(July 9, 2022 at 9:28 am)arewethereyet Wrote: I've been thinking about this topic a bit more. I just turned 65. For the majority of my life the biggest threat was a potential car accident. I am not sure I am as attuned to other threats as I would be had I grown up with them. We just didn't think about it other than making sure that while at a concert or something you were protective of your purse/valuables.
Of course, I am a white woman who came of age in the 70s. I got some snarky remarks about being a hippie but being a petite white woman didn't really make me a target....unless Ted Bundy had shown up...had the long hair parted in the middle, the color he preferred.
I spent decades thinking I could just go where I wanted, when I wanted, and all would be fine.
Now I don't know if some wingnut is going to show up at Target and start shooting.
Always a loner...Amazon, Chewy, and being able to order groceries online means I seldom have to leave the house and deal with people. An occasional trip to the pharmacy or the post office is about the limit of my outings. I go once a week to the office to drop off and pick up paperwork...the only thing I have to worry about is James being in a mood.
I don't think I have the experience to be alert enough to be allowed out in public, especially at night.
No no no, don't stop with a civilian wingnut. We also have right win wingnuts in office, who have passed laws in a couple of states now, making it legal for civilians to sue anyone who helps a women even just try to get health care advice at a Planned Parenthood clinic, even if they are not going to have an abortion that visit. That fucking scares the shit out of me. So it isn't just civilian crazies you have to worry about. Representative Taliban Barbie Lauren Boebert said in a video just a while back, "The Church tells the government what to do, not the other way around." Holy Hitchens did that send chills up my spine. That stupid bitch shit on Susan B Anthony who got annoyed with people claiming they knew what God wanted them to do." And it shit on Jefferson and Paine and even Christopher Hitchens who wrote a book about how important Jefferson was to the path that lead to more and more freedom over the centuries.
Now, that isn't to argue Jefferson was a God to blindly be worshiped. Neither should Hitchens. Hitchens was alcoholic and I have to admit, I ignored fellow atheists when they told me that. But after a few times seeing him interviewed and seeing his glazed eyes and slight slurs, they were absolutely correct. Even in Hitchens decline, even he admitted he could have taken it easier on the booze and smokes.
So while you are right to fear some civilian wingnut blowing your head off because they didn't like you supporting a liberal or progressive friend or politician, remember politicians can have those same bat shit nuts hyper nationalist bullshit that a civilian could in evil manor, light you up in public. So right now, we are a skunk's butthair from civilian bullshittery getting others harmed or killed, to the state itself not giving a flying fuck about human rights or political pluralism and eventually making cops and judges and juries independent of any oversight if they don't like you for what you believe or whom you love or the party you vote for.
