Harnessing all this anger for political purposes
Harnessing all this anger for political purposes
Ok, this looks so much better than Patreon
mad-at-gas-car
Today I spilled coffee on my Marianne Williamson tee-shirt, which is a shirt I finally got comfortable wearing considering she’s no longer in the race for president, thus giving it the irony-distance necessary to wear it without too much vitriol from others who are reportedly on the same team as me.
She was largely seen as the Left’s answer to Trump -- a political outsider that spoke more to the emotional and spiritual side of the conversation largely left out in favor of policy and perhaps more tangible realities. Watch this video she published entitled ‘Where do we go now?’ following the suspension of her campaign.
Thank you for the good vibes, Marianne. Her books A Politics of Love and A Return To Love brought me a great deal of comfort last year, and I think she’s still capable of being a massive piece to the broader conversation. She makes some people uncomfortable, and she may not always have it right. Still, the foundational principles are there, relevant, and necessary should we continue to be human beings on Earth.
I’m well aware much of my anger and frustration towards my personal life and challenges have seeped through into whatever crafted internet persona I might’ve had, but now perhaps for the first time, they feel in sync. It’s potentially just the one Tyler Scruggs now. I think for a lot of years, my online expression was a concerted effort to be broadly appealing. I didn’t want to piss anyone off; religious people, liberals, conservatives, ethnic or sexual minorities -- and that came at the minor but increasing expense of my ability to express myself freely. A lot of the time, we create these echo chambers of people who we agree with exclusively, and I kept popping my bubble internally while being scared as shit to say that externally.
This is political, right? Personal branding and management -- this is what politicians do. They’re influencers. Deeply educated, hopefully, but I’m having trouble drawing the distinction. Especially since we have a senile game show host as a president who has built their empire on brand management, even when it’s the shittiest most corrupt brand on Earth. However, just because you don’t particularly have the shittiest most corrupt brand on Earth does not mean that it is a brand worth believing in, donating to, or volunteering for.
Here’s a video today from a relatively small BreadTube creator that I’ve been digging.
All that to say, in 2019, I donated to the Williamson, Yang, and Sanders campaigns because I felt those were the ideas I wanted as present as possible throughout the 2020 primary. With Williamson out, the most unpredictable and radical of the three, what’s left is Andrew Yang, who doesn’t seem super eager to overthrow late-stage capitalism the way some might hope (but I haven’t heard anything from him that I’ve hated), and of course Bernie Sanders.
Throughout this process and the five years now I’ve had to consider a Sanders presidency (I even voted for him in the Florida primary in 2016), there’s absolutely nothing about his ideas or messaging that’s changed. His ideas, motivations, and beliefs haven’t seemed to have changed at all from their far Left, progressive stance.
I wrote a few tweets about Sanders after this controversy, and I promise I’ll get back to talking about myself in a moment.
And that’s kinda my take on the matter if you cared to hear it in the first place. I know way too many independents, conservatives, and even self-identified liberals who are Bernie or Bust, so can we stop letting things get in the way of the popular, likable, progressive candidate? He’s trying to make people’s lives less shitty, and I like that about him.
Anyway, here’s what’s going on to make life less shitty for me, specifically.
1. I’m happy that you are glad that my podcast Meet My Friend With Tyler Scruggs is back. I like doing it, and I have not one but TWO new episodes for you before Monday, so please make sure you’re subscribed to that. Also, I don’t say this on the podcast yet because I’m dumb, but if you’d like to leave a rating on your favorite podcasting app, that helps too.
2. School is back in session, but I don’t anticipate it going quite as roughly as last year. I’m still not sure what I’m doing in school, but it’s something I have the privilege of being able to do, so I figure I’ll keep doing it until I can’t, or there’s something way better in front of me. Open to offers.
3. I’m recording vocals for a few songs I have in the works, and if you’d like, I can share some of that recording process on the Patreon-only audio feed. (however, SubStack looks pretty damn good to me, what do you think?)
4. Working on some scattered pieces but would very much like to perhaps pitch them to more prominent outlets. If you know of any that my voice would fit into, lmk?
I’m gonna take a nap. Hope to hear from you soon.
Scruggs
Tyler Scruggs is a writer and musician living in Atlanta. When he’s not churning out internet content, he’s paying too much for coffee and buying movie tickets weeks in advance. Feel free to validate him on Twitter (@TylerScruggs), Instagram (@Scruggernaut), and YouTube.