This is what I'm talking about. Not sitting idly around the bonfire, but at least helping those who do their best to quench it. Or did you think I'm not for practical measures? It's just that it's not all there is to it. There's mindset people follow that has led to this nonsense. Not directly, but allowed it, and in allowance, narcissistic strongmen thrive. One thing led to another, and soon enough, there's a whole road to hell paved neatly before you. Cause and effect isn't just before you: it's a massive chain of consequences. I'm not claiming to know it all, but something happened that led to where we are, whether it's a senile narcissistic idiot or a former intelligence agent who shot his way to the top. To figure out what that something is to find a way to unfuck whatever mess there is. EDIT: Not to pussy out of my own argument, I'm gonna tell you what I think about myself in this respect. What I did was to keep quiet and not rock the boat. People like their boats steady 'round here, and hell, so do I. I keep glancing over the small things that happen around me because "that's just the way it is". What I can do is educate people about what's going on, why it's bad and how they can do better. I'm not a fighter, and I'm not an orator. Neither am I a lawyer or a public person to advocate in front of the crowd. My place is in front of a group of people, opening their eyes to the reality of things that I keep so much time meticulously studying. It isn't as down-to-earth as practical folks like you would like, but theory is no less important than practice, whatever the trade. This is what I did, and this is what I can do.What people can do is express their anger and spend their money on organizations with more power than they have.
I think that you're never going to come across as anything but hectoring when you start with "what have you done." You're still assuming there's some causality between the personal actions of liberals and a reality TV billionaire with the nuclear codes and sorry, that's fucking offensive. I will freely claim to know more than you and the reason your statement raises my hackles is that if you don't think every Clinton voter in the country hasn't done a shit-ton of soul-searching in the wake of this catastrophe you're either high or oblivious. But the fact of the matter is this: none of us expected a bullshit coalition of FSB, internet trolls, rednecks and fucking Facebook to negate a 3-million-vote majority and if you somehow think that we could have done something about it? FUCK YOU. I canvassed for Kerry. I volunteered for my congressman and he's my governor now. I got out the vote and I gave money and the fucker caved before everything was counted. I give money to the ACLU and have done for a decade; my political contributions are in the thousands of dollars. Yet here we are, wondering how the hell it happened, and take it from me - you didn't want it badly enough is not a helpful sentiment. I don't blame apathy for this one. I don't blame disinterest. I blame a steady erosion of the protection of fundamental democratic principles that are utterly beyond the reach of the average voter. And I'm damn proud of the resistance and vocal opposition this country is expressing - the Muslim ban? Those are my peeps. An attorney general I put in office acting on orders of the governor I volunteered for back when he was a congressman stopped the Trump administration in its tracks. But here we are - opposing the federal government. The way to think about this is not "we could have done more" but "what can we do now" because enough fucking redneck morons showed up to force us all to deal with this shit and you know what? Short of carpetbagging our way to Alabama and spending millions we don't have, we're doing what we can. Claire Wolfe had a quote a dozen years back - "America is at that awkward stage where it's too late to work within the system but it's too early to shoot the bastards." I thought she was alarmist then, especially as we ended up with eight years of Obama... but the fact remains that there are crucial aspects of the system that are not functional and that can't simply be wished away. Nor can its failures be pinned on those who know the system is broken.
Really, now. This is what I wake up to. sigh I don't have it in me to turn this bitch into a conversation again. Somehow, other people don't deserve the same courtesy you demand when they disagree with you. So, fuck you too, and let's be about it. Tha's how we run this on the thoughtful web, innit?FUCK YOU.
Thank you. I apologize for my missteps, in return. I get that. You're now somehow responsible for shit you didn't even breathe towards as it was happening. Being blamed for something you didn't remotely caused. I didn't try to say that you did, either. What I was trying to say was rather more abstract, and I didn't mean to insist that it's all your fault - or, for that manner, anybody in particular's. You can probably name a few far more responsible than others, though. What I was aiming at - and what I should have put that as - was the concept of personal responsibility. "Everything that happens in my life is because of me". I believe in that, even if it's difficult to enforce and see at times. I'm guessing you have a lot of shit on your plate already due to high standards, so me seemingly giving you more is an overkill.I get sick of all the insinuations that the people who ardently didn't vote for Trump are somehow responsible for Trump.