Depending upon the sources used, I can be classified as either a very young Baby Boomer or a rather elderly member of Generation X, and this probably accounts that I arrived rather late to the online party known as TikTok. However, in the wake of the positively horrifying outcome of the 2024 U.S. Presidential election, and the failure of mainstream commercial media to “call out the crazy” that seems to become increasingly crazier every day, I found myself watching YouTube channels such as Occupy Democrats and The Meidas Touch for something closer to the real story and to TikTok and Instagram reels for much needed comic relief. It was on TikTok that I came across a creator who uses the handle, @pissedoffbartender.
Although his language is more than a bit salty, (“Yee-Haw F***the Law” is one of his signature tag lines), his “take no prisoners” responses to the ridiculousness which has invaded the three branches of the United States government is a welcome change. His creative nicknames for DJT, such as “the Bone Spurs Bandit,” “Pumpkin Spice Palpatine” and my new personal favorite, “Herr Pumpkin Fuhrer” elicit a chuckle when I otherwise feel as if I am fighting a losing battle against rivers of tears.
I was raised in a fairly traditional, African American Baptist household but, in all honesty, the Bible is just too full of contradictions for me to interpret it literally. Jesus’ message of love, humility, service, compassion, peace, nonviolence, and The Golden Rule are still how I roll, without a doubt. However, I’m just not down with the Evangelical movement, which currently views one of the most un-Christlike characters of all time as “the chosen one” and sees stripping women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ+ community of both their civil rights and their very humanity as all in a day’s work. Project 2025 and its vision remaking the United States into a white Christian Nationalist nation are beyond frightening and led me to flee the country of my birth for Mexico a few months ago.
Religious freedom is important, and I wholeheartedly respect the rights of people to worship (or not) in whatever way they choose. What I can’t abide is the current trend in which Christian conservatives seem “hell bent” (pun intended) on forcing their beliefs on humanity at large. Here is where @pissedoffbartender, for all of his salty language and bearded eccentricity gets it right, “Your faith should be used as a shield for you to hide behind when your beliefs are being tested, not a sword to attack others for theirs.”
quietlyradical 