clearly stated in the Constitution wastes time and money and merely serves to distract citizens from the other shitty things going on in D.C. On a personal note, it truly upsets me that some people I know and have laughed with have no tolerance for diversity - so little tolerance, in fact, that they believe it's okay to oppress an entire group of people for the sake of being in the right. (Haha, pun.)

Now for a new topic, because I dislike all extremists equally!

I also have friends who are so supportive of the LGBT community that they completely disregard anyone who isn't part of it. This group of people is just as reactionary - if not more - than those hypocritical Christians I complained about above.

For example, when those working at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were killed last month, one of my friends posted that by defending the magazine's free speech, we were defending hate speech. (Hebdo published controversial Muhammad cartoons.)

I tried to explain that satire is meant to inspire thinking and isn't meant to be taken at face value. Since I responded fairly and respectfully, I expected the same in return. I was wrong. I don't even think any of those people read what I wrote before replying with sassy one-liners. I was so angry that I went home and angry-cried while eating low-calorie ice cream, and that is the saddest sentence anyone has ever written.

This is getting long, so to wrap it up: Don't be an asshole. Just because you believe in one thing, you don't have to force it on other people. And for the love of Lost, listen to understand, not to respond.