The New York Times & American Journalism! Who Voted?
Trump likes to call elections early & The dems conceded their candidate & her bid to the Whitehouse! An opinion piece.
I haven’t been on Substack for almost a month.
Truly, I always want to write from a grounded perspective, and if I know that I need more time or more information, I usually try to wait it out.
After the election Tuesday, I felt disgusted.
My dogs reacted to the news without me saying a word. I just stared at the television in silent agony.
Animals are amazing at communicating (mine looked defeated and curled up to go to bed).
I saw a cat on TikTok with its face buried into its paws as the elect was announced (their owner proudly sharing their cat's protest).
The animals get it.
You know that saying — animals can point out a bad person.
They can.
What is Going on with The New York Times?
What got to me?
The New York Times.
They called the election way earlier than I felt was appropriate. I believe it was midnight my time, so it would have been three a.m. their time.
An 8 a.m. final announcement would have felt less hurried.
3 a.m. — that felt premature and hurried.
It also felt like Donald’s tactics of calling an election early were out in full force.
Not from him per se — but from the news.
Which I find damning at best.
Maybe I am missing something. I could be.
I stand affirmed in my belief that the journalism of the Associated Press is still to be esteemed and believed (so when they called the election, it felt factual and legitimate).
What is Up with The Washington Post?
After the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and USA Today refused to endorse a candidate, I felt my hope in journalism sinking again. It seems they have been bought to be props and not to deliver news or to inform the public of who they think is the best candidate during this election cycle.
Media pandered to Trump just like in 2015.
Trumps Rules or the Highway
Trump refused to debate Harris after his first round of debates after Biden left the race, refused to give his medical records and still has yet to fill out the necessary forms to take office in 2025.
These behaviors are simply unpresidential.
The press played to Trump's antics in 2015. They courted him like they needed him.
News outlets don’t actually need him at all.
Just report on what he says and report the truth.
Why don’t the rules apply to Donald J. Trump? Because no one is applying pressure.
The Democrats are way too nice to the far rights agenda.
Republicans also don’t mop the floor with people like MTG, who are an insult to Republicans everywhere.
Trump Represents Every Dysfunctional Person in Our Lives
You see it in every dysfunctional family. The person with the most egregious temper gets handled like a soft silk, while everyone else must suck it up and deal with the unfairness.
Many in positions of power are too sweet to someone who bends the world around him to his will.
I think back to my own life and appeasing people who are just born jerks.
During this election cycle, I got into it with a friend from elementary school, and at the ripe old age of 37, I decided she was no longer allowed to talk down to me.
Especially about this election, when she was arguing with misinformation and lies. I had had enough!
You know that saying, "a hard head makes a soft behind."
Well --
That was until this year — Until I saw just how manipulative the tactics were.
This “friend” had always had a very controlling "my way or the highway approach."
Much like Donald Trump, arguments with her were never resolved, and if you brought anything up, you took the blame and had to apologize. Her rules were never fair, and her temper was ripe with fever.
To be fair--we did have a few teachers who bullied her (these teachers bullied myself and others as well). She was a lot sometimes. As her friend, it was important to see her challenge the status quo and to see our sixth-grade teachers get their just reward after being cruel to so many students (many marginalized in some way).
To make sure she was always appeased, I would rarely confront her.
I didn't want the heat, and I really didn’t want to upset her.
That changed when I saw how far down the far-right rabbit hole she had gone. I said, enough.
(Because when we say far-right, we mean racists with Nazi tendencies, we don’t mean true republican conservatives. These are not the same.)
Did it change her mind? No.
But did it uproot her nonsense out of my life once and for all?
Yes. Yes, it did.
Once I explained to her with facts and a calm demeanor that I would not be participating in her delusions, she saw herself out.
Surrounding yourself with harmful people is a disservice to your mental, physical, and emotional well-being.
This is how journalists and media are with MAGA and Trump himself.
I do have to ask, what are the journalists so afraid of?
Being unliked by a bully?
So what?
Journalists Are Not Here to Be Liked
Learn to be disliked like every journalist signs on to be and we will all be better for it.
To break it down.
The Washington Post is owned by Jeff Bezos (owner of Amazon).
Bezos is an avid Trump supporter. Why? Well, I can’t be certain. Perhaps his love of money and a President-elect who ensures him a nice tax break? I am only speculating.
Do you see the issue here? The Washington Post CAN’T endorse a candidate, but the owner of the Washington Post can.
Trump’s Silent Supporters — White Women
What is telling about this election is how silent his supporters have been.
Almost like they know it’s embarrassing. Many refuse to say it with their full chest.
Right now, they are free to reveal themselves.
Many latino voters and white women voted against themselves.
Independents threw an all-or-nothing battle cry because they couldn’t conceptualize patience or a long game, casting their vote for candidates who scored 0 electoral votes in this election.
A waste of time, money, and your voting rights.
Others refused to vote.
I wish we could do what Macron did this past summer.
But -- we aren’t France.
The French did an amazing job of keeping their government out of the far-right hands this time around.
I would welcome a snap election. Truly.
Keeping the Masses uneducated has Led us Here.
No child left behind did in-fact leave a lot of children behind.
A lot of those children are now adults who can vote.
Thank you, Bush administration for leading education astray!
Currently, the Department of Education is likely to be dismantled under Donald Trump.
IEP’s? You can kiss those goodbye.
Ironically, I know people who voted for Trump who have had to have their own IEPs conducted for them as children and teens.
These people have yet to understand how they benefited from the system they grew up in.
The hypocrisy of being palatable for white misogyny also got us here.
Women who I know voted for Trump only because of what they posted to socials the day after the election — The irony? These same women have engaged in what anyone would refer to as an abortion.
What does an abortion mean? An abortion means to end a pregnancy.
Women who have had to abort pregnancies and have had to have their babies early — have participated in what is considered a medically “aborted pregnancy.” These women still voted for Trump.
These are hard and emotionally charged decisions that only a woman and her doctor should be making.
So, while I support the women who have made these decisions, I must question why their empathy for their right to an abortion ended with them.
Like many pro-life politicians, this line of thinking is simply that — the rules should not apply to them or their mistresses, wives, and daughters, just to the masses.
Like many pro-life Republicans, they vote for you to have the baby but refuse to vote for funding to help support the life of that baby when a bill comes across their desk.
They are pro-birth, not pro-life.
Make it make sense?
Controlling a woman’s body is simply about oppression and control.
Many in this country also don’t understand basic civics.
Which also made them buy into this false narrative of the “Biden economy.”
Influencers like Brett Cooper regularly touted the phrase “Biden’s economy." This phrase held no factual merit, and people bought into it anyway.
We are currently under Trumps economy. No one from his camp wanted to hear it.
Not understanding civics and the economy was a disaster for this election.
People who I engaged with in this election cycle seemed to boast terrible reading comprehension skills, as proven by the Harris administration. Most of the comments she had to pander back to were -- “I don’t understand what she is saying.”
That should tell you that many people in this country do not understand full sentences, cannot pull context from a sentence structure, and lack basic reasoning and deductive skills.
Or —
Here is the kicker.
Perhaps they did understand and instead used weaponized incompetence to avoid accountability for the truth being delivered by a party they don’t like.
You be the judge.
When presented with facts, bullet points, and concise information, they regularly claimed that they “didn’t get it!”
That is an educational issue that must be dealt with.
How? Idk.
Donald Trump is loving that America will decide to vote against itself (Putin has been banking on this).
This man and his cult-like following are, in my opinion, the biggest terrorist organization America has ever seen.
Where Do We Go From Here?
-Stay engaged.
-Weaponize their calling cards of red clothing, love of the American flag, and country music. Learn to love to wear it, listen to it, and enjoy it! Infiltrate their “safe spaces.”
-Learn about civics and the Constitution.
-Read nonpartisan news sources.
-Vote
-Have tough conversations
-Store your state and local legislators' information in your phone contacts so you can contact them every time our democracy is being threatened by the Trump administration.
-Build community!
-Rest!
-Unfollow influencers, friends, and family who are fine with the Trump administration!
Anyways. Thanks for reading this.
Next week, I hope to get back to more fun, fashion, and lifestyle content.
As an American citizen, I would also like to personally thank Vice President Harris for her services to the American people. She ran an amazing campaign in the shortest amount of time. She took control of the situation bravely. There was no one better for this position. She is qualified and ready!
xx,
Nikita
Disclaimer: This is an opinion piece. This is not legal or medical advice and is strictly for reading purposes. All opinions shared here are my own.