I've been mentally disengaging from American political news for weeks; not so much the "Biden's Brain" coverage, it's the news that Trump could actually win. I'd thought that chance remote, given his history; a block of cheese carved into Biden's likeness should be able to beat him. it was shocking to suddenly notice the polls. What is W…
I've been mentally disengaging from American political news for weeks; not so much the "Biden's Brain" coverage, it's the news that Trump could actually win. I'd thought that chance remote, given his history; a block of cheese carved into Biden's likeness should be able to beat him. it was shocking to suddenly notice the polls. What is WRONG with these people?
I have to remind myself, over and over and over, to not acquire hope for Americans, whatever their (very slow, halting, backtracking) progress. They've always chosen the leaders who lie to them, because they want to be lied to:
- Their past isn't so bad;
- it's quite past, America is good now;
- All their wars and attacks are justified;
- Their cops are trustworthy and only occasionally fail in "split-second decisions";
- Their businesses are honestly trying to serve customers at lowest cost, and their rich have earned it.
Both parties have to agree with these narratives, Democrats have to couch education and reform attempts in coded, respectful terms. These lies are very popular, and only clapback comes to those with ugly truths - it's like an employee going to HR with a story of a handsy boss; the problem is her fault for bringing it up.
I keep reminding myself this is like the 2004 election: Bush was proven by then to have lied about WMDs to trick his country into war (justified! see above) , had opened a no-human-rights prison camp and tortured people there, and it had come out that he shouldn't really have won the 2000 election after all...and, yet, he received the only popular-vote win for a Republican candidate in the last 36 years.
The crushing sense of American betrayal to all liberality around the world ... validating *torture* FFS ... was monumental. I'd kind of thought another 20 years, a whole generation, would make for a more-liberal America ... but, of course, "you are what you do" - that same war coarsened and brutalized Americans, too, made them a darker, harder people.
You don't want to get too sympathetic, just because there are a lot of good ones.
I can't really deny what you're saying here, but that second Bush term is still the only one where a majority voted for a Republican (I certainly didn't vote for him, but what happened happened). It isn't just "a lot of good ones". It is most of us (I am dual citizen, to be clear -- living in Canada since 2009).
The Christian conservative elements have been working since around my father's birth in the 50s for what is happening today. Relentlessly. One of the ways they did that was the district gerrymandering that is part of the reason these Republicans keep winning even though most of us aren't voting for them.
What I mean to say is, we still need your sympathy. Most of us don't want what is happening, and surely you've seen the same elements working up here, too. Maybe we can stop it from going as far as it has down there. I worry that putting in too much of an us/them dichotomy will make Canadians less vigilant and allow it to happen here too. I mean look at Ontario. Ford's PCs have won two majorities and that is even with all the bad things he's doing to our environment and our healthcare.
I'm sympathetic, of course - what a nightmare to feel responsible for a torture camp because your side couldn't muster the votes. I've had to withdraw interest, entirely, because it automatically brings sympathy, and I just can't emotionally afford it any more.
For instance, I went from astonishment to anger&contempt at the Obama administration, then finally to sympathy. Could not *believe* he could leave open torture camps, not end illegal war, but finally realized that ObamaCare passed by ONE vote...and that, because Obama had to husband his every drop of political capital to get there.
And then THAT was backlashed not with just a 1000-seat loss but, OMG, Trump. The jump from Carter to Reagan was teeny in comparison.
So !@#$ 'em. Sudan doesn't break my heart because I don't know or care about their politics, and carefully don't start to. I was years disengaging from hope for Afghanistan, when I realized they wouldn't, as a nation, change, despite all the many, many sympathetic victims there. I'll just feel bad, every day for the rest of my life, if I let myself care about Afghanistan. Or Sudan. Or Ohio. Sorry.
I get what you mean. We all have to preserve our mental health even at the best of times, and we are not in the best of times right now, that's for sure.
And agreed. I voted so excitedly for Obama in 2008 and it didn't take long for me to realize he was, for the most part, business as usual. A disappointment.
I've been mentally disengaging from American political news for weeks; not so much the "Biden's Brain" coverage, it's the news that Trump could actually win. I'd thought that chance remote, given his history; a block of cheese carved into Biden's likeness should be able to beat him. it was shocking to suddenly notice the polls. What is WRONG with these people?
I have to remind myself, over and over and over, to not acquire hope for Americans, whatever their (very slow, halting, backtracking) progress. They've always chosen the leaders who lie to them, because they want to be lied to:
- Their past isn't so bad;
- it's quite past, America is good now;
- All their wars and attacks are justified;
- Their cops are trustworthy and only occasionally fail in "split-second decisions";
- Their businesses are honestly trying to serve customers at lowest cost, and their rich have earned it.
Both parties have to agree with these narratives, Democrats have to couch education and reform attempts in coded, respectful terms. These lies are very popular, and only clapback comes to those with ugly truths - it's like an employee going to HR with a story of a handsy boss; the problem is her fault for bringing it up.
I keep reminding myself this is like the 2004 election: Bush was proven by then to have lied about WMDs to trick his country into war (justified! see above) , had opened a no-human-rights prison camp and tortured people there, and it had come out that he shouldn't really have won the 2000 election after all...and, yet, he received the only popular-vote win for a Republican candidate in the last 36 years.
The crushing sense of American betrayal to all liberality around the world ... validating *torture* FFS ... was monumental. I'd kind of thought another 20 years, a whole generation, would make for a more-liberal America ... but, of course, "you are what you do" - that same war coarsened and brutalized Americans, too, made them a darker, harder people.
You don't want to get too sympathetic, just because there are a lot of good ones.
I can't really deny what you're saying here, but that second Bush term is still the only one where a majority voted for a Republican (I certainly didn't vote for him, but what happened happened). It isn't just "a lot of good ones". It is most of us (I am dual citizen, to be clear -- living in Canada since 2009).
The Christian conservative elements have been working since around my father's birth in the 50s for what is happening today. Relentlessly. One of the ways they did that was the district gerrymandering that is part of the reason these Republicans keep winning even though most of us aren't voting for them.
What I mean to say is, we still need your sympathy. Most of us don't want what is happening, and surely you've seen the same elements working up here, too. Maybe we can stop it from going as far as it has down there. I worry that putting in too much of an us/them dichotomy will make Canadians less vigilant and allow it to happen here too. I mean look at Ontario. Ford's PCs have won two majorities and that is even with all the bad things he's doing to our environment and our healthcare.
I'm sympathetic, of course - what a nightmare to feel responsible for a torture camp because your side couldn't muster the votes. I've had to withdraw interest, entirely, because it automatically brings sympathy, and I just can't emotionally afford it any more.
For instance, I went from astonishment to anger&contempt at the Obama administration, then finally to sympathy. Could not *believe* he could leave open torture camps, not end illegal war, but finally realized that ObamaCare passed by ONE vote...and that, because Obama had to husband his every drop of political capital to get there.
And then THAT was backlashed not with just a 1000-seat loss but, OMG, Trump. The jump from Carter to Reagan was teeny in comparison.
So !@#$ 'em. Sudan doesn't break my heart because I don't know or care about their politics, and carefully don't start to. I was years disengaging from hope for Afghanistan, when I realized they wouldn't, as a nation, change, despite all the many, many sympathetic victims there. I'll just feel bad, every day for the rest of my life, if I let myself care about Afghanistan. Or Sudan. Or Ohio. Sorry.
I get what you mean. We all have to preserve our mental health even at the best of times, and we are not in the best of times right now, that's for sure.
And agreed. I voted so excitedly for Obama in 2008 and it didn't take long for me to realize he was, for the most part, business as usual. A disappointment.