Travis
Misanthrope of the Mountains
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2007
- Messages
- 24,133
This election is draining me. But it isn't the Trump nonsense as I generally don't know anyone that subjects me to his brain droppings. It is the ongoing petulant slap fight on the Democratic side. It has made facebook such an exhausting ordeal that I've opted to just skip it most days rather start unfriending people in large numbers.
And what really gets me is that it is people on my side that are really annoying me the most. The Bernie zealots have just pushed me to the edge of a breakdown. Their constant appeal to conspiracy theories and immediate proclamations of "SHILL!" whenever someone points this out or in any way criticizes Bernie makes me really wonder just how different they are from the Truthers we all used to love mocking.
Even here in this forum I've had people accuse me of lying about being a Bernie supporter because I don't venerate his every utterance. It is possible to not agree with everything a candidate stands for and still like them. It is also possible to still hold great respect for their opponent. Shocking, I know.
The nonsense at the NV convention was illuminating. How hypocritical is it to get angry when your attempts to bypass the rules doesn't work and then to complain the system is corrupt? I'd say very. I've long had my suspicion that much of the bad part of the Bernie support comes from his followers being new to the way politics works. That they are naive and shocked to find out politics isn't just giving everything to the angry mob. That there are rules, a system, to make sure that it isn't just a populist whim and that, in the long run, this is a good thing.
Someone made an effort to track down some of the agitators that made threats against Roberta Lange and I found the results unsurprising. Young people who just don't get that the braying mob doesn't always get its way when it screams REAL LOUD.
I know lots of great Bernie supporters. And I note they tend to be a bit older and more inured in the way things work. They are people like my veterinarian and some school teachers. They like him but he ain't no Messiah because, seriously, he isn't. He ain't even that different from the "evil one" Hillary.
And lets get on that. Is she unlikable? Polls say so. But why? I've come to the conclusion that people think she's unlikable because others keep saying she is unlikable. It's a self fulfilling prophesy of sorts. Most of my recent social media arguments have come via constant shares from #DropOutHillary which exists because she has gotten the most votes and is therefore on track to be the nominee which angers many in the Bernie crowd who apparently think he should win even though he didn't because "reasons".
Gee, isn't thinking you should get your way even when you didn't win sort of like the system perversion that you rail against? Can they be so unaware?
Why not be gracious losers? There's dignity in that. It's what I planned on being. I threw my support behind someone that the talking heads on TV said had no chance because the Progressive Left was nothing more than a statistically insignificant fringe movement and watched him make a really good race out of it. Bernie doing so well has proven the talking heads wrong. That is a huge win right there! A win that could be capitalized on and made into something more permanent in the future. Use that momentum and get more like minded politicians into congress! Use the system don't just stand outside and hurl insults at it thinking that will let you get your way.
Oh, but I know even making such suggestions makes me a "shill" undoubtedly working for the same "corporate fascists that imploded the WTC" or something.
And what really gets me is that it is people on my side that are really annoying me the most. The Bernie zealots have just pushed me to the edge of a breakdown. Their constant appeal to conspiracy theories and immediate proclamations of "SHILL!" whenever someone points this out or in any way criticizes Bernie makes me really wonder just how different they are from the Truthers we all used to love mocking.
Even here in this forum I've had people accuse me of lying about being a Bernie supporter because I don't venerate his every utterance. It is possible to not agree with everything a candidate stands for and still like them. It is also possible to still hold great respect for their opponent. Shocking, I know.
The nonsense at the NV convention was illuminating. How hypocritical is it to get angry when your attempts to bypass the rules doesn't work and then to complain the system is corrupt? I'd say very. I've long had my suspicion that much of the bad part of the Bernie support comes from his followers being new to the way politics works. That they are naive and shocked to find out politics isn't just giving everything to the angry mob. That there are rules, a system, to make sure that it isn't just a populist whim and that, in the long run, this is a good thing.
Someone made an effort to track down some of the agitators that made threats against Roberta Lange and I found the results unsurprising. Young people who just don't get that the braying mob doesn't always get its way when it screams REAL LOUD.
I know lots of great Bernie supporters. And I note they tend to be a bit older and more inured in the way things work. They are people like my veterinarian and some school teachers. They like him but he ain't no Messiah because, seriously, he isn't. He ain't even that different from the "evil one" Hillary.
And lets get on that. Is she unlikable? Polls say so. But why? I've come to the conclusion that people think she's unlikable because others keep saying she is unlikable. It's a self fulfilling prophesy of sorts. Most of my recent social media arguments have come via constant shares from #DropOutHillary which exists because she has gotten the most votes and is therefore on track to be the nominee which angers many in the Bernie crowd who apparently think he should win even though he didn't because "reasons".
Gee, isn't thinking you should get your way even when you didn't win sort of like the system perversion that you rail against? Can they be so unaware?
Why not be gracious losers? There's dignity in that. It's what I planned on being. I threw my support behind someone that the talking heads on TV said had no chance because the Progressive Left was nothing more than a statistically insignificant fringe movement and watched him make a really good race out of it. Bernie doing so well has proven the talking heads wrong. That is a huge win right there! A win that could be capitalized on and made into something more permanent in the future. Use that momentum and get more like minded politicians into congress! Use the system don't just stand outside and hurl insults at it thinking that will let you get your way.
Oh, but I know even making such suggestions makes me a "shill" undoubtedly working for the same "corporate fascists that imploded the WTC" or something.
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