Not my eloquent best, I grant you. To clarify: I meant to say, that in many states now, if a young girl is raped, even by a family member, she would be forced to have that child against her will, or risk going to prison longer than her perpetrator. And yeah, I think that’s about the darkest way to destroy a young woman’s life & autonomy & I say that coming from a place of first hand experience. There is too much unnecessary & violent shrapnel happening to our most marginalized groups & total fear of reprisal in speaking up. Heck, I’m scared too. But more than fear of personal ridicule, I fear the unmitigated glee of mob mentality, the kind that leads too easily to dehumanization & the disintegration of our collective moral compass. As an empath, I struggle to find the words to articulate my heartbreak for the rising toll of individual human beings presently tangled in this risky, political power play. Perhaps naively, I always envisioned progress as an empowering endeavor, working towards healing and understanding, with the goal of becoming a unified nation. Our great strength & defining characteristic ought to be in priding ourselves on protecting our most vulnerable, rather than high-fiving as we dismantle basic ethics & equality. See you next time on “showbiz libtards with hot, woke takes!” But speaking as an abused kid, who’s lived a lot of life, both on the skids & at the top, I guess I just don’t know how to stay silent despite the awareness that these days, it’s increasingly risky to be honest & can lead to muddled answers when caught off guard. Probably not a great sign that free speech is really free if even a rambling, loquacious riffer like yours truly, clams up in the face of a real deal question at some frothy, workplace event. That’s all, folks! 🤍🤍🤍