I learned a lot of the Bible as a kid. My mother and grandparents on my mother’s side were Pentecostal Christians. The Bible was center to our lives. I escaped, but apparently, a lot of you didn’t. 

“Gratitude” is often taught to folks who don’t have a lot to be thankful for as a way of calming them and making them thankful for what they have. What strikes me as funny about it is the people who are saying “be grateful” are often the ones who have everything they need. This relationship resembles a carrot on a stick to me. The rich folks are dangling their lifestyle to the poor folks and telling them they could have it if they just shut up about being poor.

Does this sound familiar? “If your profits are in heaven, your heart will be there too.” (Matthew 6:21) Have you ever thought about how this saying benefits rich folks? I’ve even seen coverage of a billionaire preacher in Texas use this verse from the pulpit. What he’s saying is “shut up, get to work.” Easy for him. He has infinite wealth. In the Civil War, few soldiers who fought and died for the South had enough money for a slave. But all of them (see Cornerstone Speech) were very much fighting to own slaves. Rich folks had their mind full of bullshit. Like today.

I’m not the one.

I am not grateful trump won. There are no silver linings. I am not grateful to be poor. I don’t know who to be grateful to, and I’m certainly not grateful to god as he only exists to those who are grateful. I am not grateful for assholes who fuck up my life, my health, my meds, my food, my freedom. Tell someone else to be “grateful.” That’s a useless word around here.  Unless you’re talking The Grateful Dead. But even then, around here, they’re just called “The Dead.” 

I used to say I had an “attitude of gratitude.” I also struggled with habitual lying. As I worked hard with therapy and real applications on the lying, the “attitude of gratitude” went away. It’s simply not honest. It isn’t deep. It’s a snobby dismissal.

If someone is telling you to be grateful, they’re telling you to shut up. Don’t take it kindly. Get more ungrateful. Nothing changes if you’re complacent. They know that. They bank on it. Fuck them.