<div class="header-image"></div> <table class="table-header"> <thead> <tr> <th colspan="2"></th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>2024-07-14</td> <td style="text-align: right;"><a href="About.md" class="internal-link">About</a></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> # Mulling Over a Failed Assassination  I had a great day today. The Run With Pride race was today and I did what I set out to do. It was a 10k race and I wanted to complete it in under 45 minutes. I've done this before, but not since my [injury](2024-04-21%20Running%20Injuries%20Suck%20Balls.md). I managed to finish in 44:58. How's that for cutting it close? Overall I finished in 3rd, but I got 1st ( ! ) in my division, the old farts division, ages 50 to 59. I spent the evening on a patio eating a chicken wrap and drinking Heineken with my wife, and ended up having a couple of cigars with a little rum on my front porch. All in all it was a perfect day. Then, as I was getting ready for bed, I was just flipping through the news and found out an [assassination attempt was made on Donald Trump](https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/donald-trump-says-he-felt-bullet-ripping-through-his-skin-after-attacker-opened-fire-1.6963192). Democrats everywhere came out to say how thankful they were that the Donald was okay, including Obama and Nancy Pelosi. All I could think was "you're all a bunch of fucking liars." And I suppose this was a bit of projection because I was also thinking that the perfect scenario here would have been for the secret service to have killed the shooter, but not before he shot Donald square in the forehead. I know I shouldn't think this way, but honestly, I don't know how else I'm supposed to feel. If he had have been killed, I know I would have been shocked, and worried about the reaction from Fox News and his loyal followers. But I'd be lying if I said that I wouldn't have felt some magnitude of relief too. The polarisation of the world only happened after he got elected. Without him, I don't think the [incident at Charlottesville](https://abcnews.go.com/US/happen-charlottesville-protest-anniversary-weekend/story?id=57107500) happens, for example. This was the remaining few true racists of the country bolstered by, what they saw as, a tiny window of opportunity through which they needed to take advantage. I remember seeing all that go down on Twitter, a bunch of idiots yelling "Jews will not replace us!" and wondering what the fuck is happening here? It was so strange seeing people marching, chanting antisemitic slogans, that most people didn't know what to make of it at the time. People just didn't think that way any more. It was only through this incident that the term "alt-right" was popularised and suddenly half of the US was accused of being exactly that. We later learned that this was an organised event coordinated online by neo-Nazi groups all over the country. This put the vast majority of the country's true bigots all in one spot, and it amounted to 500 people. 500 people in a population of 330 *million*. A *tiny* fraction of one percent. But this obvious fact didn't stop everyone else from suddenly seeing racists everywhere, and inventing terms like "racist dogwhistle," and "systemic racism," among others. Without Trump winning the election, the first woman's march doesn't happen, and probably #metoo doesn't happen either. Without Donald Trump's ["I grab 'em by the pussy" statement](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/08/us/politics/donald-trump-women.html), there'd really be no reason for it, certainly not for it to be on the day of his inauguration. No pink pussy-hats either, which now are [probably transphobic anyway (and racist too, apparently)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pussyhat#Racism_and_transphobia_charges). After all, who is to say that it was a woman's pussy that Trump was grabbing? To assume it would have to be a woman's pussy is transphobic now, no? So in all actuality the whole woman's march is based on transphobia. But I digress. After Trump's election, week after week, month after month, society became more and more divided. I think this was obviously bolstered by social media algorithms favouring feeds that anger people, but Trump was the impetus. He was the spark that triggered it all. And it spread like Canadian wildfire. It wasn't really even Trump himself, or his policies, that really turned the world upside down, but the *reaction* to Trump was unlike anything I had ever seen. I'm just not sure if the world can handle another Trump presidency, and it really looks like that's what's coming. Biden can't defeat Trump right now. And he doesn't seem willing to drop out of the race. While society does seem to be recovering somewhat, in that people seem to be growing immune to the casual namecalling and bullying that was so prevalent and caused average people to be cancelled in a myriad of ways, I can't help but think that it will just regress back to what it was. When celebrities would [publicly vilify a 16 year old boy](https://x.com/kathygriffin/status/1086927762634399744) just for looking at someone the wrong way. One can't help but wonder what's coming.