Thread by @DempseyTwo

Have you ever seen those videos of people putting on sunglasses and seeing color for the first time? People put on glasses, then have a bit of a freak out because they are seeing a different reality. For me, it was a profound experience I wish everyone could have.
🧵👇🏻

I knew I was color blind, but I could never describe what it was like. My wife would ask me to describe it but I could never find the right word. I would clumsily try, but ultimately continued to fail her.

I wasn’t anything I had thought about. It was just my reality. My wife’s curiosity must have overwhelmed her because she found a company that makes sunglasses that allow the color blind to see colors. She explained the concept to me, I watched the videos, I was intrigued.

I wanted the full experience so I put them on for the first time on a sunny day, and went outside*.

*No houses fell on witches.

To say the experience was emotional is exponentially understating it. When I saw green, I cried. One of the first things you do is immediately take the glasses off. Surely, what you’re seeing can’t be real. But it is. This is the world as seen in color.

When you take the glasses off, you’re back in your reality. The muted one. That’s the word I use now, by the way. Muted. For me the colors just don’t pop as much as when I have the glasses on. Knowing this different reality exists, is a bit jarring.

My wife and I went to a Holocaust museum. From here, I will only describe what happened *after* my wife was racially abused by the guard. (An irony for another thread.)

Right there, recessed into the wall, with the only thing separating me from what appeared to be burlap with muted blue lines worn from wear and suffering, was a thin pane of glass. The yellow, while muted, was stark nonetheless.

Again, I got emotional. I had seen this item of what passed as clothing before in pictures and in documentaries. Here it is though right in front of me in color. It was no longer separated through time or black and white film, just glass.
It was real.
It was a child’s.

There was an exhibit of shoes. Most images we’ve seen show them as black but in reality they are many shades. Each shoe, its own story. The colors tell us how worn the shoes were, if they were scuffed, if it were a muddy day when they were last removed.

The atrocities that happened in those shoes and tattered garments occurred when documentary films were shot in black and white. Black and white images playing on tv shows decades later about the rise of fascism in Nazi Germany can create a sense of distance to the events.

We don’t live in a black and white world anymore. Anyone reading this right now can simply switch apps and there will be a color video camera right there in your hand. We live in a moment to moment society where information is readily available.

Some people reading this have never lived in a world without the internet. Some have used the internet to further distance us from those black and white documentaries to the point where they refuse to believe it ever was a reality at all.

I know I’m colorblind. I also know there is a colorful reality that exists. I know that the difference between the muted colors I see, and the vibrant colors others see, can be eliminated by putting on a pair of sunglasses. I can experience reality.

Those blue stripes are the reality. Those yellow stars are the reality. The brown shoes, the black shoes, the shine of the scraped worn leather is the reality. The reality is if we vote for fascists, we will never get the chance to vote them out.

Never again is happening now. We are not remembering to never forget. Fascism is no longer just in black and white documentaries. Fascism is being scrolled through in real time in between drug advertisements. It is here. We have museum’s dedicated to where it leads.

On Friday November 11th, we will be celebrating Veteran’s Day. Many people will spend the day watching black and white movies of John Wayne giving the Nazi’s what for.

Will the country who defeated fascism actually vote it in three days before that?

Americans, I implore you to vote for the democrats on November 8th. Typically I will try to outline or go deeper on some news story you haven’t yet heard and then ask for you to vote. This is in the hope that you yourself will know who to vote for when you do the actual voting…

but it is too important for me to leave any vague ambiguities by simply saying ‘vote’. When you see the red train car in the middle of the museum and realize its purpose, and truly understand its role in the overall plan, there can be no room for ambiguities.

There was a plan to overthrow the American government and those who would see that plan through are running for office right now. Don’t vote for them. Please, don’t vote for them. There is no both sides when it comes to fascism. We beat fascism before. We must do it again.

On November 8th, please see the reality. Please see the colors. See the pink of the hats worn after trump’s inauguration and know women’s rights are on the ballot. Envision a rainbow and know the safety of the LGBTQ community is on the ballot.

Black Lives Matter and our loved one’s safety is on the ballot.
The safety of Jews in this country, is on the ballot.

Democracy itself is on the ballot. Are we really the Americans we’ve colored ourselves to be?

In one week, it’s time to prove it. #VoteBlue