I think enough time has passed to return back to the original common phrase for agreeing with something that someone else says. Yeah, me too.
After all, it’s as common of language as the basic aisle chatter at Kroger: How are you? Fine, and you? Good to see you. Yeah, me too.
From basic acquaintance to friend to family to a stranger in line at the store – The ‘understood’ exchange of words that happen when you take a moment to interact with someone who speaks your language is in a state of pause and rethink a response.
I fully get and support the intention behind the repurposing of the agreeable salutation with a hashtag in front of it. The execution hasn’t been the best or as consistent as I’d like to see more progress occur, but hey. I get it. I agree with the idea of the movement to end abuse towards women.
Anyhoo, I want it to be ok to say me too when I want to agree with someone instead of hesitating once I catch myself About to say it and try to think of another synonym type phrase So it’s not awkward although now once again it clearly is. Like someone with bad breath and you keep talking past it anyway. The pause usually ends when a fast recovery phrase gets inserted in the response instead.
Yes, I agree.
Ooooh…I’m with you on that one.
I think so similarly to you!
Yeah, you get it. New lingo is afoot.
I’ll move on to the story.
I realized I missed the old way of agreeing with someone enough to talk about it as a topic when recently I broke through hearing its replacement to actually saying it myself in the correct context of the conversation.
I used the new word. Same.
Long time listener, first-time caller.
It felt ok. Just ok saying it out loud as my words and not someone else’s.
I hear other people use it and it sounds great. That’s why I finally decided to try it out. Kinda like maxi skirts. Once I liked seeing more and more women wearing them, each their own pattern, I gave it a whirl and off we go. I have three still. At my peak, I had six. Thanks, Marie Kondo.
I’ve noticed the novelty has worn off. I hope it doesn’t. I admit I wear them less like the everyone else but they were so flattering for so many shapes and sizes of all us pretty ladies. I still must wear them and keep the declining style alive.
But it didn’t happen like that for me with saying Same. It just made me miss having the me too response in my toolbox of alignment options.
Saying same has become the floral pants and patterned leggings hot style trend going on now while supplies last. I see girls and women rocking them and they look phenomenal.
I’ve tried them on. Even bought a couple with the best intentions. But alas. No Bueno for me.
Just doesn’t feel right on me. Kinda like when women wear nice professional clothing. The kind you probably have to dry clean. I think they look amazing.
That’s how I feel about same. It’s just not me. It didn’t feel natural. Love those of you who nail it though.
I’m going to try to use my favorite and go from there. It’s still not dead. Just like my maxi skirts.
I propose we make a separation notation in Webster’s that clarifies the distinct difference between saying me too and saying hashtag me too. That’s two syllables versus four syllables on purpose.
We can note that when someone says me too they are agreeing with the person they are interacting with and building a connection. We all want to stay connected it’s what keeps us human.
Then when people say hashtag me too they are referring to the movement that says it’s not ok to force people into abusive, degrading, life-changing experiences at the hands of bad people. You can’t neglect it either. I’ll get behind that. There’s enough of us strong blades of grass to cut out the weeds. Weeds spread more weeds. Nip it in the bud.
Let’s make binge docuseries like “I am a killer” specifically episode 4, Pyro Joe that I watched more than a week ago and have still thought about it every day since because it’s like the story about Gabriel that is of the same level of where our fractures as a race – the human race – hits the deepest lowest of low in human torture.
You all can probably name a few you can think of. I can drop some more of them – Bill Cosby, R Kelly, Harvey, Dahmer, Bundy, Gabriel’s mother and stepfather, Pyro Joe’s father and his whiskey dealers, too many to mention I suppose.
I propose when anyone says hashtag me too it’s acknowledging the pain you feel from surviving a trauma at the hands of other humans. And that we won’t stand for it ever again and prioritize the funding to make victims truly monitored, rescued and then treating the survivors like it could be. Prevent it from happening ever again.
I’m now going to try an experiment to hopefully gain your agreeable salutation of choice to my idea of retrending #MeToo with a wider net or starting a #MeToo2.0 for more victim representation.
The agreement of everyone that no predator can hurt a child, woman, senior, disabled or man mentally, emotionally, physically in any way that impairs them from the opportunity to thrive.
One night, I pulled up this mobile patrol app that gives mugshots of current inmates and larger cities actually have an additional tab that shows you convicted sexual abusers on their registry. I checked it out. I was curious.
Now, a disclaimer, it’s not like social media where people check it constantly. I forget I even have this app sometimes.
I might check it every now and again when I am bored or out of candy crush lives and my pending words with friends are all waiting for their move. Most likely on the weekend. Checking the mugshots of old towns I lived in to see who had a rough Saturday night.
What can I say, I grew up in areas that still have random classmates showing up today as inmates. Or their kids.
Yeah, we’re that old now. Kids my daughter knows might be in there as well. It’s like a virtual class reunion without using Facebook filters.
Curiously, I picked a nearby larger city and found the sexual offenders tab of convicted abusers who are on the registry.
I decided to screenshot them in order as they appeared. So here, in no particular order are photos of the very people who are fueling the #MeToo movement into mainstream common understanding.
If we were to place these people into the hashtag they belong in as a demographic, movement, party affiliation or cultured borough of our country, what would it be?
Without knowing their facts, what targeted group would you guess their victims to be? How can you tell? Either way, it’s all wrong. This bucket of disgust includes sickos who pedal pudding pops and believe they can fly. I wonder what county we can find their listing under in the app?
Same.
That’s right. They’re all same. Bad people come in all shapes, ages, sizes, backgrounds, and twisted justifications to do what they do to innocent victims.
That’s my story. I hope you agree with me too. It all has to stop, not just one niche of it. That’s the movement we can all support together.
Thanks for reading,
Heather
PS after thought
What if we all agreed as people that if we know someone is an abuser in some way that you don’t come back from – you know what I mean – we all make a pact to follow the golden rule and when we find someone abusing another human and they are convicted beyond a reasonable doubt, then we take away their citizenship if they’re paroled and send them to one of the countries that allow immigrants to gain citizenship.
We fund mental illness research and treat it like any other disease that can be cured to keep them safe in society.
Yeah, me too. Let’s do this.
