I’ve always been apolitical as a creator. In my decade plus run as XCVG Systems, I’ve never done a political post or even mentioned anything political in passing. I’m going to be honest, I want to be known as a “political” creator like I want a hole in my head, then and now. I know there’s going to be backlash for a multitude of reasons and I don’t enjoy talking about any of this, Over the past year or so, I’ve come to the realization that I can’t maintain that pretense of neutrality much longer.
Today, I am breaking my silence.
Why the change? Well, two things. I came to an understanding that I am not neurotypical, straight, cis, or white and thus fall into intersecting demographics that are far, far more vulnerable and whose very existence is politicized. And the political right moved from “a bloc of people with whom I share the same basic values, but disagree with on some policies, most of them related to the economy” to “a loony bin of nutjobs who have rejected all logic, reason, common sense and basic decency, believe in all kinds of batshit crazy ideas with no basis in reality, and want to carry out some flavour of genocide on everyone who doesn’t fit into their narrow world”.
If you lean conservative but doesn’t agree with that assessment, take a long hard look at the people you’re supporting and whether they truly represent you or not. It might be time to reconsider how you label yourself politically and consider more progressive candidates.
It’s election season here in British Columbia.
And there have been some political shakeups. The big one is that the center-right BC United party (formerly the weirdly named BC Liberals) is no more. With them gone, the Conservative Party of BC has gone from a fringe rightwing party to having even odds of winning a majority. This is, for me personally, terrifying. It’s something that all British Columbians should be a lot more worried about. And frankly, it’s disappointing to see so many considering them as a serious option.
David Eby’s BC NDP government is pretty good. It’s not perfect. No government is- that’s the compromise of representative democracy. But it’s pretty good. Housing prices are still high, but they’re stabilizing, with new and more efficient units going up. Schools are being opened and doctors are being hired. Car insurance is cheaper, medical premiums are gone, childcare costs are down, and they even got rid of the Port Mann Bridge toll. Life is still tough for a lot of people in BC- myself included- and slow positive change is hard to stomach when you’re struggling now. A change, any change, is tempting.
A BC Conservative government will not bring with it positive developments, gradual or rapid. The Conservative Party of BC is not the BC Liberals/BC United despite the merger, nor is it the federal Conservative Party of the past. It is a party with candidates that espouse radical far-right views, including climate change denialism, rejecting the science on vaccines and coronavirus, anti-2SLGBTQ agitprop, and embracing wild conspiracy theories on things like the WEF and Jan 6. It is a party that, like so many modern conservative parties, has views, ideas, and policies that will be disastrous for the most vulnerable and marginalized, from 2SLGBTQ individuals to Indigenous communities to people living with disabilities or chronic conditions to the homeless to the elderly to many more.
That’s not to say that no one will benefit from right-wing policy, here or in general. In this context, “conservative” isn’t meant to be interpreted as “conserving the wealth of those who already have it”, but it’s an apt description. It’s policy that favours those who already have the advantages: not exclusively big business, but also individual land owners, business owners, and high earners. If you think you’re in that group, well…
First, you’re probably greatly overestimating how advantaged you actually are versus how advantaged you think you are. Second, if you’re economically privileged but belong to a visible minority group, you may not be as welcome as you think in a right wing world, because the most hateful voices are the loudest in the room. And finally, that you’re willing to throw others- that by your own admission are less fortunate than you- to the wolves for personal gain speaks volumes to the decrepitude of your character. I’m just some rando on the internet, and it might be hard to empathize with me, but I guarantee there is at least one person in your life who will be hurt, whether you know it or not.
To my fellow British Columbians: I am not so conceited as to outright tell anyone who to vote for, but I am urging everyone to vote, and to vote to keep the BC Conservatives out. Unfortunately, in a first-past-the-post electoral system like ours, the winner takes all within a riding and thus the best way to keep the Conservatives out is to vote NDP. There are a few exceptions: ridings where the Green Party is strong or a locally popular BCU incumbent is running as an independent. If you just can’t bring yourself to vote NDP, I’m disappointed but I understand, and I encourage you to look into the Greens, independents, or if all else fails, deliberately spoiling your ballot.
This isn’t the only election coming up, and for most of my audience probably not the one they care about. I’m not American and I’m not going to explicitly endorse a presidential candidate, but if you think there’s really any contest between an intelligent, well-spoken, experienced candidate with a solid, moderate platform and a raving lunatic who once suggested shooting bleach into your veins, openly mocks POWs and the disabled, cannot take one ounce of criticism and never admits fault, you’ve got a couple screws loose. If you disagree with Democrat policy in whole or in part, I understand that, but I’m not sure the alternative even has policy beyond haphazardly lashing out at groups they don’t like.
A lot of my works have gently poked at political themes, but have never dived into them and quite deliberately so. It’s been limiting at times, and there have been cases where I really just wanted to drop the anvil instead of dancing around the elephant in the room. If there’s any silver lining here, it’s that I am going to be freer to explore themes that are more political in my works. On top of that, it also opens the possibility of delving into some more politically charged topics here on the blog. Don’t worry, I have no intention of turning it into a political blog, but there’s plenty to talk about that is on topic, from the failures of alt-tech to anti-wokeism and toxicity in gaming to whether open-source projects should take a stand.
Feel free to share this (both the blog post and the accompanying art piece) along, and if you are a creator who’s remained strictly apolitical until now, consider changing that stance, as difficult as that may be.