Is liberal America approaching spiritual death?
"When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered...A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."
- Martin Luther King, 1965
It's been more than two months since Trump took office and there is still no anti-war movement. In fact, liberal America seems to be incline to bend over backwards to pretend our permanent state of war doesn't exist.
When President Trump banned some refugees from entering the country liberals were outraged, but not so outraged as to oppose our foreign policies that created those refugees in the first place. Liberals want to be pro-refugees, while also being pro-refugee causing wars.
It's bizarro politics. Typically, the election of a GOP president re-energizes the anti-war left. Yet a little over a month into the administration, much of the left is more anti-Trump than anti-war.
It is bizarro politics because there has never been a more convenient political reasons for an anti-war movement.
Liberal America decided to take the morally reprehensible position of ignoring President Obama's illegal and immoral wars for eight years, and that can't be excused or forgiven. Nevertheless, Obama is gone and Trump is in the White House now. Liberals are looking for any excuse to oppose Trump, so why not oppose his illegal and unconstitutional wars?
If a cabinet official was pushing President Trump to arrest flag burners, execute warrantless searchers, or torture death row inmates, the Washington Post would presumably note that acceding to the request would violate the United States Constitution.
By contrast, even as the newspaper’s article on Yemen policy notes that “approval of the request would mark a significant policy shift,” since “U.S. military activity in Yemen until now has been confined mainly to counterterrorism,” it leaves unmentioned these crucial bits of context: that the U.S. Congress has not declared war on Houthi rebels; and that participation in Yemen’s civil war cannot possible be justified under the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force that allows the president to wage war against the perpetrators of 9/11 and associated forces...
Secretary Mattis is urging extra-constitutional war-making. And almost no one has noticed.
...
if there is any battle worth choosing — from progressive, libertarian, and constitutional conservative perspectives alike — shouldn’t this illegal and dangerous Yemen war be it?
Yes, you might think that. From a moral perspective this is a no-brainer.
It seems incredibly obvious to oppose a) illegal and b) immoral wars that c) only create enemies and endanger our security, and d) are owned by your political opponent.
And yet, all that liberal America has managed to do is stage massive virtue signaling events.
Today’s “New American Resistance” seems to embrace at least some of this broader understanding. Joining it does not, thus far, require adherence to any particular ideology or set of tactical preferences. It simply means, in the biggest of big-tent formulations, that you really don’t like Donald Trump, and you’re willing to do something about it.
That's not good enough! You can't just oppose someone you don't like. You must stand FOR something. Otherwise there isn't even a possibility of accomplishing anything worthwhile.
Just as important as the moral side of opposing these illegal wars, is the fact that they are hopeless quagmires, and the people running them have no ideas how to win them.
After all, for more than 15 years, the U.S. military has been fighting essentially failed or failing wars – conflicts that only seem to spread the phenomenon (terrorism) they’re supposed to eradicate – in Afghanistan, Iraq, more recently Syria, intermittently Yemen, and elsewhere across the Greater Middle East and parts of Africa. In recent weeks, civilians in those distant lands have been dying in rising numbers (as, to little attention here, has been true periodically for years now). Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s generals have been quietly escalating those wars. Hundreds, possibly thousands, more American soldiers and special ops forces are being sent into Syria, Iraq, and neighboring Kuwait (about which the Pentagon will no longer provide even inaccurate numbers); U.S. air strikes have been on the rise throughout the region; the U.S. commander in Afghanistan is calling for reinforcements; U.S. drone strikes recently set a new record for intensity in Yemen; Somalia may be the next target of mission creep and escalation; and it looks as if Iran is now in Washington’s sniper scopes. In this context, it’s worth noting that, even with a significant set of anti-Trump groups now taking to the streets in protest, none are focused on America’s wars.
Yesterday was the 50th Anniversary of MLK coming out against the Vietnam War. Liberal America largely overlooked this anniversary, just like it overlooked the message.
Instead liberal America seems to be obsessed with pointless self-ego-stroking exercises that only prove that too many liberals have completely lost touch with what actually matters. The purpose of politics is supposed to be about shared values. Things that actually matter. And if the issue of mass murder committed in illegal wars in our name isn't important enough to protest in liberal America, then what is?
Many liberals today seem to believe that their own personal outrage at "hurtful words" is a worthy cause, but children being blown apart by bombs isn't.
It's narcissistic navel-gazing. That these people seem to think they own the moral high-ground is laughable.
This is a moral and political crisis. Liberals are the ones who are supposed to know empathy. Yet that empathy seems to completely stop at our borders, not to mention failing to extend to political opponents.
I have no idea how to reach people that are so divorced from reality.
Comments
Moral and Political crisis
A need to re-affirm basic humanity.
Great essay gjohn
I want a Pony!
The answer to your question is "yes."
American politics has been reduced to screaming for or against Trump. Trump is the only signifier that has any meaning. Everything else can and should be warped around the political gravity of the Savior of America/Apocalypse-Hitler.
I ask myself daily if it would be better for me simply to stop talking about politics.
Good essay.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
talking about politics
But then what would you talk to us about?
And I don't know about the rest of us, but I, for one, would miss you severely, and that subito!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
@thanatokephaloides Thanks, than. And that
Thanks, than.
And that is, indeed, one of the reasons I keep talking. Because of you guys.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
People are afraid of losing even more of what they once
had. For example:
Net worth of Americans aged 55 to 64 have shrunk back to 1989 levels
People 65 and older with debt has grown to 44% from 30% since 1998
Boomers face a worse retirement outlook than their parents
Young people are less well off than than their parents at the same age.
When protests occur they are met with a militarized police force backed up by the courts when they administer on-the-scene punishment like pepper spraying peaceful sit-ins. Any police record and your job prospect evaporate.
There are no national elected leaders, including Sanders, who are taking a pronounced and prolonged anti-war position. The American war against the people of South Vietnam saw both senators from AK plus Sen McCarthy and others stand up against the president of their own party. Not one took that position against Obama. Even the Republican Sen Aiken of VT suggested the USA should declare victory and come home.
I don't condone the apathy, or maybe self-protection, but there are reasons people are afraid. Some of the same reasons apply to the climate catastrophe with the exception of the American Indians (and allies) who put aside centuries old antagonisms against one another(in many cases) to protect the earth.
I would hope that leadership would emerge from the water protectors - it might yet.
Like you, I am baffled. Politicians, like Obama, and most members of Congress, ignore the documented needs of the majority with impunity.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
where the rubber hits the road
Permanently. At age 58, I am one of what is now three American adult generations who have never known anything else except a glutted labor market. Real balance -- where everyone is fully employed and a non-zero number of jobs in every market can't be filled -- has been unknown in this country since the mid-1970s. Employers, of course, are taking maximum advantage, using this situation to cull out everybody who has made the slightest trouble of any kind for the oligarchy.
And that, of course, is "where the rubber hits the road".
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Very sorry about your situation.
Uncle Whiskers called it the "reserve army of labor" and the large group of people on the edge was needed by capitalist to suppress wages.
Things have not changed and until the system is uprooted they won't change, in my view.
Best of luck to you & sincere good wishes
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
During Obama's regime, I liked to point out that he
maintained an 80% approval rating from democrats his entire eight years. He may have dipped to the high seventies a few times, but roughly nearly 80% the whole way. I always found that amazing and indicative of democratic party voters and partisans. At first I thought perhaps a hypocritical antiwar movement would emerge from the democrats against Trump but then they hooked their wagon to Russia and I realized they had no room to wiggle. They already supported all the wars and imperialist actions for eight straight years, many that Obama started and that Trump is continuing, so what are they going to protest? Now they're the lead cheerleaders for war against Russia so they're effectively out-warmongering the warmonger republicans.
He not only had a high approval rating
but many people were not aware of what he was doing in the Middle East. How else can you explain comments like "he ended two wars and hasn't started any new ones"? Or that he has killed less people than Bush did " and other statements like that?
Every time I talked to someone about his kill list, his use of drones in more countries every year and his bombings of hospitals, they always found some way to excuse his actions.
I thought that the anti war movement was starting up again after the incident in Yemen that got a US soldier killed along with one American girl and other civilians including a pregnant woman. But it was short lived.
And it's not only the people in this country that aren't protesting the wars. The whole world protested the Iraq war and once it was underway, they went silent.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
What liberals? You mean the Democrats?
Self-identified Democrats and Republicans are disappearing. We have more Independent than the two of them added together. Now we just need the parties to die. How you get people to vote vs stupid people voting is a dilemma I don't know how to solve.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
I'm going with the idea of "self-identified liberals"
People that where little, pink hats and are anti-Trump without being more pro-something else are liberals.
I'm not part of that group. I self-identify as an anarcho-socialist.
Liberals wouldn't want to be associated with my ideas/opinions.
Me neither. These days I think of myself as an ecosocialist
with a capital "S" on the socialist.
Party identification is ebbing and I think the change will come from the broad swath of independents who can't stand either party. Leave the Democrats to Rahm, Rubin & the Clintons and the Republicans to Trump, Ryan, and Hatch. The CFR controls them anyway and they are wedded to the political economy that is killing the planet.
The wars can be stopped; the greatest extinction event in the past 65 million years may not be stoppable and the loss of biodiversity will end large scale human civilization.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
@gjohnsit This is a little mean,
This is a little mean, but...
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Thank you for this!
This is exactly why I cannot condone the "Resist" meme being foisted upon us. It is meaningless to people who are struggling with their every day lives. People are just trying to keep their heads above water and that seems to be a big part of the problem of why we do not see much activism any more.
It is also why we could not add to our Peace vigil group during the Obama administration. I know we tried to recruit people to join us and one or two showed up for one week and then disappeared. Now the rest of the vigil is defunct due to age and health problems.
During the time that the Peace vigil was active, we tried to get people to connect the dots of why these wars were directly responsible for their own personal hardships.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Another reason all D's are divorced from reality
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/04/04/stupid-is-as-stupid-does/
If you prefer fake news, fake data, and a fake narrative about an improving economy and stock market headed to 30,000, don’t read this fact based, reality check article. The level of stupidity engulfing the country has reached epic proportions, as the mainstream fake news networks flog bullshit Russian conspiracy stories, knowing at least 50% of the non-thinking iGadget distracted public believes anything they hear on the boob tube.
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
Re:
Buybacks are stock manipulation plain and simple. That's
why they were illegal until capital owned enough pols to repeal the rule.
Only the stockholding class benefits and the small investor with his/her 401K is screwed again when the crash occurs. (Hint: If you have a 401K, you won't be bailed out.)
I think most of us can spell parasite by now.
Why are they doing this instead of making investments which is what corporations are supposed to do with profits? Because investment opportunities are falling below the level of cash monopoly capital produces. This results in secular(long term) stagnation and those who own the global economy either stash their money in off shore tax havens(The UK runs a lot of these) or engage in stock buybacks which the owners of the stock sell to retail investors who get stuck with the losses.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
My own company
just sort of bragged about taking on massive amounts of debt. They don't SAY it was to buy back stocks per se, but they also brag about buying back stock. We are forced to watch what I call Corporate Kool-Aid videos on financial performance, etc. It's all I can do to not scream back at them while watching, and sometimes, I freely admit, I partake of a now legal substance here in WA state just to get through them. I work from home now, thank God, so at least no one hears me when I do yell back. Our CEO also thinks Rump will be good for the company and said so... Made me wonder how many people who had to be in the room when he did that were near screaming themselves. Most likely not as many as I'd like.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
Just sit back and think of the enormity of
what those two paragraphs state.
It's utterly mind boogling
You have to go to Hawford or Yale to learn that
it's no wonder we're so fucked.
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
Some stupid has to be taught
at expensive universities.
Junior colleges can't afford that complexity of stupid.
Do you think that this time when the market crashes
then they are going with the bail IN instead of the bailout like what happened in Greece when the banks took people's money. This was written in to one of the latest omnibus bills which stated that the banks could keep people's money for bailing themselves out.
Any suggestions on what people should be doing now to protect themselves from having their money wiped out?
The bank crashes are rigged to happen every decade or so and according to this article it looks like one is one its way. And again the people who are going to be affected by this are the ones who can least afford it.
Look at how many people that were retired had to return to work after the last crash.
Joe had an article on Citibank's crimes that they only had to pay fines on and again no one was even charged let alone prosecuted.
Here's the link to the article about Why hasn't Citibank's charter been yanked?
http://wallstreetonparade.com/2017/04/why-hasnt-citigroups-banking-chart...
The Obama amnesia is astonishing.
https://socialistworker.org/2017/01/27/against-amnesia-the-empire-under-...
Both articles are great reads.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
@snoopydawg All I know so far is
All I know so far is that it *might* be safer to have your money in a credit union instead of a big bank. I'm trying to get my mom to move her money, and to get around to doing it for myself, as well. I'm nagged by the feeling that probably that won't be enough, but anything's better than leaving it where the banks can get it.
I'm afraid of the cashless society they have bearing down on us like a shark...
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I moved my money to a credit union over a decade ago
I was with Chase and they were adding fees for the silliest reasons and I had to confront them and fight to get them reversed too many times and had enough.
I wish more people would take their money out and if enough people were aware of the bail in that might be coming, they would.
I too am worried about the cashless society and can't believe how many people in the European countries that are trying this are okay with it.
That's giving up more control.
And catch this. A company in some European town is chipping their employees with a microchip that allows them to open secured doors, purchase things in their cafeterias and other things. The people are doing this willingly. And that means that the companies can track how long they are in the restrooms or other places.
That's just as nuts as the people in the cashless societies. And we know Why they want cash to go away.
Good lord, I hope I'm dead before this shit happens here.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
The anti-war faction on the left will kick in
once Trump goes to war with Russia.
You say,
But won't they all die in one day, like the rest of us?
This is one of the biggest questions I'm struggling with about the lack of awareness, which takes the form of not caring, about war on the part of the liberal Democratic community.
What exactly do they visualize in terms of a "war with Russia"? Bullets flying across the borderline in Estonia? Ground war in Ukraine to Volgograd? U.S. troops here and there advising other NATO troops. Towns being blown up, producing heart-rending pictures of little children with their heads blown off, but nothing coming here? Like our war with phantom terrorism?
What exactly do they think the endgame would be? A meeting at which the issues that led to the war would be discussed and then documents signed to end it?
If we invade Russia, even if we call ourselves NATO, Russia will defend itself, and all those nuclear weapons NATO has surrounding Russia will be the ultimate threat they must face. Russia will have to use whatever it has in order to meet that threat.
This is why Ashton Carter pushed the limited nuclear war idea and the dial-a-yield program to modernize our nukes, so that we could use them in the minds of the neocons and liberals we're discussing here. Their use by our forces would be perceived as an act of defense because the war would be provoked in order that Russia would be seen as the initiator. Therefore, nuclear weapons will have saved us from annihilation, and we will thus have a need, which we would not have without this horseshit crisis, to continue the trillions of dollars needed for the modernization and production of newer, more useable nuclear weapons on into the future.
Ashton Carter is a career nuclear weapons procurement specialist, and he and his colleagues are only doing their jobs, for the industry, which would be dead without this theatrically produced, effectively scripted, bullshit Russia crisis.
The people who believe in this craven leadership are so uniformed that they are a danger to themselves and to all life on this planet.
Excellent comment, Linda!
I too wonder what the hell people think is going to happen if NATO does go to war with Russia. They have been building up troop strength in a lot of countries that surround Russia including missile defense systems. Why would they think that they would need those if they weren't possibly planning on using nuclear weapons against Russia. I have read that some people think that we will survive if we only used mini nukes on Russia. I guess that they haven't thought of all the Russian submarines that have full strength nukes on them and we don't know where they are.
Just plain madness if they think we are going to survive if they use nukes on Russia.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
@Linda Wood I'm not sure they will.
I'm not sure they will. Russia=bad, right? We want to go to war with Russia. They kept us from having Hillary.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I was being facetious
Unfortunately, there was still an element of truth to my comment.
BTW, I agree with you.
The Hill bots wanted to make Trump an enemy to America by connecting him to Russia. Now that Trump has reversed himself what are they going to do? American politics is completely fucked up. How many absolute goofs are running this country?
Putin has said on more than one occasion, "The next war will not be fought on Russian soil." It is now as easy for Russia to strike the US as it is the country right next door. There will be no proxies involved if the Russian mother land is attacked. Unlike Trump or Hillary, Putin doesn't rant, rave or bluster. He talks calmly, rationally and follows through on his promises. Unlike WWI or WWII, WWIII will also be fought on American soil, if even for the one day it may last.
This does seem to be the script they are preparing
at the "highest" Pentagon/NATO echelons. But I don't know how anyone can regard such plans and projections as being anything but advocacy for pure evil. Unfortunately, the US chattering class (which includes a great many self-described liberals) appears unwilling to raise any serious objections to the very real and growing possibility of WW3. Or even to notice it very much.
Are they simply ignorant of the imminent danger? Have they sealed themselves off so completely within their own perceptual bubble, that they are actually unaware of these deadly plans that are being brewed up? Are they able only to parrot Pentagon propaganda, and no more than that? Can they not see beyond the ends of their own stuck-up noses, and perceive that a nuclear war is being prepared for them?
Well, if our current crop of brilliant warmongers get their way, at least we won't have to worry anymore about anyone's spiritual death. Instead we'll have millions of undeniably physical corpses to deal with, and it won't matter a bit who's a liberal and who isn't.
native
This morning I saw headline after headline on various websites
About how Assad used sarin gas on his own people. Again. And of course John McCain was spouting his usual hypocritical BS about how it's a war crime to use chemical weapons on civilians. Guess ole John has forgotten about the millions of gallons of Agent Orange that this country sprayed over the Vietnamese people.
Or the bombs he dropped on them too. Before he crashed his 5th plane.
In the comments people were saying that Assad has to be removed from office because he is a bad dictator.
Anyone who wrote anything that didn't go with that message were called Putin lovers after he stated that bombs hit either ISIS' or Al Qaida's weapons caches and that was how the gas was released.
I beyond amazed at how many people have lost their critical thinking skills and believe any propaganda that they release.
Gulfgal hit on some of the reasons for why people aren't protesting the wars. They are trying to keep their heads above water and especially every time there is any type of protesting, the militarized police come and shut them down and often arrest people whose only crime is to be there.
But look on the bright side, the IGTNT diaries may make a comeback on DK. As long as one doesn't say anything bad about why those soldiers died. Right?
Good essay, gs
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Assad might have actually done it this time
But it's like denouncing suicide bombing while looking the other way about regular bombing.
I doubt the victims can tell the difference.
I guess
he did it in order to get our minds off of Trump's war crimes in Mosul and Yemen.
Whoever did it changed the subject swiftly and effectively.
And
Trump's war crimes in Syria, the mosque bombing. I forgot. See how fast it goes away? Assad bombing a weapons cache makes it all go away.
@thanatokephaloides @gjohnsit He might have,
He might have, but of course, after the fiasco last time, it's hard to believe. They're like the boy who cried wolf up there in DC--and on the major "news" networks.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
It's the timing.
The timing of these things is always so useful to the war machine, every time it looks like people are turning away from their disinterest or their support for the war, and are starting to support ending it, something like this happens to keep it going or to escalate it.
A few weeks ago,
Trump was being called a war criminal. Now he's changing his position about Assad and is pretending to be outraged about the deaths of innocent people, seemingly as a pretext to escalate the war. Why would Assad act in a way to change the perception of this crisis so that he is again the unspeakable bad guy? Both times that chemical weapons attacks were attributed to Assad, there was no logic or rational reason for him to use them. But in both cases, the United States then had to act. Here was Trump 3 weeks ago:
Three weeks ago, Trump was accused of being a war criminal. Now he's the avenger of war criminals. I see the war machine causing all of this on purpose.
Assad had no conceivable motive for this.
When investigating any crime, one of the first things to look for is a possible motive. Of course if your intention is simply to convict a particular suspect, a thorough investigation is something to be avoided.
native
Any chance you are going to post this on DK?
I would love to see the comments if anyone responds to it.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
I've been bojo'd
I don't go back there, except out of the random curiosity urge.
But someone else could post it there if they'd like to get bojo'd too.
I wasn't aware of that gs
As I said, it's there loss and all that is left over there is an echo chamber. It's like Groundhog Day because almost every diary is about Trump and Russia interfering with the election. Or that the democrats better start standing up to the republicans and Trump.
The democrats have no intention of standing up to the republicans. It's obvious when only the republicans can block legislation when they are the minority party and the democrats can't pass legislation when they are the majority party because they just don't have the votes. I saw through that game in 2006 when Pelosi told us she was going to keep their powder dry.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Echo chamber
The lack of diversity in thought on TOP has made the GOS downright boring.
That's Markos' real crime.
Sure he's guilty of censorship, but what is unforgivable is how dull and repetitive the site is now.
Well they sure collected a lot of dry powder.
Then they gave it all to Hillary, and it blew up in their faces. They've been trying to scrub off the residue ever since.
native
Well, last time I looked
gjohnsit was banned from dkos so I guess I cannot post it even if he wanted to.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
How much cheese have you got?
How much cheese have you got?
With all the whine this essay is likely to precipitate OT, you're going to need it!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Probably not enough
I didn't know that he had been bojo'd.
There loss for losing another great writer. All that's left over there is article after article about what Trump and Russia have been doing. And re fighting the election at least once a week.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Vietnam War Protests
I can remember protesting the Vietnam war in the Spring 1970. Back then there was a draft and many of us had a grade or high school friend who had been killed. Politicians figured out how to have their wars without the draft and I believe that has made a difference. Also, it was a more innocent time back then. We really thought we could "change the world." There were large protests against the Iraq war, but they were ineffective. TPTB have made a lot of effort to hamper anti-war movements like the Vietnam war protests. Just my 2 cents.
I know it didn't work
but it still made me feel good
There is Hope
Reading your economic essays has convinced me that one day the U.S. will "run out of money". Thus, the politicians will have to choose between a big Defense or the people's social safety net. IMO people will insist that their Social Security and Medicare come first. It's a matter of time.
Politics as team sport
It's something I think the Republicans got to early, but in their race to emulate them the Democrats have embraced it too. The idea of my side always right/your side always wrong even when they are pushing the same policies is ridiculous. The professional Left have done the same with pushing blind hatred of Trump among the base as the professional Right did with Obama.
I mean, they had protests against Trump before he even had time to do anything, just because he won. That dilutes real protest based on real actions and, as an added bonus, so few people want to actually discuss the terrible people and policies that gave us President Trump.
In fact, someone accused me of "politicizing" the discussion of one of these astroturffy protests by asking them to consider policies passed or supported by Obama and other Democrats that ran counter to the stated message of said protest. Because all the anti-Trump and pro-Hillary signage at that event was politically neutral somehow?
Anyway, great essay. I agree 100%. For a brief moment, I hoped this would be a wake up moment, but now I fear people are just hunkering down into their respective teams harder than before.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.