[Serious] How Do You Cope?

[MR. Macabre 666]

Which is exactly why I rarely post, or even respond to anything on this forum. Considering that this is supposed to be a forum for atheists, it seems like the vast majority(about 98%) of the members here are practicing the religion of politics. 
The next 4 years are going to be very entertaining watching and listening to all of the Harris/Walz supporters losing their shit. 

And don't forget, this is still a free country, with free speech still being legal. Just because someone else's opinions are unpopular, that doesn't mean that they're wrong. 
Don't believe everything you think.

It's still a free country, more or less. But of course this forum has a very narrow range of allowable opinion, on both religious and political matters. If you don't break the rules they won't kick you off, but they will mock you, insult you, and make it clear you're not welcome. 

You have to remember that we're in the Age of Trump. Even people who dislike him talk like him and behave like him toward the people they disagree with. 

In fact I think one of the main reasons Trump is so popular is that he, more than any other national-level politician, reflects the way that people in the Anglophone world talk to each other these days. How they act when they disagree.

The first rule is that vulgarity is a sign of sincerity. It's not enough to say, "I don't think what you said is correct." It's much better to say something like "take that bullshit somewhere else asshole, we don't want your fucked up ideas here." The former sentence wouldn't be satisfying at all. The latter makes the insulter feel good. 

The second rule is that people who disagree with acceptable opinion are not just incorrect, they are Bad People. There's no more "agree to disagree among gentlemen." And once you've been deemed a Bad Person then no more rules of courtesy or good manners apply. Don't hate Trump enough? Then you're now beyond the pale and there is no need to speak to you like an adult human being. 

So you have been judged as outside of the range of acceptable opinion, and whenever you show up people will tell you what an asshole you are. Since it's unlikely that anyone will change their minds about anything (and reasoned argument is seldom applied) the goal is to make you feel bad for being here to the point where you won't come back. This is considered a victory. 

Not all Internet forums are this way, but I suspect a lot of them are. I don't know if the Internet has caused people to treat each other this way, or whether being a jerk is now justified off-line as well. But it's clearly a Trump-like degradation of discourse.

I'm not going anywhere, believe me. Insults are just words on a screen, they don't carry any weight with me. Like I stated earlier, just because someone's opinion is unpopular, that doesn't mean it's wrong. 

One of the many things I've learned since joining 2 different atheist forums is that 99% of non believers have political leanings that go to the left, which is fine. Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs/opinions. But just like being the only atheist in a devoutly religious family, I'm apparently one of the few members in the atheist community that has different ideas on how the US needs to be governed. 

I'm fine with being unpopular here because of my political opinions, but it won't affect me from participating in whatever subjects I'd consider interesting enough to respond to. My political points of view don't have anything what so ever to do with being an atheist. I've been a non believer my entire 65+ years of existing in this fucked up world we all live in.

So I'll still be here reading anything that seems interesting. And to answer the original question "how do you cope"? I listen to music several hours a day, specifically, Black/Death Metal music. It always puts a smile on my face, and helps me pass the hours in the day when I'm at home alone, while my wife is at work, or at her fucking church. 

Whenever I'm having a really bad day pain wise, which usually happens in the evening, I put my feet up, and use my
headphones to help me deal with it. I crank up my Spotify library of music to help me drown out the pain. Every year in December, they(Spotify) tell you how many minutes of music you've listened to during that year, along with the top genres, songs, and bands, and surprise, it's all Black and or Death metal music. I've listened to 68,850 minutes of music so far this year. 

I love this genre of music, even at the age of 65. I'll be a metal head until the day they plant me.