RE: And......this is why I don't vote
November 7, 2018 at 9:23 am
(This post was last modified: November 7, 2018 at 9:27 am by The Grand Nudger.)
(November 7, 2018 at 9:02 am)Brian37 Wrote:(November 7, 2018 at 8:48 am)Khemikal Wrote: A critical reading of history or society might suggest that you can't stop that, so long as there are willing collaborators. It only takes a couple assholes for the social contract to become a suicide pact.
WOW, so true. I agree, which is why I keep pointing out that we are literally at a critical point in our history, and it is fight or flight time, and if Trump's rhetoric isn't stopped bad things will follow even worse than what we have seen in the past couple years.
We have seen human cruelty creep up slowly like a lobster boiling slowly. I do get angry at my fellow Americans, even independents/libertarians and even some liberals whom assume that cant happen here. A open and civil society is work, and a lifetime duty. It isn't anything to be taken for granted.
We had slavery, we had oppression of women, we had denial of LGBT rights, and those cruel attitudes only got defeated through participation.
Those cruel attitudes have not been defeated - if they had..whenceforth cometh trump? This was the fundamental mistake that so many liberals were operating under for the last few decades. It's why the success of trumpism blindsided the liberal (and conservative) establishments.
I can't imagine why a person would think "x can't happen in america" when x almost invariably has or is currently happening in america. Not only can an asshole -also- participate, assholes wield disproportionately large amounts of power (due, in part, to the institutional advantage of being an asshole..if nothing else)....but the participation of the anti-asshole contingent is pre-packaged PR for the asshole contingent.
You're fighting against full on white panic. There is nothing that you can do which won't be used as an affirmation that their panic is legitimate. Is it not clear to you, by now..that these assholes would rather burn the country to the ground than compromise with you? That they're not interested in an open or civil society? That they aren't particularly impressed by the vote or the will of the people? That your very participation in governance is the fuel that feeds their anxieties?
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