Politicians are like cigarettes
For this article, I’d like people to lose their biases. In some of my classes, I’ve learned that we use metaphors a lot to demonstrate conflicts. I’ve also heard an idea from the Joe Rogan Podcast, that politicians are like cigarettes and nicotine. It’s a delivery method for nicotine in your body. A nicotine patch is another method and so is vaping. Politicians are a delivery method of ideas. People need nicotine, and prefer it over not having it so smoking is better. They’re addicted to nicotine. Another example is caffeine. If I came to class with a cup of coffee at 8 a.m., no one would say anything. If I brought in an energy drink, it’d be unhealthy. My goal is to expand on this metaphor and put it into perspective.
The most obvious example is Donald Trump. There are 62,984,828 people that elected Trump. They supported a variety of his ideas, especially with single-issue voters, economics was a big factor. A coal miner is more concerned about keeping his job than a liberal idea like gay marriage. It’s understandable that people supported Trump in 2016. Put yourself in their shoes. Now if we asked those people today if they supported President Trump’s comments about injecting bleach, his comments about immigrants, or women, it might be a different story; wanting some conservative economic policies in their small town does not mean they endorse every one of his behaviors. Defending Trump’s repeal of NAFTA is OK. Supporting Trump’s suggestion to inject bleach is absurd.
SUPPORT IDEAS, NOT PEOPLE. IF YOU SUPPORT SOMEONE NO MATTER WHAT, IT’S A CULT, NOT A POLITICAL MOVEMENT.
There are other examples of this. Switch sides. Joe Biden. He isn’t mentally capable of being POTUS for eight years. Getting Trump out should be easy. Also as far as a political ideology only, he’s not very liberal, at least his history. Bernie has been consistent for 50 years.
Again, a lot of college students are going to vote for Joe Biden. Not because they like him as a person, but his views line up with theirs. The lesser of two evils is still evil. If we asked them if they supported the Iraq War, which most may not even remember, they would say no. But he’s a better alternative in their minds.
Attacking people for disagreeing politically is wrong. However, we should not defend dangerous behaviors from both sides in exchange for some rush of freedom to us, which may even be oppression to others, just like cigarettes are an immediate rush to our neurotransmitters in our brains, but also has thousands of chemicals. If you asked someone to drink window cleaner they wouldn’t, but millions of people smoke. They need nicotine. Trump repealing NAFTA is nicotine to most middle-class Americans. The 16,000 lies and racist comments are the poisonous chemicals that are killing people.
I have a hard time deciding my own thoughts on this election. But understand your vote has consequences to others. A nicotine patch is safer because others’ rights aren’t violated by the smoke. Your delivery method of nicotine and who you choose to represent you could kill you faster.
