Am I a Coward for Not Voting for Joe Biden?

By Dom Nozzi

One of my Facebook friends recently told me on my Facebook wall that I’m “taking the coward’s way out” by not voting for Biden.

I’d say the opposite is clearly the case.

I know before I question Biden’s awful record in social conversations with others that I will inevitably be victimized by anger and insults directed at me by friends when I (rightly) criticize Biden. I have been verbally abused by countless friends on the left each time I critique Biden. It seems obvious to me, given the abuse I know I will get, that a “coward” would never do what I’m doing (taking Biden’s record to task). In fact, the spineless, cowardly thing to do in this instance is to join the Democratic Party choir and pathetically sing the praises of Biden, even when you know Biden is disgusting and incompetent. Doing that is certain to allow you to enjoy being seen as virtuous and enlightened by all your Dem friends who are part of your cult. Your tribe.

I’ve had some friends who agree with me on this, and admire me for the courage to say what I say about Biden. Those friends have told me they don’t have the intestinal fortitude to do what I’m doing.

I assure these friends that it is not easy to do things that you know will lose you friends.

But because our future is so important to me, I continue to agree with John Lennon, who once said that being honest may not get you a lot of friends but it’ll always get you the right ones.

Biden is FAR worse than Trump, as my blog on that topic clearly shows. It shocks me that people have such blind hatred for Trump that they are willing to vote for a demented, sexually abusing, warmongering, lying, corrupt Republican (Biden). I never thought I’d see the day when millions of otherwise intelligent Dem voters will do that.

As Henry Ford would say, you can vote for any candidate you want in November, as long as he is a Republican.

On Not Hating Donald Trump Enough

By Dom Nozzi

An example of how toxic our society has become is that about four years ago, one of my best friends since high school (we remained reasonably close since 1975 until four years ago) abruptly and apparently permanently ended our friendship. He unfriended me and I have not heard from him since.

Why?

As far as I can tell, it was because I did not vigorously and at the top of my lungs hate Trump 24/7. I “only” disregarded him and did not take him seriously.

And this is not the first time, either.

Similar things have happened with other friends of mine (and family members) over Trump, by the way.

Given this, I believe one of the most terrible outcomes of the Trump era is what it has done to friendships, conversations, and how much we loathe others who are not part of the “tribe.” Those that know me know that ordinarily, I’m never shy about expressing my opinions. But in the past 3-4 years, I am regularly biting my tongue for the first time in my life.

I believe that this toxicity is largely fueled by the US mainstream media — a media that has learned that there is a lot of money to be made in inducing FEAR, OUTRAGE, and ANGER. The over-riding mission of the US media: to write news that obligates a great many of us to say to others, “OMG, did you hear xxxxxxx in the news???? WHAT AN OUTRAGE!! or I’M SCARED TO DEATH! Or I HATE THAT PERSON! We must tell everyone we know, and tune in more, or read more to learn more details!!!” The emotions of outrage, fear, and anger do that better than anything else.

One of the ways I address this in my own life is to avoid, as much as possible, watching TV news (where the news is particularly likely to provoke strong emotions). I have not watched TV news for about 40 years, and these days tend not to read any of the print media articles about national politics.

I do, on the other hand, read an enormous number of books about national politics, and commentary from what I consider to be the few remaining trustworthy news sources.