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Its tempting to boycott the inauguration and change the channel whenever Trumps on TV. But we cant afford to look away any more.

Humans naturally have an aversion to pain. Sometimes this is helpful. A child learns that sticking their finger in the dogs food bowl results in a nip. A teenager tries to weasel out of a missed curfew only to learn that their parents have many years more experience lying than they do. An adult learns that spending a day shopping for Ikea furniture with a new lover will result in strife.

Other avoidant behavior isnt as useful. Not checking ones bank account balance after a blockbuster weekend, for example, could result in an embarrassing surprise when ones card is declined. Not visiting your nursing home-bound grandfather out of fear that facing his failing health will shake you could lead to the sort of regret that eats you alive on the inside. Not paying attention to the exact way a creepy used car dealer is trying to screw you over could lead to a whole universe of stress headaches.

On Friday, Donald J. Trump will be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. Hell make history in a number of wayshe has no public service experience, he lost the popular vote by 3 million, and hes got the lowest approval rating of any president-elect ever. And, while I dont have the official stats on this, Im pretty sure hell be the first president with a piss-related sexual scandal before he even takes office. At least in my lifetime.

Donald Trump rose to fame on a reputation as being a guy who screws, in the literal and figurative sense. He screwed his way through Manhattan, if the New York City tabloids of the 1980s are to be believed. He screwed his first wife, figuratively, by screwing his second wife, literally. He would go on to screw his second wife, figuratively, and the child they had together, whom he seems to forget exists from time to time. In the meantime, he was screwing his casino employees, his contractors, his business partners. He was bragging about how adept a screwer he was to Howard Stern, to Billy Bush, to the cast and crew of The Apprentice. Nothing hes done since declaring himself a candidate for president, save for the face he made when he walked onstage at Trump Tower after election night, hasnt been screwy.

Trumps managed to offend or upset nearly every non-fat-white-guy demographic during his nascent political career. Mexicans, the press, Muslims, women, Meryl Streep, black people, Buzzfeed employees, Megyn Kelly, deaf people, Nevadans. His brand of nationalist barking is both noisy and intellectually incoherent, offensive to the ears and brain. It makes sense that people who prefer to surround themselves with that which is beautiful and joyful would turn away from Trump. It makes sense that a person would reach for the remote when he appears on the nightly news. Its perfectly normal to want to flip past the front page of the paper or scroll past a news story about what the new President is up to.

Turns out, liberals and progressives have been changing the channel when political unpleasantness reared its head for years. While this countrys liberals were busy .gifing the POTUS pretending to brush his shoulders off, an alarming number of statehouses and governors mansions went to Republicans. A Republican congress gerrymandered the House out of contention until at least 2020, maybe longer. Democrats lost the Senate. While some were rolling their eyes at Trump tweets, smugly confident that Hillary would glide into the Oval Office, Trump voters were sharing bogus news stories and viral talking-head Facebook rants and heading to the polls, riled up.

It seems that liberals didnt grasp until it was too late that being funnier, or cooler, or smarter, or having more famous friends isnt taken into account in tabulating the electoral college totals. Votes dont count more or less depending on whether or not the person casting it did so for a terrible reason. A woman in Michigan who dutifully learned the positions of both candidates and cast her ballot carefully can have her vote canceled out by a man who just doesnt like Hillary Clintons face. An acrid comeback on Twitter doesnt cancel any votes. Lena Dunham doesnt need to star in any more outreach videos about abortion.

If liberals are so smart, then why were the people some would deride as denizens of flyover country able to outsmart us, over and over? Why have they been able to use that power to disenfranchise voters, making it even more difficult for the left to regain lost territory? Were pretty damn smug for people who keep losing.

In the years leading up to Trump Year Zero, those who were empowered to put a stop to the events already in motion were not paying attention. Or, at least, they werent paying attention to the right things. While banishing bad thoughts is a relief in the short-term, problems dont go away if you pretend they dont exist. An illness, for example, wont get better if you just ignore it. Bills dont get smaller if you simply dont pay them. Leaving on vacation and never checking in on your house isnt a good way to keep it from being robbed. Unless we start paying attention en masse to the ugly, unpleasant aspects of Donald Trump, its only going to get worse. We no longer have the luxury of avoidance. From this point forward, its a dissenters patriotic duty to face whatever pain Trumps words and actions cause. Do not retreat into comfort. Those who oppose Trump need to know enough about what is going on to speak up against it when it crosses a line.

Trumps power comes from being able to pull a fast one on the public by disappearing into a cloud of bullshit every time something singularly damaging surfaces. Dont let the volume of distractions minimize their severity. Russian influence in American politics, the new Justice Department, the deficit, access to health care, and Trumps nominees for cabinet posts are all issues that deserve unrelenting attention from the general public. It doesnt matter if he was pretending to write a speech at a reception desk at Mar-a-Lago. Its funny, but weve spent the last 8 years laughing when we should have been listening.

Dont get overwhelmed. Dont change the channel. Trumps lack of palatability was an asset, and it will continue to be an asset as long as it can convince people who should be working against him to stop keeping abreast to the facts. Dont let him force you to stop listening. Dont let a person who has spent a career screwing business and personal contacts screw the whole country.

If the next four years are going to be a fight, you cant depend on anybody to fight for you but you. Watch the entire inauguration. And watch the hearings of Trumps cabinet nominees. And read the newspaper. And call your representative. And talk to your neighbors. And run for office. And dont forget why you care. Force yourself. Dont let the pain of the way Donald Trump pronounces China distract you. The time to look away has ended.

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Pay Attention, Liberals. Heres How You Fight Back Under Trump. - Daily Beast