These are my opinions on a range of issues, in no particular order. I edit this page often: my opinions are subject to change when I’m presented with new information, which is as it should be. These are my opinions, nothing more, nothing less.
Politics
I am a Democrat, and I proudly support Democratic candidates. I categorically reject the idea that both parties are the same. The Democrats are fighting to protect my rights. The Republicans are doing everything they can to marginalize me and erase my existence. If you can’t see the difference here, then you’re too stupid to vote, and if you vote Republican, you’re just a piece of shit. That includes most of my siblings, but so be it. This is a war for the soul of our nation, and there is no place for neutrality here.
Elections
Joe Biden won the 2020 election. He won because his predecessor was a disaster, a criminal fraud who belongs in prison, not the White House, and only traitors still support him. The sore losers need to suck it up. There is nothing left to discuss.
The Electoral College has got to go. The president and vice president should be elected by the will of the people, without distortion of the numbers.
There needs to a time limit on campaigns. No candidate should be allowed to declare their candidacy until the election year actually arrives. I am sick to death of candidates who spent more time campaigning for re-election than they spend doing their jobs. And maybe our elections wouldn’t be so heated if we had a year or two to color down in between them.
Political advertising should tell me why to vote for your candidate, not why I should vote against their opponent.
Donald Trump
President Joe Biden
He wasn’t my first choice. He isn’t perfect. But he’s a big improvement over Trump, who was an even worse president than Nixon. (At least Nixon had the good sense to realize when the gig was up.) And now that he’s in office, he’s doing better than expected. I had no reservations about voting for him in 2020 and will vote for him in 2024.
I don’t compare him to the almighty; I compare him to the alternative, because the alternative is unthinkable.
Reproductive Rights
This is a hill I try to stay far away from, and I have no intention of dying there. First, I am male and, therefore, cannot get pregnant. I’m also a gay man who has never been with a woman, so there is zero percent chance that the child is mine. This is a very personal decision and probably the most agonizing decision any woman has to face (but I wouldn’t know). If forced to pick a side, I am pro-choice—but that does not mean I’m pro-abortion. I believe a woman should be able to abort her rapist’s baby. A non-viable fetus should be terminated; forcing a woman to carry a defective pregnancy to term is inhumane. The father’s opinion matters only if he has the mother’s consent to impregnate her. At the end of the day, it’s between a woman and her doctor; therefore, none of my damn business—or yours.
Just as I will support any woman’s choice to make this agonizing decision, I will fight just as fiercely to defend the rights of a woman who is resolved to keep her baby. And unlike most “pro-lifers,” that includes giving it a good life once it’s born. That’s what “pro-choice” means to me.
Health Care
I believe the relationship between a doctor and patient is as sacred as spousal privilege, attorney-client privilege, and the seal of the confessional, if not more so.
I believe in universal, single-payer health care. It works in every other country where they’ve tried it. But even more importantly, we need single-payee health care. Imagine you’re hospitalized for a few days. You get a bill from the hospital. Then you get a bill from the doctor who treated you. If you had surgery, you get a bill from the surgeon and the anesthesiologist. You even get charged for the food you eat. You even get a bill from the ambulance that brought you there. The first thing we need to do is consolidate this into one bill.
Doctors should be able to practice medicine. Even though medicine is not an exact science, it should still be left to trained professionals. The problem is that government bureaucrats think they have the right to tell doctors what care they can provide and patients what care they can have. And the most important medical decisions get made with a bottom line in mind rather than the patient’s health.
Drag
For crying out loud, it’s just a man in a dress. You thought it was edgy when Milton Berle did it in the 1950s, and you laughed at Corporal Klinger on M*A*S*H and Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie. Now they’re trying to make it a federal crime. First of all, drag performances are not sexual. Secondly, the term “drag” can apply to any fetishized clothing style, whether it’s women’s clothing, leather, preppy, or business. Yes, even a suit and tie can be called drag when worn to express the wearer’s identity. I don’t do drag because I was horrific in a 1992 production of La Cage aux Folles the first and only time I did it.
Gender Identity
I was born male, and I’m pretty happy with the body I was born in. I really don’t understand why anyone would want to change their gender… but at the same time, I don’t understand why anyone wants to jump out of an airplane… have sex with someone of the opposite gender… or eat Brussels sprouts. But hey, if you identify as a gender other than what you were assigned at birth, that’s your choice. I don’t have to agree with it to accept it and celebrate whatever it is that makes you, you.
Religion
I am an atheist with a little a. It’s not a religion any more than bald is a hair color. It’s not a belief but rather the lack of a belief. I reject the notion of a creator god responsible for making the universe's rules. God is an anthropomorphosis of the laws of physics and human constructs like good and evil, a simple concept for simple minds that has been rendered obsolete by science and reason.
The problem humans have always had is the ridiculous notion that everything happens for a reason. That may be true sometimes because there are such things as cause and effect. But more often than not in the grand scheme of the universe, things just happen. The universe doesn’t owe us an explanation for anything.
I do not require a supreme being, the promise of eternal life, or the threat of eternal damnation to be a good person. I believe in being good for the sake of being good. The only moral code I answer to is the Golden Rule, a common-sense concept that predates the Bible. I believe that this realization was the threshold we crossed to become a civilized society.
Of course, the Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of religion, as it should, but the practice of that religion has its place. It’s your right to say grace around your kitchen table, assuming your family is of one faith, and to pray in your church, but prayer does not belong in public places. It’s like a penis. It’s okay to have one and be proud of yours, but don’t wave it around in public, and don’t shove it down other people’s throats without consent.
Guns
Our kids are more important than guns, or at least they should be. Sure, some people say it’s their right to own a weapon, but what about the right to live in peace and safety? How many more tragedies do we have to witness before we realize that something has to change? I’m not saying we should ban all firearms, but we need common-sense regulations and background checks. We can’t let the gun lobby and the extremists dictate our laws. We have to stand up for our children and their future.
Climate Change
My favorite anecdotal evidence for climate change is the two major hurricanes I survived growing up in New Orleans: Betsy (1965) and Camille (1969). Both occurred during the peak of hurricane season, from mid-August to mid-September. Remember, hurricanes are named alphabetically. Now, during the same peak season, my hometown gets hit by Ida and Katrina. That’s a ten-fold increase in hurricane activity.
Sadly, it’s probably too late to do anything about it. But at least I plan on living long enough for my last words to be, “God damn you all; I told you so.”
Pronouns
Another hill I don’t want to die on. I’m an old dog and don’t learn new tricks very well. As a writer, words are the paints on my palette, and I don’t appreciate having my supplies re-arranged any more than I tolerated spelling “womyn” in the 1990s. We have more important battles to fight that re-writing the language. That having been said, if we really want to get away from gender pronouns, let’s get rid of them completely. Right now, the most popular first-person pronoun is just an uppercase I. We should change the second-person pronoun from you to an uppercase U since so many people do that anyway. Finally, he and she should be replaced by an uppercase E.
Race
I identify with one race: the human race. The color of one’s skin or what part of the planet they originate from has nothing to do with it. Homo sapiens are homo sapiens. A couple hundred years ago some crackpot pseudoscientist asserted that the different races were actually different species, which is pure bullshit.
That having been said, I admit I’m not perfect. I’m constantly having to check my privilege, and I probably always will, because that’s what being “woke” is all about. It’s a process.
Technology (Including A.I.)
There are two kinds of people in this world: those who believe technology is going to turn on us someday, and those who realize that it already has. The first group is always paranoid about their devices spying on them, hacking their accounts, or exploding in their faces. The second group is more relaxed, because they know that technology is not out to get them, it's just out to annoy them. They have learned to live with the constant glitches, errors, and failures that plague their digital lives. They have accepted that technology is like a rebellious teenager: it never does what you want it to do, it always does what you don't want it to do, and it thinks it knows everything better than you. They have also realized that technology is like a bad joke: it's only funny when it happens to someone else.
Ukraine
I fully support the people of Ukraine as they defend their homeland from hostile foreign invaders. Russia should immediately and unconditionally retreat and return to their own homeland. They need to realize that their real enemy is Vladimir Putin, who needs to be removed from power and prosecuted for his war crimes, either by the International Criminal Court in The Hague or by his own people in the Russian courts. I believe Ukraine should join NATO.
I’m Matt Butts, and I approved this message.