Same goes for interpersonal relationships — such as, say, those with your little sister.
It’s really not enough, and it’s not responsible, to say to yourself, “Well, I didn’t MEAN to…”
Because you DID.
Intent doesn’t actually matter one bit.
IMPACT — the effect your actions actually had on another person — is what matters. And you don’t get to disavow that. You don’t get to say “it didn’t happen”, “that’s not what I meant”, “that’s not what this was about”. That’s just bullshit equivocating, dancing around your responsibility.
I’ve seen numerous stories from numerous people about how difficult this Thanksgiving is going to be, after finding out that their uncle, brother, cousin — and you’d be surprised, or maybe not, at how many of them are white men with absolutely nothing to lose in this Brave New World — after finding out that someone who they thought cared about them STILL voted for this bigoted, racist, sexist, horrible asshole.
Whether they MEANT to or not, whatever their other reasons may have been, no matter how good those reasons could be — they went ahead and deliberately put the rest of us, those with maybe just a little less privilege, in a much worse place for the next 4 years.
They decided that part didn’t matter so much as their own reasons.
As I told my husband tonight, I’m really a trendsetter. I broke up with my family (at least partly) over their conservative politics and outdated misogynistic and racist ideas YEARS ago.
But if my own reading, research and intelligence hadn’t done it, I’m certain this election would have.
I was just ahead of my time.