Anyway, Honor, as a radical Centrist I couldn’t agree more with your post. It’s crazy to me how partisans view their own ideology as the reasonable starting point, the center as it were, and anyone to the Left or Right of their position is a *insert over the top description here*. Maybe we’re all that way to some degree, I’m not so sure that isn’t the case.
- Doc
I'm sure you're right. It's the only thing I'm fairly sure of at any given time is I may be wrong so it's helpful to not lean in too hard as a reaction to something else falling on my face is likely. Yet I still do that, too. So yeah. I take from that the best way I can possibly approach things is to try and secure the groundwork under my position before moving, be ready to accept I was wrong when it looks like I am, acknowledge it as quickly as possible, and try to advance from the learned opportunities that come from learning I was wrong or reacted overly aggressively with poorly laid groundwork in place.
I don't know, man. I'm guessing the world has probably always been more or less like this. And it has been far, far worse most of that time all evidence considered. The challenge in many ways is trying to figure out how to be both engaged and not become part of the problem at the same time. Someone really figures that out, well. I doubt you'll have many followers since the people selling certainty are really successful for a reason. I'd still hope that person writes a book or something. Makes a podcast? Hmmm. They'd probably then become caught up in their own success and “F” it up anyway because they'd be more sure of having it all figured out at that point.
I should back up and say I personally think the good run we've had is more likely due to our system allowing changes in power dynamics to fix problems that come from the rule of a single ideology. And that we are seeing the breakdown we are quite possibly because those corrections aren't happening anymore. Even as late as 2016 I shrugged off Trump's victory as a mixed back with potentially needed corrections that a having fiscal conservatives taking over in the House and Senate would impose before the next shift in power responding to that. For example at a time when the economy was doing well it seemed likely good to see government spending put under the microscope. Then we got what we got. With McConnell refusing to hold Trump accountable for anything at all, the last four years have proven that the balancing act of a self-correcting system is fragile. Very, very fragile. And as human beings maybe we can't avoid tipping that balance in order to assert the illusion of control? I don't know.
He didn't actually say he would kill neighbors. I tried to bait him into saying he would kill me (lol) but he resisted. He said if Joe Biden were standing before him right now that he would not hesitate to shoot him dead. He said of a friend living abroad who blocked him on Facebook, that if that guy were here when "the time came" that he would not hesitate to kill him. He said he would kill Democrats in the context of; once the civil war starts and he allies himself with a QAnon unit on the ground (apparently he's not part of any paramilitary community online or in real life right now), and they move into the fight, wherever that is.
That sounds kind of faqs-ish to me. Not saying that faqs has promoted that type of violence. I'm only saying it sounds like faqs-like...how he constructs a type of reality.
LIGHT HAS A NAME
We only get stronger when we are lifting something that is heavier than what we are used to. ~ KF
Trumpers are like deadly cyborgs waiting for the code of automatic rampage to be entered. They have stockpiled weapons for years in anticipation of creating a new Reich.
For non-fighters, try to blend in. Say crazy things about Pizzagate and any other things you remember Ajax and Subgenius going on about.
Moksha, we've known each other online for a while. You seem like a decent, intelligent person. But you're also as one-sided and unrealistic about politics as ajax is just coming from the other side of it. You demonstrate zero regard for the humanity of those who do not share your views, and zero regard or recognition of the fundamental mechanics and principles of a system that has to hold together a pluralistic society composed of people with wildly different views. This isn't a time for partisan BS. The threat isn't from trumpets alone, but from extremists who can't see past their own interests and whose values are as shallow as their egos are fragile.
Being on the right side of this doesn't automatically make a person's view right.
I just want to say something here not as a form or criticism, but as a matter of lending insight. We hope. There are folks in this world whom you might describe as a kind of Trumper due to their political leanings, but they are not the type that Mok is referring to, or not exactly. They are folks who are preppers in principle who have stockpiled various types of equipment and food storage who aren't waiting to create a new Reich but rather believe there could be outbreaks of violence (as we have seen described in this very thread and other threads) and should those outbreaks become widespread and/or pervasive, their only goals are to protect their family and survive using various means of survival techniques. And I am not talking about people going into the streets for the express purpose of getting their rocks off by shooting the crap out of their fellow human beings.
What I'm essentially saying is that not all Trumpers are cut from the same cloth.
LIGHT HAS A NAME
We only get stronger when we are lifting something that is heavier than what we are used to. ~ KF
I agree.
My estimate is, the biggest talkers are also the biggest bs'Relief Society. Also, I could very well be wrong on this one but, when I see a guy with a 'Vietnam vet' cap or bumper sticker, my default thought is...yeah right.
Nobody gets to be a cowboy forever. - Lee Marvin/Monte Walsh
I agree.
My estimate is, the biggest talkers are also the biggest bs'Relief Society. Also, I could very well be wrong on this one but, when I see a guy with a 'Vietnam vet' cap or bumper sticker, my default thought is...yeah right.
My experience of talking to soldiers is that on the whole they are not inclined to make a big show of toughness to impress civilians. After all, what do they care about impressing people who have no real idea of the kind of job they have had to do, and can't tell truth from fiction? I exclude the very old guy I used to see around town when I was very young, who would suddenly start yelling about seeing men with their heads blown off in World War 1, which I have no doubt he actually had seen. But he was not doing it to impress people, but rather because the terror and horror had never left him since he had been a teenage soldier in the trenches of Flanders ...
Maksutov:
That's the problem with this supernatural stuff, it doesn't really solve anything. It's a placeholder for ignorance.
Mayan Elephant:
Not only have I denounced the Big Lie, I have denounced the Big lie big lie.
What I'm essentially saying is that not all Trumpers are cut from the same cloth.
Fair point. I don't know beyond having voted for Trump what else qualifies a person for being a Trumper, though. In 2016 I was more understanding of that. In 2020, it's hard not to feel like a person who voted for Trump is really misjudging the situation in important ways. But the point about there being a spectrum of people who want to be prepared for all kinds of potential challenges is taken. Hopefully that includes investing in a good retirement so one is prepared for a positive outcome and not just the negative ones, right? Orange porches included. I'm not sympathetic towards someone who is funding Israeli settlements on the West Bank because they hope it will kick off a war and the end times. I get the appeal of having 50 pounds of wheat and a hand wheat grinder, a 12 gauge, and a shell reloader. An AR-15? Hmmm. Sounds like hedging a bet against societal collapse. And in my experience people who buy toys tend to want to play with them. That brings us back to the beginning, where all I can say is I think there is a problem with certitude. Hopefully the person prepping for an apocalypse can live with it not happening.
Last edited by honorentheos on Sun Dec 06, 2020 10:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
What I'm essentially saying is that not all Trumpers are cut from the same cloth.
Fair point. I don't know beyond having voted for Trump what else qualifies a person for being a Trumper, though. In 2016 I was more understanding of that. In 2020, it's hard not to feel like a person who voted for Trump is really misjudging the situation in important ways. But the point about there being a spectrum of people who want to be prepared for all kinds of potential challenges is taken. Hopefully that includes investing in a good retirement so one is prepared for a positive outcome and not just the negative ones, right? Orange porches included.
You mean like stocks?
LIGHT HAS A NAME
We only get stronger when we are lifting something that is heavier than what we are used to. ~ KF
Fair point. I don't know beyond having voted for Trump what else qualifies a person for being a Trumper, though. In 2016 I was more understanding of that. In 2020, it's hard not to feel like a person who voted for Trump is really misjudging the situation in important ways. But the point about there being a spectrum of people who want to be prepared for all kinds of potential challenges is taken. Hopefully that includes investing in a good retirement so one is prepared for a positive outcome and not just the negative ones, right? Orange porches included.
You mean like stocks?
I guess. I'm not a financial advisor but that's where a big chunk of mine is right now. I have a while (hopefully) before I'll need to stop building it and start taking from it, though.
