First of all, given recent developments in my home country of America we have to address the elephant in the room, or rather, the "ambulatory hate-filled cheese puff with bad hair" in the white house. Yes, this is going to be one of those posts.
Even if we ignore all of his bigotry and racism, his disregard of policy and politics, even if we ignore his rejection of the ideals outlined at the Geneva Convention and basic human decency, future president Donald Trump (still makes me vomit a little) is, without hyperbole, an enemy to every person in the world. This is because he has promised to destroy it.
Donald Trump has pledged to dissolve the EPA, to prioritize coal, and to ignore the statements outlined in the Paris Agreement. If the United States backs out of the Paris Agreement, global climate change is going to be accelerated (and if you don't believe it's real, go back to school, motherfucker). He has mentioned fracking tycoon (an arguably less fun game than Rollercoaster Tycoon) Harold Hamm (fuck that guy) as a likely Minister of Energy. He has brought up Sarah Palin, Rudy Giuliani, Ben Carson (that creationist fuck) for his cabinet. It's like he's actually assembling the Secret Society of Supervillians.
What does this have to do with my Pokemon blog?
It is my belief that you can't appreciate Pokemon without caring for the environment to some extent. The reason I love to play Pokemon so much is to explore a world of such variety in terms of the lifeforms that exist. When you hear about a new pokemon game, what gets you most excited? For nine out of ten people, their answer is "all the interesting new pokemon". There are countless hundreds of fan-made pokemon designs. There are scores of fan-made pokemon hacks with their own world and creatures.
How could you not see the parallels to our own world, which is so wonderful and teeming with variety?
I love playing Pokemon because it helps me remember to appreciate real world animals and plants and fungi. There are so many wonderfully weird and cute and vicious creatures and plants. There is so much beauty to be found all around you. Even plants as common as an oak tree are important to so many creatures. Even creatures as creepy as a spider; I love them all. There's something beautiful and ruthless to the creepy fuckers.
I try to impress upon my biology students that life is weird and a little gross, but always awesome. The Horned Toad shoots blood out of its eyes to scare off predators. Isn't that totally gross and kind of awesome?! Male Platypus are venomous; it's so rare to have such a trait in a mammal! Komodo Dragons exist! Actual dragons, 9 foot long lizards. How is that not the coolest god-damned thing? There are gliding snakes, flying squirrels. The Pangolin! Do you like the pokemon "sandslash"? Wish it was real? Well it is...and it's almost extinct.
It's easy to forget that a world full of life and wonderful things exist, especially whilst we sit here in our comfortable rooms with a mug of coffee and a pumpkin-scented candle--or perhaps in some popular (but not too popular, amiright?) coffeehouse furiously blogging and tweeting glib sarcasms. It's easy to forget how great the world is.
So when people tell me that this upcoming abortion of a presidency won't be that bad, I remember the ones that are really going to suffer: the animals and the plants and all the beauty of the world.
I hope you like your fucking tax breaks, you Philistines.
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