No I will not take the high road

Timid conservatives are out in force, predictably, admonishing the vulgarly truthful among us to pipe down.

All my life, when I’ve been an insane liberal, and now hopefully a less insane conservative, I’ve been told to pipe down. “You’re only making it worse.” “They’ll call you a misogynist.” “You’re just giving them ammunition.” “You’re no better than them.”

It doesn’t matter if the things I say that make me “no better than them” are actually true statements. It doesn’t matter if every form of diplomacy, every technique other than telling the ugly truth, has been tried, they still do this.

It’s about Kamala Harris today, but it will be about something or someone else tomorrow. “Don’t talk about her personal life,” they say, upset that people have correctly noted that she literally slept her way into politics with powerful men until she grabbed enough power to abuse citizens.

“Just talk about her policies, that’s the way to success,” they say, completely forgetting the batshit insane left that they knew about just a moment before they went into “pipe down” mode. As if they actually believe voters are more influenced by “policy claims.”

As if anyone on the left is capable of actually thinking in 2024, instead of being religiously enraptured.

Here’s the deal. The “pipe down” set has a certain character. They are usually the type of people who will pipe down themselves and say nothing when a “friend” is being abused or socially ostracized. I’ve been at the disappointing end of that for most of my life.

Why in the world would someone like me care even a little bit about what such people want me to do? Why would anyone believe I’d be motivated to feel even neutral about people who take, don’t give, and use outspoken others as scapegoats? Do they think I’m so stupid I don’t even value my own interests?

I’ll be listening to none of this. I won’t be piping down on whatever topic it is they want me to pipe down on.

I’m not going to take the high road. I’m not going to be the bigger person. I’m not going to do any of that.

The pipe-down crowd gives zero shits about the welfare of outspoken people. They don’t appreciate anything we do, even though we’re as necessary a part of this balanced breakfast as the diplomats are. They are selfish takers who camouflage themselves in virtue.