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radicalcommonsense · 4 years

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Radical Common Sense: Introduction.

Though we all may be very different, we likely have one thing in common: In one way or another 2020 has changed each and every one of us. As if these last four years hadn't already filled our brains to the brim with political jibber-jabber from the mainstream media. I think we can all agree that the news has been persistently focused on politics (more specifically allegations against President Donald Trump) and that it has been a constant noise buzzing all around us, effecting each and every one of our lives. When we turn on the radio, when we scroll through our social media feeds, when we're on the bus, or eating peacefully at a restaurant and the person behind us is talking a little too loudly. As if all of this weren't enough to endure, the pool of politics became much, much deeper for us to swim in when we were locked up in our homes for months on end. I lost my job on March 15, 2020 when we were forced to close. I was fortunate enough to be able to continue to live comfortably with my boyfriend, but the time on my hands felt endless for the next 6 months. Like many I first went mad and began organizing every closet, cabinet, and sock drawer. I held so much pint up and nervous energy in my body that I felt like I was in a constant state of sticking a fork into an electrical socket and could burst into a series of sparks, burning to a crisp at any moment. I began dowsing myself in CBD products to try and keep my cool. I started painting, reading a ton and took an online Interior Design course???

Once I had finally grown somewhat accustom to my new and strange life of gardening, day drinking, reading on the balcony and pretending that I was a retired old woman, that's when the riots started happening. The shutdown alone had caused even more friction to rise between both ends of the political spectrum. Conservatives voiced their objection to government overreach while Leftists called people jogging outside without a mask "grandma killers". There was certainly ignorance shown on both ends of the spectrum, but the point I'm making here is that the tension was growing with each and every day that we all were forced to stay home, leaving our means of having any income in the hands of Daddy Government. I did my best to limit my social media intake, but even 5 minutes scrolling would reveal a whirlwind of very strong and accusatory opinions of the shutdown, Black Lives Matter, racism, systemic racism, systematic racism, another cancelled syrup bottle or comedian who wasn't politically correct in a stand up act back in 1994, white privilege, voter fraud, total Covid-19 hysteria and a whole lot of shaming those who didn't follow suit with the mainstream narrative. There were people fueling these fires and if you dared to question their motives you were on the chopping block, also embarrassingly known as Cancel Culture.

We all know what it is, but I am afraid to think of how many of us have actually experienced it. I certainly did when I shared a video of a BLM event happening in Chicago. This video was particularly alarming because the crowd of "peaceful" protestors were so extremely organized in their attack. I felt overwhelmed with fear watching as they took their giant "Black Lives Matter" sign made of pvc pipe, that stretched across what looked like 6 lanes of highway, hid behind it, changed into all black clothing and then proceeded to use it as a shield as they grew closer to their target. Once they were close enough, the pvc pipe was pulled apart to reveal that it had been constructed from pieces of pipe that they had sharpened to a nice and lethal point. They then began to throw these sharpened pieces of pvc pipe, along with frozen water bottles, frozen cans, rocks and explosive devises at police officers who appeared to be standing back, allowing the protest to happen without interference prior to this attack. So much so that most of them were even unarmed, not expecting violence to prevail on either side. (Feel free to watch the video to see for yourself.)

This certainly wasn't the first video I'd seen where "peaceful" protestors were being destructive or even gruesomely violent, but it was the first that made this movement look like a well organized militia, inspired by an organization which I believe has a Marxists, or communist agenda. When I shared my fears about this, calling the movement "violent" I received quite a lot of hate from the friends I'd somehow collected on Facebook over the last 10 years. They urged people not to support my creative endeavors. People took screenshots of the post and shared it on their other social accounts (completely out of context as the video was of course removed) in attempts to reach an even bigger audience. I received direct messages from total strangers who called me racists, among other things. I had already been “cancelled” by some close friends prior to this for going to the beach on the day it re-opened in Daytona and posting about it with a caption that suggested it was safe to be outside. This idea seemed to really devastate some people and they made sure to let me know it as they called me the following names: Laughably f*cking stupid, Karen, Privileged, Nazi, uninformed, insensitive, stupid b*tchh, flat-earther, ignorant f*cking b*tch, racist, a “Trumper” and the ever popular white privileged b*tch. These are just some of the insults that I can remember off the top of my head.

My message here is not meant to invoke pity, or rage, or anything in between, but it is necessary for me to give you some back story as to what led me to my obsession to understand something very few people care about today, the Truth. I knew that the ideas I was hearing, coming from the mouths of the majority were wrong, but I wanted to understand why and I wanted to be prepared to defend myself, since it had been made abundantly clear to me that, that was going to be necessary. So, I delved even DEEPER into politics, government, American history and the criminal justice system. I am happy to say that this thirst for knowledge led me back into school, where I'm finally finishing up my associates degree (and getting straight A's). But I digress. Time went on and I calmed my little hummingbird heart over the dramatic smearing of my name (which had previously been widely accepted due to my Leftist blabbering of things I didn't really understand) and I continued to quietly read and research. I dared to peer my head back into the land of Social Mania and posted yet again on Facebook. This time I felt I had something to say that was rather mild on the offensive scale... that proved to be incorrect. A friend of mine had shared a video with me of a fallen soldier whom he'd fought beside in Iraq. They had grown close and the video showed as they draped his casket with the American flag. The message he sent attached to the video said "this is why I'll always stand for the flag." I found his message really touching and shared the video along with what he had said (of course not mentioning his name out of respect). Later that day I received a message from a previous co-worker that was quite belligerent and sloppy, but somewhere in his (I'm assuming drunken) rage he asked the question: "Have you been radicalized or something?"

We are living in a world where the narrative has completely shifted. It is no longer radical to preach about the wonders of what Communism "could" be. It is no longer radical to loot, riot, burn down churches, kill police officers and even innocent child bystanders so long as it is under the guise of social justice. It is not radical to want to uproot your countries entire political system in order to replace it with a "better", socialist/communist one that has proven to not only fail but ruin/end the lives of millions. It is now radical to suggest that we should honor our flag, those who fought for our freedom and to simply lift ourselves up to stand for the American flag.

It is now racist to celebrate the 4th of July, insensitive to celebrate Thanksgiving, homophobic to practice Christianity and don't even think about subjectively acknowledging the accomplishments of Christopher Columbus. In fact, don't dare to celebrate the intellect of any of our founding fathers. It is now radical to be proud to be an American. It is radical to support a free-market economy. It is radical to defend straight white men against any and all accusations as they are the "obvious" oppressors of all. People will gasp if you question the effects of Drag Queen Story Hour and you're likely just "uneducated" if you don't understand why the nuclear family is outdated.

In summary, do not practice critical thinking and especially not Common Sense. Just repeat after the mainstream media and you might be spared from exposing your truly "radical" ideas about traditional American values and your love of oppressive straight white men.

I will continue to write about these topics as well as covering current events from the perspective of someone who is dedicated to understanding the Truth, how we can connect what we’re seeing today to human History & to earn a better understanding of human behavior. I do not intend to use this as a platform to rant vigorously about my own personal feelings. Rather to defend what I believe to be Common Sense values.

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sanderssidesfanfiction · 5 years

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We’ll Carry On - Chapter Thirty Two

We’ll Carry On Tag

General Content Warnings: Sympathetic Deceit Sanders, Substance Abuse, Abandonment, Minor Character Death, Transphobia, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Dissociation, Bullying, Homophobia

July 30th, 2010

Roman looked at the scene in front of him with awe. The sun was beating down, but there were people with colorful umbrellas and blankets everywhere. Sand as far as the eye could see to his left and right, and directly in front of him, was a giant ocean. “This is cool!” he exclaimed.

“This is the beach,” his mom said. “Let’s figure out a place to go sit down and then you can play in the waves or collect shells, or build sandcastles to your heart’s content.”

Roman’s jaw dropped open. “And we get to be here all day?!” he asked with pure excitement in his voice.

“If that’s what you want, my little knight,” his mom said, smiling.

Roman nodded. He couldn’t believe it. The beach looked so magical!

August 4th, 2019

Roman was having the time of his life. Their whole family had gone to the beach for a vacation, and he was currently swimming at the edges of the ocean with Logan, who was floating on a cheap boogie board. “You really like riding the waves, huh?” he teased Logan.

Logan rolled his eyes. “It’s nice to float rather than tread water, and if I get to ride a wave to the shore, it’s just that much more fun.”

Roman turned to look at the shore. Virgil and Patton were building sandcastles, and Dee was drawing letters in the sand. They had taken the weekend off, and while it had only been two days, this had been some of the most fun Roman had the whole summer. Vanellope was being pet-sat by one of Logan’s friends in the neighborhood, so they really had nothing to worry about for these two days except what they wanted to do next.

A huge wave took Roman by surprise, and he and Logan were both tossed toward the shore. Roman rolled unceremoniously right up to Patton and Virgil, laughing his head off. Logan gently stood up with a smirk. “Not gonna diss my boogie board now, are you?” Logan asked. “It kept me from eating saltwater.”

Roman spat out what saltwater had made it to his mouth and he stood up, jabbing a finger in Logan’s chest, just above his sports bra. Roman was quickly proving that he grew faster than Logan, and would probably be the taller of the both of them. Already, Roman was only an inch shorter than his older brother. “I will always diss your boogie board. It’s a boogie board.”

“That doesn’t even explain what you have against it!” Logan exclaimed.

“It’s made for kids, Logan,” Roman said.

“So are cartoons, are you going to make fun of Dad for watching them?” Logan challenged.

Roman huffed. “No. But you still look like a dork.”

“He always looks like a dork!” Dee exclaimed, just a little too loud to be a normal voice.

Everyone turned to Dee in shock. He frowned. “What?” he asked, still using his voice over his hands.

“You’re speaking,” Logan said.

“Without being sarcastic!” Roman added.

Dee frowned and shrugged. “I can do it. It’s just harder than signing, so I usually don’t. But you guys weren’t paying attention to me waving, so I decided to talk.”

“Your voice sounds kinda flat,” Virgil said.

“I know,” Dee said, rolling his eyes. “One of the reasons I don’t like talking. Because I can’t use tone right. I can barely hear it unless you’re being sarcastic. That’s the only tone I can use and recognize.”

“But...but you can talk and it’s in full sentences! That’s...that’s like, really cool!” Patton exclaimed.

Dee frowned. “You guys did it when you were my age.”

“We didn’t sign almost exclusively until we were six and a half,” Roman pointed out.

“I’m still gonna sign most of the time,” Dee said. “‘Specially at school, ‘cause if I talk there the principal will take away my translator. But yeah. I can talk.”

Logan nodded and gave Dee a thumbs-up. “I resent you calling me a dork,” he said.

“I resent you implying that you’re anything but a dork,” Dee said, voice deadpan and without missing a beat.

Logan’s jaw dropped and Roman howled with laughter. Dee had a huge grin on his face, and fist-bumped Virgil when Virgil offered his fist out. Patton was giggling and Logan just stood there, shell-shocked. When he finally returned to himself, he said, “Well played, Dee. Well played.”

Dee signed, “Thank you,” and promptly went back to writing letters in the sand, and Roman recognized some very basic words, like “the” and “and” and a few nouns like “dog” and “cat” and one even went so far as to say “cookie.” Roman rolled his eyes at that. No doubt Patton had taught Dee that one.

Roman walked back to the edge of the water, wading in until he was about chest deep, and just let the water wash around him. Logan came up next to him and sighed. “Do you ever feel lonely?” he asked.

“What do you mean?” Roman glanced at Logan.

“I mean, Patton, Virgil, and Dee are about the same ages. Patton and Virgil are twins, and Dee is only two years younger. They could have been born into the same family. But between you and Patton and Virgil, there’s a five-year gap. And there’s an eight-year gap between me and the twins. I’m a whole decade older than Dee. Sometimes it just feels lonely, being the only one who’s close to where I am mentally, you know, developmentally. You’re the one who’s closest, and you’re just hitting puberty.” Logan shook his head and sighed again. “I don’t have anyone in this family who’s my age, who understands what I’ve been through. I’m the trail-blazer of our generation of the family. And it just feels...”

“Lonely,” Roman filled in, nodding. “I understand a little. You’ve already been thirteen, so you can help a little with some of what I’m dealing with, and we’re going through the male parts of puberty almost at the same time. But there is something about that three-year difference that feels like an invisible wall is put up. And with the twins and Dee, it’s almost like a physical wall. I definitely can tell it’s always there, though.”

“Yeah,” Logan sighed. “It’s less with you, but I still feel a certain degree of separation.”

“Yeah,” Roman agreed. “I don’t like it.”

Logan looked over and nudged him. “Eh. It’s not the end of the world, and we both feel the loneliness, so at least we can be alone together.”

Roman blinked. “That’s a song reference, isn’t it?”

“Fall Out Boy,” Logan confirmed with a nod. “Twenty thirteen. Save Rock and Roll. Good album.”

“You’re such a dork,” Roman laughed, shaking his head and turning to face the waves. As one crested and Roman jumped while Logan floated with his infuriating boogie board, he sobered a little. “But in all seriousness, I’m glad to have you as my brother.”

“Same here, Roman,” Logan said. “Same here.”

When they were done with the beach itself, they wandered the boardwalk. There were plenty of arcades to look through, and quite a few restaurants to try. Roman went for the infamous fries of the area, while Logan elected to try a piece of huge pizza. Patton got chocolate ice cream, Virgil got orange sherbert, and Dee tried his very first corn dog, and proceeded to eat the entire thing in the span of ten minutes.

There was a small amusement park area full of rides, and the younger boys were immediately looking around at it in wonder the second Dad and Ami said they could spend some time inside. Roman and Logan hung together, less interested in the carousel and the bumper cars than the others. “A haunted house,” Roman pointed out.

“Not open until five,” Logan replied, pointing at the sign hanging above the entrance to the line.

“Those swing things,” Roman offered, pointing at the giant swing that acted like a carousel.

Logan shrugged. “Those can be entertaining, but we both just ate.”

“I guess that means the Tilt-a-Whirl is out of the question,” Roman said with a grin.

“Completely,” Logan said.

“The Viking boat?” Roman asked, pointing at the swing in question.

Logan paled. “Those have a fifty-fifty chance of sending you completely upside-down, and I’d rather not find out that I’d be doing loop-de-loops by sitting in the ride.”

The swing picked up speed and Roman and Logan watched as the swing reached its peak height, before flipping completely upside-down. “Okay, maybe not,” Roman said, voice strained.

“Definitely not,” Logan agreed.

Roman looked around. “There’s not a lot of rides designed for older kids and adults,” he observed.

“Amusement parks rarely pander to adults, which is a shame, if you ask me,” Logan said, pulling at the drawstrings on his board shorts. “The bigger ones have rides that adults can enjoy, but smaller ones, especially at beaches like this, pander more towards children.”

Roman made an unamused sound in the back of his throat. Patton and Virgil started yelling and headed towards a small ferris wheel. Roman and Logan trailed behind Dad and Ami. “I just want to ride something that’s made more for adults,” he sighed.

Logan looked around and pointed to something a little to the left of the ferris wheel. “Would that be something you like?”

Roman looked at the ride. It looked like a Ferris wheel, except the seats weren’t enclosed, and there was a safety bar holding you in your seat, but that was it. The whole thing was tilted at an angle, also unlike the Ferris wheel. And it moved fast, both forwards and backwards, Roman realized, as it slowed down before spinning in reverse. “Could be fun,” he allowed.

Logan offered him a smile and dragged him over to the ride, calling to Dad and Ami that they were going to check it out.

The line was almost nonexistent, and they got to sit down almost immediately after the ride let the other people off. One by one, people got in the cars, and one by one, the ride moved them further and further up, until they were heading down the other side of the ride. Once every car was taken, as more people started forming a line once they saw the ride open, they started it up with a jerk and Roman laughed nervously.

Quickly, they picked up speed and went in circles, going forwards and then backwards as they got halfway around the wheel. Roman laughed as the wind swept at his face and the people waiting got bigger and smaller at near ridiculous speeds. Logan was laughing next to him, right until they stopped at the top of the wheel, and then started swinging in the reverse direction at the same fast speed.

The ride took maybe two minutes, but it left Roman and Logan breathless as they laughed and jumped out of the car when they were at the bottom and the technician undid the safety bar.

As they walked out of the ride and to the Ferris wheel, Dad waved. “Have fun?” he asked.

“Yeah!” Roman exclaimed.

“We could hear you guys laughing from here,” Ami chuckled. “It must have been a good ride.”

“It was fun,” Logan said. “The wind rushing through our hair and the quick change in scenery was amusing.”

Roman rolled his eyes. “You talk like a college student’s essay sometimes, you know that?” he asked.

Logan shrugged noncommittally. “Whatever,” he said.

They turned to look at the Ferris wheel just in time to see Virgil, Patton, and Dee wave at them. Roman waved back and Logan just laughed. They watched the Ferris wheel go around twice more before Patton, Virgil, and Dee were let out of the car and they bounded over. “We saw you guys on the really fast one over there!” Patton exclaimed, pointing. “Was it fun?”

“Yeah,” Logan said. “But probably not a good idea for you guys yet.”

“Yeah, no, we were just wondering if you liked it,” Virgil said. “We didn’t want to get on it ourselves.”

Dee signed, “Speak for yourself.”

“You were scared when they got on and you know it!” Patton exclaimed. “You’re the one who asked if they’d be okay!”

“Boys, play nice,” Ami reminded them. “Do you want to play in the arcade for a while?”

“Sure,” they all said.

Roman and Logan immediately gravitated towards the skee-ball games while Patton and Virgil played more with the lower-stakes games that still gave out toys and tickets. Dee played the crane games and quickly figured out he was surprisingly adept at it. He won all of the others small stuffed toys, and got one for himself as well.

Logan and Roman pooled their tickets together to get some of the larger prizes, a lava lamp for Roman and a teddy bear for Logan, which caused him to blush when questioned and mumble that he had won a bear exactly like this one at another arcade when he was younger, but his ex-father had made him get rid of it when he turned twelve.

Patton and Virgil got smaller toys, little wind-up animals and finger traps and a few other things that amused them to no end. When they got back to their hotel room, and packed everything up for the ride back home, Roman was already yawning. The second they were in the sun-warmed van on their way home, he was fast asleep, a small smile still on his face at the memory of the whole day.

#we'll carry on #sanders sides fanfiction #roman sanders #logan sanders #deceit sanders #our creations #danger gays

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