Love trumps all (pun intended)

By WALLACE McBRIDE

If the word "motherfucker" is the only thing about this photo that offends you, it's time to reassess your values.

The image above, which looks to have originated on Twitter from @goldengateblond, bounced around the social media feeds of such folks as Patricia Arquette, Patton Oswald and Dana Gould over the weekend. Last night, it migrated from Gould's Facebook page to The Collinsport Historical Society's ... an action that seemed to perplex a lot of people.

"This is not a political forum," wrote Debby Taylor, casually dismissing the fundamental human dignity of millions of people as if it was a matter for the Op-Ed page of her local newspaper.

"Politics and Barnabas shouldn't mix What a shame," wrote Frances Ellen, who lives in a part of the world suffering from a punctuation crisis. I'm guessing she lives near Larry Miller (no, not the good one), whose comment "What" was elegantly abandoned in the middle of the discussion.

"This is tacky and disgusting. I don't need this 'SHIT' every where I go on FB," wrote Susanne Jordan Smith, a graduate of Miss Porter's Finishing School for Young Ladies. (Not really.) "Done with this page now. Good lord...use some class!" Eager to prove that he received the alt-right memorandum on civil discourse, Thomas Siirila chimed in with "So I guess this is a political page now? What next? Horse porn and execution videos? NOT COOL! !!"

"Why has this not been deleted?" asked reader Robyn McWilliams, whose time and effort crafting such a well-thought-out question deserved an answer. Here it is: Because I don't want to delete it. But the real tragedy of the evening was the death of Brian Carney's love for one of his favorite television shows. "Way to make me hate Dark Shadows now," he wrote. "Good bye!" Fare thee well, Brian. Fare thee well.

And then there's this guy:

There's a lot happening in America right now. I was tempted to end that sentence with "and not a lot of it good," but that's not true. Every horrible thing President Bannon has done in the last few weeks has been countered by levels of courage and inspiration that I never allowed myself to believe exists. My pessimism will always win out, a perspective that remains firmly entrenched after last night's meltdown on Facebook. There are flesh-and-blood people who can somehow love DARK SHADOWS while also despising its most admirable qualities. I guess this shouldn't be terribly surprising, because there are also a great many alt-right STAR TREK fans suffering from the same cognitive dissonance.

On a long enough timeline, we are all doomed. Mankind will assuredly stupid itself in the grave millions of years before the sun comes close to burning out. But I'm convinced Bannon's policies will be defeated because, for most of us, there just isn't another alternative. The bigoted minority might place a low value on love, hope and compassion, but the rest of us hold these values dearly ... and we will not be convinced to let them go under any circumstance. #Resist

TL;DR: If you try to dismiss a concept like basic human dignity as a political issue, you're a piece of shit. Also, if you need DARK SHADOWS attached to the moral failings of a nation in order to acknowledge it, see below. Warning: One of these people might be a disciple of Satin.