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Welcome to our weekly Boredwalk Community series, where we ask Boredwalk fans fun questions! This week we're talking to Willy L. of Cambridge MA, showing off a Support Your Local Library shirt.

1. What's your actual day job and what's your dream day job?

I am strategic advisor to the dean of a medical school, which means I deal with randomness. My dream job would be to make a living as a writer. (Interesting. On a scale of 1-10, how "random" is a global pandemic? Asking for 8 billion friends...)

2. What keeps you up at night?

Trying to think of the right questions.

3. What's a book that you think the Boredwalk community should read?

Wow, given the shirt I'm wearing, I'd better do a good job here... either Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin or The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir.

4. What's the most useful piece of advice you've received?

In a relationship, you’ll never lose by being the first one to apologize. (Perhaps, but where is the fun in settling for a grudging stalemate?)

5. What experience do you most want to cross off your bucket list?

To do a public reading from something that I have published.

6. If you could have any super power what would it be and why?

To be able to speak any language. Imagine the amazing off-menu meals I could get at restaurants anywhere!

7. What's your biggest pet peeve?

Ugh! People who think they’re the only ones on the planet, e.g. people who dump their trash on the street or “share” their music on the subway. (An unforeseen silver lining of social distancing?)

8. You can curse your nemesis with a minor annoyance for eternity; what do you choose?

Ha! That they would become a nice person. They would HATE that!

9. Clear up a misconception (about your job, where you are from, some other topic you know a lot about).

The majority of people everywhere are doing their best most of the time. (This doesn't fill me with confidence regarding our species continued survival, Willy...)

10. Where can the rest of the Boredwalk community find you?

On Instagram @willy.lensch

Welcome to our weekly Boredwalk Community series, where we ask Boredwalk fans fun questions! This week we're talking to Kate F. of Herndon VA, showing off a My Head Says Homework My Heart Says Cat Videos shirt.

1. What's your actual day job and what's your dream day job?

I'm a school library assistant and substitute teacher. My dream job is to be a cat petter/book reader. (Ed. note: I also aspire to read books and pet cats professionally!)

2. What's your biggest pet peeve?

Hearing people chew! It fills me with fiery rage. (Second place: other people rearranging my books! I have them in a specific order. Put them back where you found them, or let me do it.)

3. What's a book that you think the Boredwalk community should read?

A book everyone should read is Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman. It's super short, but thought-provoking. It's about what Einstein might have dreamed about while he worked at the Swiss patent office. That might sound esoteric and incomprehensible, but it's actually a fun read. (I'm sold!)

4. What's the most useful piece of advice you've received?

Probably my Mom's line from childhood. Any time my sisters or I would complain, she'd say, "life is hard and full of misery." I know that sounds rough, but the message is good — sometimes life sucks, but you have to deal with it. (A related, but happier piece of advice from my Mom: "this, too, shall pass." When life is hard, just keep moving. It will get better eventually.)

5. What experience do you most want to cross off your bucket list?

I want to see the northern lights!

6. Clear up a misconception (about your job, where you are from, some other topic you know a lot about).

Librarians don't just shush patrons and shelve books. Libraries are filled with amazing resources for everyone, and our calling is to make those resources accessible to everyone. A misconception about me personally is that I'm a crazy cat lady. Wait! That's not a misconception. Never mind.

7. Where can the rest of the Boredwalk community find you?

You can find me on Facebook at @KatesUBAMBooks and on Twitter @katesbooknook. My book store is j6705.myubam.com.

8. BONUS!

Kate felt it very important to add the following personal details to this, and I am inclined to agree:

• Favorite dinosaur: Stegosaurus
• Favorite colors: Pink & purple
• She has more books than friends (I see no problem here, Kate.)

Welcome to our weekly Boredwalk Community series, where we ask Boredwalk fans fun questions! This week we're talking to Michelle Q. of San Diego CA, showing off a Oxford Comma shirt.

1. What's your actual day job and what's your dream day job?

I'm a copywriter for a board game and puzzles company, where I get to work with licenses like Disney, Harry Potter, Marvel, and Cartoon Network. So I'm one of those lucky devils whose day job is her dream job. But my fantasy job has always been special FX makeup artist. Did you catch that Oxford comma though? (Ed. note: Always!)

2. What's your biggest pet peeve?

Talking over someone or interrupting a person in conversation is a bad look. I think it takes a great deal of mindfulness and respect to practice listening, despite today's predominantly non-verbal means of communication. Ironically, whenever I'm able to muster up a sentence and someone boisterous steps all over it, a little ghost comes out of me and I realize why I mostly keep to myself in groups of people. So it's a dance. A figurative one, not a Fortnite emote. (Respectful active listening is a lot like the Oxford comma — you may not always notice its presence, but you probably *will* notice its absence.)

3. If you could have any super power what would it be and why?

I wish I had the ability, for whenever I saw a "Lost" poster for someone's missing pet, to instantly return that animal to its owner just by touching the flyer. Just making that reunion happen would be reward enough for me. (What a generous, thoughtful answer!)

4. What is a surprising fact about you?

At one point I was able to say that Ray Manzarek, the keyboardist for The Doors, was my then-brother-in-law's ex-wife's dad's son-in-law! What did that make me? Absolutely nothing. But I am currently 2+ years sober, which might surprise some. (That's great; congratulations! On both the sobriety AND your SNL parody version of Ancestry.com.)

5. Where can the rest of the Boredwalk community find you?

If I'm doing it right IRL, they won't. But okay, I go outside and stuff on Instagram (@michellequillen) and have my only use for Facebook (@MichelleQuillenWriter).

Welcome to our weekly Boredwalk Community series, where we ask Boredwalk fans fun questions! This week we're talking to Amanda J. of Sarasota, FL, shown here sporting her Living My Okayest Life tee!

1. What's your actual day job and what's your dream day job?

I already have my dream jobs! Pet sitter and program manager for a teen center. 

2. What's your biggest pet peeve?

I have so many, but people driving slow in the fast lane ranks high. (Ed. note: Ooh, this is a good one.)

3. What's the most useful piece of advice you've received?

"You shouldn't should on yourself." (Balancing our thinking between what we "should" do and what we "want" to do is vital for continued sanity. Great advice!)

4. What experience do you most want to cross off your bucket list?

Visiting all 50 states. 10 to go! (Now I'm dying to know what the remaining ten are!)

5. Where can the rest of the Boredwalk community find you?

On Twitter @AmandaSaysWut

Welcome to our weekly Boredwalk Community series, where we ask Boredwalk fans fun questions! This week we're talking to Irene B. of Stamford CT, showing off a Floral Skull shirt.

1. What's your actual day job and what's your dream day job?

I am a full-time student at the University of Connecticut. I also tutor high school and college students. One day I hope to work in social justice and reform. (Ed. note: Ambitious! I like it!)

2. What's your biggest pet peeve?

I lost my right leg to bone cancer, so I am permanently disabled. My biggest pet peeve is when public places don't abide by the Americans with Disabilities Act, so I can't get into their places of business. It also really bothers me when people who aren't disabled park in handicapped parking spots. Another pet peeve of mine is when male doctors really downplay my suffering. Before I received my cancer diagnosis, I was told that I was over-exaggerating, needed to lose weight, was accused of pill seeking, and told I needed mental help by a male doctor. Low and behold, that doctor that kept invalidating my symptoms delayed me from getting my proper cancer treatment. (Real talk: if you own a brick & mortar business and aren't sure if you're ADA-compliant, look into it! People have money to spend, and they can't patronize your business if they can't come inside. And if you're using a screen reader to read these emails...sorry if sometimes I get sloppy and forget to include alt tags for the images. It *is* something I'm aware of and trying to be better at including!)

3. If you could have any super power what would it be and why?

If I could fly and levitate, that would totally make my mobility easier. I would totally love that! Or maybe be able to regrow limbs...just not like those baby legs that Deadpool re-grows, haha! (Ewww...)

4. You can curse your nemesis with a minor annoyance for eternity; what do you choose?

For them to walk around with a pebble in their shoe that just won't come out. 😛(Savage!)

5. What's the most useful piece of advice you've received?

When I was struggling through chemotherapy treatments, I was told to find silver linings in everything bad I was going through. Being able to find some good in the bad helped me through those tough times. Now I can find silver linings in almost anything I struggle with.

6. What experience do you most want to cross off your bucket list?

I want to be able to travel to a place where I can see a full night's sky. A sky filled with stars, comets, where I can see the Milky Way. I also want to be able to see the aurora borealis before I kick the bucket. I have always loved astronomy, and I can't see the night sky well where I live because of heavy light pollution. (Anyone in New England know of an ADA-compliant getaway out in the sticks that's low light? Help a human out!)

7. What's a surprising fact about you?

I struggle with severe PTSD and depression. I am also a writer, so I write a lot about mental health.

8. Clear up a misconception (about your job, where you are from, some other topic you know a lot about.)

I see so many posts online where people accuse people in wheelchairs of faking their illnesses because they can stand up and walk after being in a wheelchair. Wheelchairs aren't just for people who are paralyzed. Wheelchairs are also for people like me who can sometimes walk with my prosthesis, but sometimes can't. They are also for people with invisible illnesses like Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, and many others. Disabled people rely on many different assistive devices. Sometimes you may see me walking in my prosthesis, sometimes you may see me in my wheelchair, sometime I use crutches. It all depends on our symptoms and it's sad to see people accuse disabled people of faking their illnesses because they can walk on some days and can't on others.

9. Where can the rest of the Boredwalk community find you?

Check me out on Instagram! @irenesbattle

Welcome to our weekly Boredwalk Community series, where we ask Boredwalk fans fun questions! This week we're talking to Mylah of Smyrna GA, showing off a Slay the Patriarchy shirt.

1. What's your actual day job and what's your dream day job? My day job and dream job are actually the same! I'm a singer/performer/songwriter for a living. The only difference between the everyday version and the dream version is I'd like to be making exponentially more doing it. It's coming though =) I also recently got my real estate license, so there's that. (Ed. note: Real talk — Mylah's music is AWESOME, and you should absolutely check it out and tell all your friends about her! Keep going for relevant links!)

2. What's your biggest pet peeve? Mouth sounds! Smacking, loud chewing, gum popping, heavy breathing....YUCK!!! It makes me want to stab myself in the throat...or stab the person, lol.

3. What's the best piece of advice you've received? "Just do it!" Okay, so that message didn't actually come to ME specifically, lol (thank you Nike!) but I DO apply it to many aspects of life. Instead of wishing or waiting or pining away for something you want to accomplish? JUST FRIKKIN DO IT!

4. If you could have any super power what would it be and why? I'd be able to instantly banish evil, mean, intolerant and/or narrow-minded idiots to Idiot Island. =) Let them prosper among their fellow kind. Oh, and I'd be able to eat unlimited fries and cake and not gain any weight. That would be awesome. (Oh boy, do I know some people who need a one-way ticket to Idiot Island...)

5. What experience do you most want to cross off your bucket list? Performing in a huge stadium and having the audience sing along! (Let's make this happen!)

6. What is a surprising fact about you? That underneath this amazingly cool exterior (ha!), I'm pretty much an introverted book worm who likes to stay at home in sweats, learning about different cultures, new skills, cool places to travel, etc. I LOVE being home! (This is a big mood. Pretty sure I wouldn't feel like death warmed over right now if I'd just stayed home last week.)

7. You're a musician; who are your biggest influences, and can you pinpoint the time or event that made you want to make music? As a performer, my early influences came from church. Just seeing the reaction that charismatic people received was a little intoxicating from early on. As a songwriter/singer, I've loved Prince, Sade, Alanis Morrisette, Faith Evans, Erykah Badu, Anita Baker, Andre 3000, Kendrick Lamar....my Dad! And a lot of my indie friends continue to inspire me every day. (The thing I love about Mylah's music is that I can totally hear all of these influences swirling around in her songs, but how she synthesizes them in her own material is still very unique to her. Again, check her stuff out!)

8. Where can the rest of the Boredwalk community find you? I'm most active on Instagram (@mylahmusic) and you can also find me at mylahmusic.com

Well howdy! It's been a minute since we published a long form blog post here about the goings-on at Boredwalk. Mostly this is down to us being able to cover most of our weekly happenings in our emails and/or on our podcast, but every once in a while we run through such an overwhelming gauntlet of bullshit that it just won't all fit in a quick, quippy email. So what's been going on? Lots!

First, Meredith and I went to Texas last week for work. I won't bore you with the scintillating details — it was a lot of talks about organizational structure, email deliverability, and all the other boring minutiae that ultimately results in you buying stuff from strangers on the internet — but here are the main takeaways:

• For all its talk of being a bastion of libertarianism, Texas gets mighty puritanical about booze on Sundays. Apparently Jesus — you know, He who (allegedly) turned water into wine — frowns upon Bloody Marys being served without food to go with it, even though the whole point of the Bloody Mary is that it's essentially a salad in a glass with just enough vodka in it to give it some tangy zip.

Look, Texas, don't be throwing shade at the People's Nanny State of California if we're allowed to buy booze 20 hours a day, seven days a week, and weed 24/7. It's...unseemly. Stay in your dusty lane.

• Turns out that attending an alcohol-fueled 200+ person professional conference bookended by two cross-country flights is a recipe for a weakened immune system showing metaphorical flashing neon signs screaming "Hey, Influenza! Over here!" Meredith and I were so ill upon our return to California that we had to stay home from the office on Monday and Tuesday so as not to risk getting the rest of the team sick, too.

• Even in this fevered state, we still had to deal with an entirely new form of attack from art thieves! Some waste of carbon decided to steal approximately two dozen designs from our store, used them for their own site, and had the chutzpah to contact our web host and claim that we were infringing upon their intellectual property (which was in reality our intellectual property.)

The web host couldn't be bothered to look into this any more than to say "Oh hai, this rando from another country with a fake name, a dummy email address, and zero legal claim to your artwork in the form of registered copyrights says all that art we've been hosting on your site for years is actually theirs because they said so. If they make any more complaints we'll be forced to shut down your store." Have you ever been gaslighted by Big Tech? It's a trip, I can tell you that much.

How did we resolve it? How does anyone in the United States of American resolve their problems? By throwing a stupid amount of money at some lawyers. Seriously! We paid the firm that does intellectual property (IP) work for us a few thousand bucks to make a call and deal with Shopify. I mean, they did do a lot more than that, but that is also an accurate synopsis of events. Take that paragraph and stretch it out over FIVE. DAYS. It was absolutely nerve-wracking to think Boredwalk could be blinked out of existence over a tech giant's sloppy, shoulder-shrugging attitude toward criminal behavior at the expense of a legitimate small business that operates completely above board.

Meredith and I were so wrapped up in defending ourselves from this garbage monster that the next thing we knew it was Thursday afternoon, I hadn't worked on a single design all week, and we were too wiped out to even record a new podcast episode. Which is the real tragedy in all of this, because let me tell you — we had a plethora of first-rate material! Oh, well. I suppose there's always next week. Our voices are still pretty rough from the flu, anyway — no one wants to listen to Tom Waits and Marianne Faithfull try to crack one another up with dad jokes.*

*Haha, joke's on you — EVERYONE wants to listen to that. And by "everyone" I mean "me."

• Not to be outdone, we had one for the record books in the "abusive customer" department. Here's the play-by-play:

1. Customer orders shirt.

2. We ship shirt two days later.

3. USPS mis-delivers shirt to wrong address; customer informs us of this on Saturday — two days after it was scanned as delivered — after their post office has already closed until Monday.

4. I explain that we will call their local post office first thing after they open on Monday morning. Customer acts like I personally arrived at their house unannounced and ate their firstborn in front of them. They go Biblical on me over Facebook Messenger. At least I assume they were being biblical, because their messages were so riddled with typos and spelling errors it looked a bit like they were speaking in tongues.

5. We ship replacement shirt just in case original can’t be found. Customer is happy to now have two shirts for the price of one.

6. We ask them to mark the duplicate package “return to sender” so it comes back to us.

7. Customer's eyes roll back, they resume speaking in tongues and cursing my firstborn, and I ask myself “why am I doing this to myself again? Oh, right — the art. The art.”

via GIPHY

*****

So that's everything that prevented us from creating any new art for this week! I'll tell you what, though — we have THE most amazing, supportive, and caring fans in the world. We were seriously freaking out earlier this week about the IP thing, worried this little online store full of our weird cynical art would get shut down and put us all out of jobs, and like avenging angels of encouragement you all swept in and lifted us up, and for that we are incredibly grateful.

Now, just because I didn't have time to work on any new designs this week doesn't mean we don't have new-ish art to share, so if you haven't popped by in a minute, just take a gander below!

*****

So much good stuff, right? With any luck things will have settled down enough that I'll have something brand spanking new to show you next week. Until then, take care, try to be kind to yourself and the people around you (if they deserve it; screw those other jabronies), and live life to the fullest.

Peace, love, and tacos,

Matt

Welcome to our weekly Boredwalk Community series, where we ask Boredwalk fans fun questions! This week we're talking to Amanda P. of Platte City MO, showing off an What's Kraken shirt.

1. What's your actual day job and what's your dream day job?

I'm a Software Quality Engineer for an auto insurance company. I would love to eventually be a more consistent and more frequent conference speaker (I have 3 different talks so far this year). And if not that, I want to be a professional cosplayer — mostly viking shield maiden stuff. (Ed. note: that sounds pretty epic!)

2. You can curse your nemesis with a minor annoyance for eternity; what do you choose?

That tickle in the back of your throat where you don't really need to cough and clearing your throat or drinking some water doesn't help either. What's more annoying than that? (Savage!)

3. What experience do you most want to cross off your bucket list?

OK, so there are two things:
1. Speak at a conference that is held at Churchill College in Cambridge.
2. Travel around Ireland and see everything and stay in old castles.

4. Where can the rest of the Boredwalk community find you?

You're most likely to find me on Twitter @theqadiva.

Welcome to our weekly Boredwalk Community series, where we ask Boredwalk fans fun questions! This week we're talking to Jordan F. of Battle Ground, Washington, showing off his fine baked goods and his Seasonal Depression shirt.

1. What's your actual day job and what's your dream day job?

My dream job is to host a show on the Food Network that connects people’s lives and food in long-form-on-location interviews (think vintage 20/20 episodes) featuring people like a woman who wins the county fair pie contest every year, or a celebrity whose family has owned a BBQ joint for 65 years. (Ed. note: I would watch that in a heartbeat!)

2. What keeps you up at night?

Reading! As a former professional journalist, I’m always curious and there is never enough time to read all of the books and articles I have littering the right side of my bed. If you haven’t read the December issue of The Atlantic, you’re really missing out. (Generally speaking, I'm frequently impressed by the consistent quality of the writing in The Atlantic, so consider this a double-plug!)

3. What's your biggest pet peeve?

My biggest pet peeve is a lack of imagination. We’d all be better off if we took more time to think big thoughts and dream big dreams. I covered Jeb Bush’s 2016 campaign for NBC News and one of his sayings on the campaign trail was, “if we weren’t doing it this way, how would we do it?” and I think we should all ask that question more — not just about politics, but about everything — and let our imaginations fly!

4. What's a book you think the Boredwalk community should read?

Oh man, I’ll have to give you three:

1.) I really enjoyed The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach — it’s a classic coming of age story and a fun read that has plenty to ponder.
2.) My fun, easy read of the past summer was Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston — it’s a fictional account of what would happen if the first son of the United States fell in love with the prince of England, and it’s spicy!
3.) I am a sucker for a good memoir, and the best one I’ve read in the past year is by Andrew Rannells called Too Much is Not Enough — it's funny and beyond enjoyable.

5. What experience do you most want to cross off your bucket list?

I would love to run for office one day. I’ve been on the journalism side of things for more than a decade, but one day I’d like to be in the decision-making seat. I’m not quite cynical enough to think I couldn’t do some good for the next generation(s).

6. What's your go-to dessert or snack?

I LOVE to bake and trying new things in the kitchen. Currently I’m
obsessed with cake decorating, and as Julia Child said, “a party without cake is just a meeting.” With that in mind, I can make a pretty mean peanut butter cake with chocolate and peanut butter buttercream frosting, and of course, the more layers the better. (And as Liz Lemon said, "I want to go to there.")

7. What's the most useful piece of advice you've ever received?

Fake it until you make it. People will always appreciate initiative,
perseverance, and the grit of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and getting shit done. You have to be willing to admit to making mistakes from time to time, but as Teddy Roosevelt said, the credit belongs to the man (or woman) in the arena.

8. Where can the rest of the Boredwalk community find you?

I’m an anti-Twitter and Facebook guy, but I’m all about the ‘gram. Find me on Instagram @jordanjfrasier for pictures of cupcakes and my puppy, Ben. (Boredwalk follows Jordan on Instagram and can confirm that his feed is full of fine baked goods and adorable pupper pix!)

Welcome to our weekly Boredwalk Community series, where we ask Boredwalk fans fun questions! This week we're talking to Desiree L. of Dallas TX, showing off an Invaders From Earth shirt.

1. What's your actual day job and what's your dream day job?

I'm a Customer Service Operations Manager for a baby/family gear manufacturing company. My dream job is professional cupcake tester. (This is going to tie in quite nicely with next week's Q&A!)

2. What keeps you up at night?

Trump (no explanation needed.) (Agreed.)

3. If you could have any super power what would it be?

Time travel! I'd love to visit the past and the future.

4. You can curse your nemesis with a minor annoyance for eternity; what do you choose?

Shoe laces that never stayed tied. Can't be an asshole all the time if you have to constantly tie your shoes! (Just you wait — the harbinger of the apocalypse is going to be sporting Crocs.)

5. What experience do you most want to cross off your bucket list?

Jump out of an airplane!

6. What's a life pro tip the Boredwalk community should know about?

Take the time to give yourself a compliment daily. (Not especially on-brand, but worth making the effort nonetheless.)

7. What's a book you think the Boredwalk community should read?

1984 by George Orwell. (That's a double-plus good recommendation!)

8. Clear up a misconception (about your job, where you are from, some other topic you know a lot about.)

Not everyone from Texas is Republican, drives a truck, or wears cowboy boots. (I'll be there in two weeks to confirm this myself!)

9. Where can the rest of the Boredwalk community find you?

On Instagram @zombiedez13

Welcome to our weekly Boredwalk Community series, where we ask Boredwalk fans fun questions! This week we're talking to Ann A. of Lincoln NE, showing off an Fine Thanks shirt.

1. What's your actual day job and what's your dream day job?

I do communication and marketing for a state agency. My dream job is to be a writer. The whole reason I started my blog in 2018 was to push myself to be creative and write more. (Ed. note: that's great!)

2. What's your biggest pet peeve?

I think my biggest pet peeve is when people are pointlessly cruel online. I can’t imagine taking the time out of my day just to try and take the wind out of someone else’s sails. (Preach!)

3. What's a surprising fact about you?

When I first started dating my now husband he was a musician who wasn’t making music and I was a writer who wasn’t writing, so we started a project where we wrote and recorded a song every week for an entire year. At the end of the year we had 52 original songs under our belts! (As someone who creates 1-2 new designs each week, I know how grueling of a challenge generating creative output on a clock can be. This is wildly impressive!)

4. Where can the rest of the Boredwalk community find you?

On my blog at adamselinthisdress.com and on Instagram @adamsel_in_this_dress

I disabled comments on a post on Instagram yesterday, something I don't do normally. I had posted an anti-Trump item and specifically said that anyone bothered by our disapproval of our national embarrassment is welcome to unfollow, but that I wasn't interested in their comments on the matter. Naturally, the handful of his fans who are following us on Instagram felt compelled to comment anyway.

Having no interest in hearing from them, I turned off the comments. One of them complained that I did it due to a lack of "bravery." No. I'm not afraid of hearing from Trump's fans; I'm simply not interested. There is a difference. If I were terribly concerned about Trump fans unfollowing us I wouldn't have posted it. Even this post isn't for them. If you're one of them and reading this while mentally composing a rebuttal, just move on — I'm still not interested.

I know it might seem like running an online business selling graphic goods is fun and easy, but mostly it's stressful and difficult for reasons I'm not going to get into here. The best part of the job is connecting with like-minded people and putting out a product that makes them feel seen and understood. When I post creative content with this brand I'm saying "I feel this way, and if you feel this way, too, let's be a community." I don't do it to raise the ire of people that don't share my worldview.

If I had my druthers I wouldn't devote all this mental energy to what's really a national crisis. I want to make art about sarcastic cats and cute devils, but my creative output is a direct result of what's on my mind, and my mind is on what a problem we have in the White House.

I was plenty anxious and depressed before the Trump situation developed, but I didn't wake up every day living under past administrations — of any ideological strain — thinking the occupant in the White House was probably going to get a lot of people unnecessarily killed while he uses the office for selfish personal gain. The world already has so much bad in it; we don't need a leader who recklessly and needlessly makes it worse.

I'm also troubled by the number of people who are okay with any of this. I refuse to even engage with the premise that this situation is at all acceptable. I don't particularly enjoy these arguments that devolve into personal insults. If anything, I'd rather have a reasonable exchange of ideas with people who share my idea of basic decency...but the fact is that you can't be reasonable and decent and still support Trump.

Note that I don't say "vote" for Trump. We've all made mistakes before — we're human beings, after all, and making mistakes is kind of our thing. We should all acknowledge and accept that we all deserve a mulligan now and then, and there are plenty of Trump voters who are no longer Trump supporters, so it's important not to paint with too broad a brush when we talk about this amongst one another from the center-right through the far left of the political spectrum. If you're a working class or middle class voter who voted for Trump in 2016 out of frustration with the status quo or disdain for Hillary and in the heat of the moment made a glaringly obvious error in judgment and now regret the turn our country has taken since then, guess what? You can do something about that in approximately 11 months.

On the other hand...if you're still 100% behind your guy and wish he'd pull an Emperor Palpatine and dissolve the Senate (and House, and Supreme Court) ahead of election day and rule indefinitely as an authoritarian autocrat? I'll defend your First Amendment right to that stance, but that does not mean I have to listen to your misguided, profoundly racist whataboutism and equivocation, especially when you comment on my posts and ads. Despite social media's clear role in the erosion of our political discourse over the last decade, you are precisely why the blocking of accounts and the deletion of comments exist as features on those platforms.

To wit: here is just a sampling of a few of the bad faith comments on my post before comments got disabled, along with my responses to them:

"You're capitalizing on hating Trump."

Right, because I'm a sneaky, low-key, cynical capitalist hypocrite, is that it? Look, I'm "capitalizing" on my creative output because I'm an artist and that is what artists do when they are trying to make a living as professional creatives in a capitalist system. My creative output is influenced by my life experience, and my country being turned into a total shit show is my current life experience. Implying that I only pay lip service to regulating capitalism because I live and work in a capitalist system is completely unfair. I want a heavily regulated capitalist system. I don't want to live in a country where CEOs make 312 times the average worker's wages. I want to live in a country where all of my fellow citizens can afford healthcare, child care, time off, housing, food, electricity, etc. I want to live in a country where every working adult is guaranteed a living wage and the ones who can't work are still afforded basic fucking dignity and security. Because I believe in being the change I want to see in the world, I have made it a priority to pay living wages to my team, and I am happy to decrease my own income to do it. So no, I'm not secretly a craven money-grubbing cynic who just claims to hold these values because it's profitable and that profit is all I care about.

"If you hate capitalism, move to Venezuela or Scandinavia."

The situation in Venezuela is much more complex than communism vs. socialism vs. capitalism. I largely agree with how Scandinavian countries are run, but I live here. I want my country to be better, and so do most Americans.

"What you do isn't art, it's bullying Trump."

I can't even begin to respond to this ludicrous claim. I mean I could, but I won't because any remotely reasonable person reading this understands why it's not even worth it.

"Unfollow!"

Fine, good, unfollow. No need to announce it. I don't care. If our creative content isn't for you, that's fine. Go find something else to follow. I'm guessing you followed us because something you saw in our creative output spoke to you. If you don't like that the person making the art you find interesting has thoughts and opinions that may not always align with your own, you're going to have a tough time as a consumer of creative content.

Artists have thoughts and opinions, and we express them. That's our whole thing; that's where the art comes from. As a group we tend to lean left politically. To even be the kind of person that's capable of a lot of creative output, by definition you'd have to be open to new ideas that often challenge our preconceived notions — in other words, progressivism. Conservatism isn't necessarily the opposite of new ideas — it has its time and place, both in politics and out — but by definition it denotes slowing forward momentum, so it's not really a worldview that's very compatible with creativity and exploring new ideas with an eye toward a better, brighter future. Sure, still life portraits of fruit have their time and place — dental office waiting rooms need a pop of color, too — but for the most part, capital-A Art is inherently political and always has been. If you want to consume creative content, you have to accept that it comes with the creative people who make it.

I know I'm largely taking aim at Trump supporters here, but my fellow progressives aren't off the hook, either, because you have left me plenty of trolling comments too — mostly claiming that I'm not progressive enough. This shit needs to stop. We are on the same side. Sowing division with people who mostly agree with you is not productive or helpful. Being a purist won't get rid of Trump. If you want the world to be more to your liking, you get out there and support whoever the fuck gets the Democratic party nomination — whether they were your first choice or not — and you do the same damn thing all the way down the ticket. No staying home and pouting, no voting third party, no making write-ins for pie-in-the-sky fantasy candidates (as much as I'd love to support a John Waters/Dorothy Parker ticket). Joe Biden isn't my first choice, but if he gets that nomination I am going to support him without reservation.

You also need to stop talking shit about how artists like me aren't "real" progressives because I don't donate 100% of my income to charity or my customer-submitted photos don't have enough diversity in them. To the latter point, they are literally photos sent to me by customers. I can't force them to be an exact equal breakdown of gender, race, disability, body type, gender identity, etc. If you want more people that look like you in my feed, buy a goddamn shirt, snap a selfie, and tag me with it! You need to stop harassing other progressives on Twitter just because they support Warren and you prefer Bernie. Neither candidate is perfect; no one is. Every serious contender for the nomination has baggage in their wake, but they also represent a major improvement over the status quo.

I'm not a perfect progressive, and neither are you, and neither is Bernie or Jill Stein or whomever it is you hold up as the ideal. Living a 100% ethically pure existence is literally impossible. We can pick apart any effort to do the right thing, but it's not helpful. I don't talk about my progressive values in some cynical way because it sells. I talk about those values because they are dear to me and they are values I try my hardest to live up to every day. I felt this way before I started Boredwalk and I have no doubt I will always feel this way. I am doing my best, and I try to see that in other people wherever it is remotely reasonable to see that.

Some people, like Donald Trump, aren't trying to be their best; they're selfish and narcissistic and don't care how their choices affect other people. They lack empathy and they don't use the position they have to do anything to try to make things better for anyone but themselves. Those are the people I have a problem with.

If you share my belief that human rights matter, that people having their basic needs met matters, that taking care of our planet matters, and that compassion is a virtue, then I celebrate you trying to do everything in your power from where you are in life to try to work towards those ideals and I hope you'll do the same for everyone around you — even if they aren't perfect. If you don't share those values I do hope you'll change, but in the meantime I'm not here to cater to you with my creative content.

Peace, love, and fighting the good fight,

- Meredith