I understand where you’re coming from, completely. It definitely feels like being silenced (again, because let’s face it, this shit is mentally throwing us right back into childhood when our needs and feelings were ignored). I understand that desperate feeling of needing to be heard. But we’re adults now, and the people at work aren’t your parents. There’s nothing obligating them to listen. Even my spouse needs time where I’m not ranting about politics. An hour a day is all he can do right now, and this is someone who cares about how I feel. But this isn’t a rejection of my feelings.

One thing I’ve personally had to realize is that the stuff about politics isn’t actually you. You have to find a way to have a degree of separation between the political and your actual core. I know it looks like they’re the same thing right now. But think about what you really want to accomplish, think about what kind of culture you want to create at work. Do you want everyone to be as upset as you are? Would that make a good working environment? If you want others to be more compassionate, I think coming from a place of compassion yourself might work better. Right now it sounds like you’re treating people in ways you probably wouldn’t want others treating you. You can still be true to yourself, your ideals, and values without being quite so forceful. For some reason beyond my immediate comprehension, demonstrating the intensity of your feelings doesn’t translate into people caring - it’s rather the opposite.

This was a really hard lesson for me and took a few weeks to fully understand and think through. I hope you have someone likeminded in your life you can talk to outside of work. If you don’t, please consider trying to find a new friend. You need someone who already understands, who you don’t need to convince, to blow off steam with. Good luck.

I keep getting told that no one will want to see my travel photos. Maybe it’s because I’d rather show them in person instead of posting on social media?

Yeah, I participated in the one that was a few days before the inauguration. Heard about it from the front page of the New York Times. I’m pretty sure I heard about the other 700 marches planned for inauguration day here on Lemmy since this is the only social media site I use.

One time it snowed a foot or two in Seattle. I had a set of studded tires on a little Toyota Tercel and I swear I was the only fucker driving around. Uphill, downhill, cruising down the lumpy hard-packed freeway, didn’t have any problems. Besides, if you get stuck in a Tercel you can just lift the whole rear of the car out of the snow with a second person. I really miss that car.