Insane in the Men Brain

I hate people. Which is ironic considering I volunteered myself to be in this council to try and help my neighborhood. Unfortunately, there are some people who live here that clearly do not want to help, not even to help themselves, and prefer to create discord and discontent on a daily basis.

Why are people like this?

I thought long and hard about a situation going on in the neighborhood, especially as there are some people who already find it objectionable that I am involved. Could be cause I’m a woman. Could be because I am new to the neighborhood. Could be cause I have an accent. Could be because they’re just hateful people who aren’t happy unless everyone around them is as miserable as they are. Or they’re the selfish sort who don’t want anything to change that would inconvenience them regardless of how it affects their fellow neighbor. There’s plenty of assholes like that.

I’m going with all of the above. And how is that different from anything else I’ve had to deal with in my life? Not one bit. If anything, I am uniquely prepared to handle this bullshit. And that’s all it is.

If there is anything I am grateful for having grown up in the United States, is my overall education. Somehow, I had a privileged education and since I was a teenager involved myself in civic activities starting in my hometown. If it wasn’t for the fact that I can’t seem to hold onto one path or commit to one place long enough to do it, I would have gone into politics. In some capacity. But that’s a very difficult path for someone looking to make a difference, and what experience has taught me is that me, my personality, my outspokenness, is a harder pill to swallow when I lack support. Which is the reality of my life. I don’t have anyone at my back. I have been and continue to be all alone.

Today, different country, different neighborhood, familiar set of problems. I was angry about it a little while ago. But I realized that I just needed to vent. I don’t like holding my angry thoughts inside. I can’t contain my rebuttal and my convictions to myself. It is physically painful, especially when I know I am justified.

So here I am. Back at it again, screaming into the void about my situation.

What finally released the valve on the stress that had been building since earlier this morning was sending that final rebuttal to biggest malcontent on the council. He came to this battle of wits unarmed.
And I tell you, my appearance and demeanor leads many, especially older men, to underestimate me. Every single fucking time.

And that is their mistake, as was his, when he sent this little condescending message in our group chat:

That’s rich coming from the man starting the trouble, who has, since the new committee started, states every meeting the spanish equivalent of “but this is how we’ve done things before” or “this is how we always do things”. OMG that is textbook loser talk. Also, inherently bad if the whole point of the meeting is how to improve things. No improvement comes from doing things the same way. What’s that quote that gets incorrectly attributed to Einstein about insanity?

Now, I may have drank deeply from the corporate Koolaid the last six years of my life. That’s fine. However, that doesn’t make the principles behind many of the philosophies and strategies I’ve absorbed about leadership and management, wrong. And his attitude, is the kind of attitude that will break a workplace, and is the first obstacle to necessary change. Which this group, and the neighborhood as a whole needs.

Therefore, this was my reply. (which I am only showing in English) 🙄. I know how to put disagreeable men in their place very diplomatically. Not every battle needs a bludgeon to be won. Some are best handled with surgical precision.

I feel better. I am used to being opposed by people who fear change. By the negative Nancy’s of the world. Hell, I’ve been schooled under the best negator of all time: my mother. If there is anyone better at shooting down a dream, I haven’t met them.