Fascist Donnie Twitler is an evil ignorant sack of festering monkey dung.
@codyroo, I felt such sadness as I read your post. You really hit upon the sordid truth – the fact that so many Americans support him and a lot of his policies. THAT is what can keep me up nights – not so much T* and his enablers in Congress. All of those hardened hearts. Neighbors, friends, coworkers. People we thought we knew. Yes, he is a sadistic monster. And because he is that monster, NO ONE should be supporting him.
Many in the media are now frequently saying, "the cruelty is the point." I feel like I've been transported back to the Roman Colosseum days, and T* is our Nero. All of this for his sadistic entertainment. And also entertainment for some of his followers.
By now everyone knows who and what he is – deep down inside, they know. And that seems to be okay with some of them. And that’s a bitter pill to swallow.
Polarberry - I really resent you denigrating monkey dung to that extent ?
@polarberry, I shared your post with my husband, who commented "don't monkeys fling their feces?" I replied, "Oh! So that's why, for the past 2+ years, I've felt like I needed a shower!"
There was a time back in my 20's when I didn't read the news at all. I only read the Boston Globe for their full page Filenes Basement ads so I could go and buy nice clothes and be attractive. I was more concerned with my personal outward success than the greater world.
I had grown up in a politically conservative family in a politically conservative town. I remember at age five my school staged an election for the kids, and I voted for Eisenhower over Stevenson. I high-fived a little classmate when we compared notes as to who we voted for. Later I learned what a great man Adelai Stevenson was. But I was just five years old, and couldn't even read. Even later when I could read, my focus was more on finding a mate and settling down than on concerning myself with politics and the plights of people I didn't know. It was only after I went through a life crisis that I began to see the bigger world and the pain my own country inflicted on the vulnerable.
I tell you this because I feel that large segments of our population are about as awake as I was back then. They watch Fox and are more concerned with their own lives, and they believe the propaganda fed to them. But they are not all bad people; they are just asleep.
Even though I know this, some days I don't know who I am more angry at -- the orange blight and his enablers who are in charge or the masses of sheep that support him and his party of thugs.
Yes, I think that some people are more selfish than others.
But how do I explain people who are kind and giving who also vote for the Thuglican party? I think it's mostly that they need to focus on themselves and are asleep and brainwashed about the greater world. Back when I was asleep and brainwashed I was still a good person, just unable to focus on the greater collective, so I let the prevailing propaganda guide me.
I don't think the thuglican-voting collective will change until they experience a level of suffering that shows them that the Thug party doesn't care about them at all.
In the past, the economy has determined the elections. People vote how they feel economically in the 12 months prior to the election. If the economy is good, they vote for the incumbent party. If it's bad, they vote for the other party.
I went to bed the night of the election, knowing what would happen. I was restless all night ... nightmares and wakefulness until I couldn't take it anymore and got out of bed. Later that day, alone in the house, the overwhelming fear and fury and sense of how wrong it all felt came over me and I wailed. I'd never before felt that way or heard that sound come out of me. Fear for my kids, for my son who was about to turn 18 in a world led by trump, for women and immigrants, for all the people whose lives would be destroyed by this administration.
I marched that January, I showed up at other events, I got involved in campaigns for 2018. But now it feels like all the horrible things are gaining speed and momentum, lives are being destroyed every minute, and every force that could stop it is just sitting back, letting it happen, for ... what? Fear? Not wanting to upset the status quo? The privilege of thinking it doesn't affect them so wait it out? Every news alert that pops up today just adds to the overwhelming feelings ... ICE raids ... worry about vigilantes doing their own thing ... now Mueller's hearing is delayed ... Pelosi and others sitting on their hands ...
Years of clawing my way out of depression are being undone. My energy to fight is being zapped. People I used to love and respect have become toxic to me because I can't stand knowing that they voted for this person and continue to refuse to listen to the truth. They think I'm hyperbolic, hysterical, over-exaggerating. I know they feel personally attacked because they refuse to acknowledge truth or believe things are really so bad.
I want to keep fighting. I want to watch it all burn, and see the goodness rise from the ashes. But at this point, the only thing I feel is hopelessness that the dark is winning. The vigil tonight has been on my calendar and in my plans, but right now the thought of going fills me with dread because it feels so moot. I want to be useful, of service, but the anger is getting so heavy that just getting out of bed is hard.
The worst part is I feel so guilty about it, knowing the privilege I live in that lets me say that I just can't make it. So many people need the effort and energy of all those who fight for them, and yet I feel like my fight is gone.
My husband and I used to talk about what we would do if the end of the world was coming. He said he would run out into the streets and fight for survival. I said I would grab my children and hold them until the end. And when I think of all the parents who were trying to do both simultaneously, and now they are living through hell at the border ... I want to fight for them. I want justice for them. So why do I feel like I literally can't walk out the door? "Out there" is too much. The ignorance is too much. The hate is too much. The "it's not my problem" is too much. The cognitive dissonance is too much. And yet losing the will to fight is just as bad, and puts as much blame on me as the ones causing it.
I know there's hope, that one day this will all come to an end and the world will move on. But how do you live with hating everything and everyone around you, that you can see the dark bubble in which they move? It literally feels like every day is fighting the dementors from Harry Potter, that they are sucking every ounce of energy and will and light from those who resist them. How do you recharge and keep going without a magic wand? What is our patronus?
Saibh- I feel for you. I've battled depression my whole life, and in 2016 I was just coming out of a long bout when the election happened. I worked hard in 2017 and 18 - lots of volunteering, marches, etc. It exhausted me. I feel hopeless most of the time too. I decided that for 2019 I would take a sabbatical, and only engage on the peripheries of the Resistance, to recharge for the next big election. I'm calling it my "White Privilege Sabbatical", in fact. I'm taking this year to work on my physical and mental health, and that of my small family. Do not feel bad if you need to do the same. All of us "sensitives" face these struggles, and sometimes you do need to retreat in order to regroup. Here is what I'm doing/not doing this year, and so far it's really helping:
- Left all social media. No twitter or facebook accounts, I deactivated.
- Subscribed to the LA Times online, as it is a reasonable newspaper for journalism, but I only scan it once or twice a week.
- Subscribed to and donate to ProPublica - the last truly independent source of news in the US.
- Take other news through a comedy filter - whether Stephen Colbert, Samantha Bee, or The Daily Show. There's a reason clowns and jesters have always existed, so go with it.
- Pick and choose the rare activity that reflects your views (trying to get to tonight's vigil, but don't have a ride, so I may opt for the online version).
- I use 5calls.org - once a week I use it to contact my local representatives on various issues, they provide handy scripts and I feel like I can do that without any exertion.
- I don't watch news/debates/etc. directly unless something really urgent is happening (following weather news and praying for NoLa right now).
- Following up on minor health issues I have postponed for years for one reason or another.
- Continuing to engage in creative processes on an almost daily basis (for me, dance and singing).
- Spending social time with people IRL - family and friends. Sometimes we talk politics, sometimes we don't,but either way it's enjoyable.
- Plan getaways or even staycations in which you are truly unplugged. I find even just the planning makes me feel better.
- Ignore people who are clearly in the brainwashed base. Send them love and light privately, but don't engage - most of them are energy vampires (intentional or unintentional).
- Keep visualizing a better future.
I send you love, light, hugs, peace.
LOL. Noted, and I agree. Monkey dung is at least useful for scientific research. I think of anything Orange Foolius is good for.
He flings it, hourly. Good thing it only sticks to the stupid.
I loathe him. I see his smirking face and hear his pompous voice and I want to vomit.
I'm so angry that I can't be close to my family who supports this monster. I'm so angry when I see a "Trump 2020: Making Liberals Cry Again" bumperstickers and t-shirts. That people think this is funny, when so many people are suffering.
I'm so angry that my life is pretty much divided into two parts--pre-Trump and now.
I'm so effin angry of all the hate that Obama got, that he got screwed out of a Supreme Court pick, by the Republicans who no longer care. Not that they cared before, but now they aren't hiding it.