The political climate right now is not so sweet…so here’s what to expect from me + Lemon & Lively while the felon of the US (FOTUS) is the “president”.
Openness
I will be far less lively (ish) about my marginalized associations/more reticent about who I know from where (if anyone) because I live in a state and country where human rights are being challenged, debated and revoked.
Being too political
I’m not sorry if I get too political…because politics are life.
Human rights are not debatable.
They’re not things people can “agree to disagree” on.
Not being political enough
Every single day, there is something new that is awful happening in the US.
Fear is the point.
My emails are not out of ignorance, but rather in hopes of sweetening your life in some kind of way.
I don’t know what else I can do other than deliver hope, kindness and light.
I live in TX. My reps do not GAF, so I’m expending my energy wisely.
Blog/business focus
My blog/business focus is centered around helping you grow your blog/platform in ways that challenge social constructs.
This is how it’s always been for me.
I approach blogging and business values-first.
Meta
I’m remaining on Meta social media because I will continue to exist even in spaces where people are uncomfortable with my existence, as there are many more people who welcome it.
I’ve built communities on these platforms that I will not leave behind with one less lemon and lively feeling where all the bad ish can fester.
I will not be actively promoting those spaces, though.
What radicalized me?
Having an abusive, fascist stepfather, and being autistic and struggling to comprehend how someone could be so cruel.
I was born to a teen mom who didn’t want kids because she never had a choice, then I was kept because she didn’t want my dad’s preacher family to raise me.
I never “fit in” properly, struggled to feel like I belonged, and then that intensified when I was diagnosed with PTSD at 21.
I know what it’s like to exist with parents who don’t want to be parents, to be perceived as a burden and to be hated by “family” under the guise of love.
And to yearn for a mother, and how much it fucking sucks not having one.
Empathy radicalized me
I read The Diary of a Young Girl in middle school and watched A Girl like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story when I was 15, and that set me on the path of looking at what drives people to be so cruel to each other on a larger scale.
Throughout my life, I’ve realized that many people look at stories — even the ones based on real events — as “fiction” and dehumanize or depersonalize victim characters because “it’s only fiction”.
So they instead look at cruelty happening to characters as entertainment, even if it’s sad, devastating or despicable.
Or, despite empathizing with the character in the story, they stop once the movie is over.
I’m not one of those people. For 25+ years, my family insisted something was wrong with me because I am not one of those people.
I hate what is happening right now. I hate how horribly it’s affecting the rest of the world.