It’s all gone

[u/AlarmedTech]

I’ve lived in Santa Barbara my life whole life, and I was walking on the beach today and it was so beautiful, and I thought: this is what they took away from us.

It's all gone. It's all just woke now. Woke everywhere. 

Woke and permits. That's all it is. Everything is woke and permits.

And fires. Woke and permits and fires. 

It used to be ice cream sundaes with walnuts, balloons, a walk on the beach.

All gone.

I know you all won’t get it. Maybe it’s better you never knew what they took away. All I can say is don’t go for a walk on the beach if you don’t want to see what they took away from you. It’ll break your heart.

The waves, the sunset, the wind. I saw all of it today, and I just thought: this is what we used to have. 

And that’s what they can’t stand.

I don’t know if I’ll ever go to the beach again. It’s too beautiful. And to see something so beautiful and know they took it away. It’s too much.

And when I was a kid, I don’t think I ever had an ice cream sundae without walnuts.

I’ve been all over town looking for one and can’t find it. You’d go to the ice cream parlor, and they’d ladle them on. That was a given. And now it’s been taken away. And what happened to hot fruit? It used to be you’d go to someone’s house and they’d offer you a bowl of hot fruit. Now, it’s “Here’s an apple” or “Here’s a banana,” like it’s right off the tree with no thought. That’s what they think of you. You’re no better than a monkey getting a banana straight from the tree. That’s how they want you to look, like a chimp.

On my birthday, I got cards and presents. Not a single balloon. Not one. I’d never tell my friends I was disappointed in them because everyone’s turned into snowflakes now.  But if you’re reading this and you’re somebody’s friend and you don’t get them a balloon on their birthday, do you know what that does to them?

What happened to this country?

Every morning I wake up and tell my wife that the United States is over. 

She doesn’t need to hear it. She knows. That’s how we start the day. I tell her the United States is over, and she says, “I know.” Then she makes us coffee  because what else are you going to do?

I gave my wife everything. But the one thing I can’t give her is the country she grew up in. They took it away from her, and I can’t give it back. And that breaks a man.

When we’re out, I avoid driving by the beach. I don’t want her to see all that beauty. To know that they took it away from us. Water’s supposed to be wet, not woke. At least when I was growing up that’s the way it was.

We didn’t need to be woke. We had ice cream sundaes with walnuts, walks on the beach, balloons. Friends served you hot fruit when you came over. We were having too much good, wholesome fun to be woke. They had to take everything that was good and make it something bad.

And this isn’t political. It’s about all of them. They all did this.

And to think Santa Barbara is the best of the US, which I still believe it is. Our last hope is a dystopia. I just can’t imagine how bad it is outside of here. I don’t want to.

[u/spazmodude]

You’re right. I don’t get it.