Disconnected, Dissociated, Disowned (Or: There's No Such Thing As America)

295 mass shootings in 274 days is a little over 1.09 mass shootings per day. We're on pace for 394 in 2015, which is fucking retarded. There's almost no point in saying anything about it, and that's fucking sad.

I have nothing I can say about mental health that hasn't been said repeatedly.

I have nothing I can say about gun laws that hasn't already been debated to death.

I have nothing I can say about human nature, or the value of examining the psyche of the perpetrator, or any of that deep, meaningful stuff.

But I've noticed something. I've noticed people saying things like 'We as Americans,' or 'We as a country,' and I've had a bit of a realization. See, this notion that we see ourselves as one nation, this idea that we should coexist for mutual benefit, that doesn't really have a lot of traction in this country. On the whole, Americans aren't in this together; we're in this for ourselves.

We don't care about the well-being of our countrymen; we only care about being better than the next guy. We don't care about mutual cooperation; we only care about being right where the next guy is wrong. We don't care about justice for all; we only care about coming out on top, because America is not a nation; America is a competition, and if you're not winning, then fuck you.

That's bullshit. America is bullshit, and our ideals are a lie, and every ounce of blood spilled in our daily mass shootings is our fault because we're all a bunch of snivelling, prideful shits who can't see anything beyond our own sense of moral and intellectual superiority.

So, go on, and have your same old arguments about the same old shit, and insist that anyone who doesn't completely agree with you is anti-American, or the literal Devil, and do absolutely nothing to try to see each other as fellow human beings who are, in fact, in this shit show together, with only each other to count on.

I'll be over here, stupidly believing that things will get better, and that this instinctual need to be better than everyone else will eventually fade from our collective psyche. I'll be over here doing the math as the bodies pile up due to our pride and greed, and I'll keep grieving and doing my best to love you and care about you amidst the ugliness.

Because well get better. Because we have to, or eventually we won't have a country left to save.