r/Bellingham • u/AnthonySkejci • 9h ago
Rant! This community has gotten out of hand
I am writing the following with full knowledge that I may be banned, and will out myself with personal information that is pertinent to this discussion.
I am a dual citizen of Canada and the US whose family were European settlers in British Columbia. I fully acknowledge they were given stolen land for basically nothing that they turned into a farm, and my grandparents were farmers in British Columbia just across the border as they migrated southward. My great-grandfather was a steel worker who built bridges in Canada and elsewhere, and from all accounts was rarely home as he traveled and spent significant amounts of his time at worksites.
We have deep ties to Cascadia, for lack of a better term, and I grew up mainly in Washington state, where my family members worked, paid taxes, and where I was the beneficiary of public education that was essentially free due to being low income.
I feel the need now to express my deep frustration for what goes on here. Apart from being temporarily banned for participating in discussions with opinions (that everyone is entitled to) contrary to the mass of people on here, I rarely check in anymore because most of my efforts to contribute meaningfully have been ignored or misunderstood.
This most recent controversy over a local business is appalling, and not because many of you do not have legitimate concerns about where your money goes, but that you have no thought of how your actions might affect others and are unable to realize might be counterproductive to the change you wish to see, which admittedly is unclear your level of contribution to by virtue of simply being nothing more than a username.
What you haven't thought through is the amount of stress you are putting members of the community through in an effort to drive home your point of view, while seemingly doing nothing to fill the void you're leaving behind. Everyone here complains about the lack of business activity, but have a keen interest in tearing down and starving out the commercial activities of probably well-intentioned people that offer to talk with you about their point of view, and yet you only do so behind a keyboard of anonymity.
Having lived and spent copious amounts of time in the real, in-person, IRL community of Bellingham, I know very well that many of you do not talk to strangers, can't walk outside without your headphones in, need Xanax to cope with your triggers, and flaunt your idiosyncrasies from furrydom to your sexual identity to your political opinions and your personal interests. I cannot believe how much you expect from others to look the other way in these matters to make your living and achieve your aspirations, when you believe that others do not have the same right, out of a half-baked sense of moral righteousness that stems most likely from other internet discussions and debates, and not out of a refined and calibrated understanding that everyone else is navigating the same difficult landscape and asking themselves the same questions every other day.
I admit ignorance of Flock cameras specifically (though many things I know suggest they are probably a bad thing), and there are many other things I have walked away from that do not align with my morals. As a result, I am forced to sit and contemplate my choices, knowing that they place me at a disadvantage when others are not so assured or strong or resolute, and are probably just sacrificing until the better world we all wish to see materializes.
I cannot think that my forebears made their journey and contributions to see them wither away in the face of these frivolous debates, when the fact of the matter is that everyone in America, due to the way our constitution is written and our political system organized, has the privilege of being insulated both from the federal government, and especially from the broader global system that we terrorize to give us the luxury of deciding where to get our sex toys from.
Bellingham and Whatcom County is a great land that I care for deeply, always and in spite of the fact that I sometimes have to be away from it, and that I have received DMs from one of the more cheery folks in this subreddit to "get the fuck out of" for daring to criticize its inhabitants.
I hope for everyone's sake that you are willing to take the risks to defend it, as I can assure you that all evidence points to one of the more difficult times ahead, amid war, an energy crisis, and massive economic pressure. I do not claim to have all the answers to any of these issues, but I really strongly suggest you start learning how to cooperate with one another before things get any worse, and I hope your actions really comport with how strongly you state your desire to help shape it.
As John Lennon once sang, "You better free your mind instead," and that might be the first step you should all take when confronting yourselves and what you are doing.
I wish you all the best in your endeavors, and keep fighting the good fight.
