Post Election Considerations
Thanks in no small part to the vast and evil knowledge of![[personal profile]](https://imgprx.livejournal.net/11969aad00ff18a76edbfaff8a2e23f9c2977df5/gv7faLO-ssTdUBGKZpLF87fL1VLRD7-rJGOUUHrirjQsZVyvBQmdi0L0PMO3ah5bK3TFzUjHw5giCoyu_b4bGj75xUKIMcdkSSst12zonL8)
james_davis_nicoll and the kindly directional wisdom of autopope that pointed me to this post over at Making Light, I've had the dubious pleasure of reading the extreme expressions of displeasure of those at the fruitbattier end of the "ZOMG Obama End Times AAAAAaaaaaiiiieee!!!!!!" spectrum. And because I like to a) spread the WTFness and b) I do, meanly, enjoy drinking their tears, I provide the links to you.
Many of you have undoubtedly already read some of this ... material; you needn't do so again. But it certainly was a learning experience for me.
Folks like this amaze me. While I think back to 2000 and realize that I saw - and felt - a great deal of anger at the outcome of that presidential election, I'm hard-pressed to think of this many progressives or even general Democrats who were so sure that Bush's re-election meant the end of all things. Gloriously, almost transcendentally, sure.
I use those qualifiers deliberately.
It seems to me that there's a qualitative difference between the reactions we saw after 2000 and those we're seeing now. The Donald and his tweets, Rove with his on camera panic (possibly because he realized at that moment that he'd squandered his masters' money), every commentator certain that ballots cast for Obama were proof of voter suppression rather than an actual outcome, all the wingnuts behind those links; they all give off the same vibes to greater or lesser degrees.
As I said over at James' journal, they all seem like kids secretly hoping for a war because it'll be exciting to be the heroes.
How else to explain their apocalyptically flavored terminology, their obsessive belief that some quasi-militaristic end time is Just Around the Corner (and has always been Just Around the Corner)? They imagine it with such happy attention to detail, this world they're spinning into existence inside their heads ... it suggests some of them might be unhappy if the scenario fails to materialize.
And they really think they're the underdogs, because Christians of the vaguely evangelical variety, many of them of northern European descent, have no power in our society, as we all know.
Childish pipe dreams of the most toxic sort. Yeah, it's scary after we stop laughing and indulging in schadenfreude. It's very, very sad.
On the other hand, I also want to pass along news of good things and I consider this campaign purely, positively, cheekily brilliant. The moment I read this was truly joyful. This idea almost makes using the phrase "thinking outside the box" worthwhile. For people who thought that the Occupy movement had faded away, this is a particularly lovely heads-up that it hasn't. Thanks tosupergee and, again, to Making Light.
And of course, there's this. If you haven't seen it by now, perhaps it will make you smile. Hell, even if you've seen it before, you might want to see it again. And I'd much rather react to my ideological opponents in this fashion than in the splenetic, grammatically challenged perorations you'll find courtesy of the first couple of links.
This entry was originally posted at http://kaffyr.dreamwidth.org/240515.html?mode=reply, where there are currently
comments. You can comment there or here; I watch both.
Thanks in no small part to the vast and evil knowledge of
Many of you have undoubtedly already read some of this ... material; you needn't do so again. But it certainly was a learning experience for me.
Folks like this amaze me. While I think back to 2000 and realize that I saw - and felt - a great deal of anger at the outcome of that presidential election, I'm hard-pressed to think of this many progressives or even general Democrats who were so sure that Bush's re-election meant the end of all things. Gloriously, almost transcendentally, sure.
I use those qualifiers deliberately.
It seems to me that there's a qualitative difference between the reactions we saw after 2000 and those we're seeing now. The Donald and his tweets, Rove with his on camera panic (possibly because he realized at that moment that he'd squandered his masters' money), every commentator certain that ballots cast for Obama were proof of voter suppression rather than an actual outcome, all the wingnuts behind those links; they all give off the same vibes to greater or lesser degrees.
As I said over at James' journal, they all seem like kids secretly hoping for a war because it'll be exciting to be the heroes.
How else to explain their apocalyptically flavored terminology, their obsessive belief that some quasi-militaristic end time is Just Around the Corner (and has always been Just Around the Corner)? They imagine it with such happy attention to detail, this world they're spinning into existence inside their heads ... it suggests some of them might be unhappy if the scenario fails to materialize.
And they really think they're the underdogs, because Christians of the vaguely evangelical variety, many of them of northern European descent, have no power in our society, as we all know.
Childish pipe dreams of the most toxic sort. Yeah, it's scary after we stop laughing and indulging in schadenfreude. It's very, very sad.
On the other hand, I also want to pass along news of good things and I consider this campaign purely, positively, cheekily brilliant. The moment I read this was truly joyful. This idea almost makes using the phrase "thinking outside the box" worthwhile. For people who thought that the Occupy movement had faded away, this is a particularly lovely heads-up that it hasn't. Thanks to
And of course, there's this. If you haven't seen it by now, perhaps it will make you smile. Hell, even if you've seen it before, you might want to see it again. And I'd much rather react to my ideological opponents in this fashion than in the splenetic, grammatically challenged perorations you'll find courtesy of the first couple of links.
This entry was originally posted at http://kaffyr.dreamwidth.org/240515.html?mode=reply, where there are currently
- Current Location:the livingroom
- Current Mood:
contemplative - Current Music:hammers and saws somewhere
Comments
*CACKLES*
*SQUISHES YOU*
Glad to have been of service, my dear. At least with the hilarity.
*hugs you*
(Have I plugged David Graeber's Debt: The First 5000 Years to you before? His analysis of the politics of debt and debt forgiveness since the earliest civilisations is fascinating...)
And no, if you'll pardon me, not daring go near any more of those blogs. Followed a link from a BBC News report to a Tea Party blog the other night, spent half an hour reading comments and came away gibbering - and that was after I knew they'd lost!
"I for one would happily welcome the Freepers to the UK.
They are welcome to come as long as they leave their guns behind, accept the most socialist socialist healthcare system in the socialist European Union, and pay their progressive 40% income tax on income above the first £37,401 (about US $59,700). They'll also have to put up with an 85% majority of the public supporting abortion (Free! paid for by the socialist healthcare socialist abortion system), free contraceptives, and mandatory sex education in schools. And to add insult to injury, mandatory religious education in schools, which really turns kids off religion, which is why about 60% of their new fellow countrymen are atheists.
Yeah, the freepers will really fit in here. Just ask Donald Trump about his experiences in Scotland! Or Pat "a dark nation where the homosexuals are unbelievably strong" Robertson."
At moments like that I can really quite love my country ;-)
Isn't it a wonderful idea? (Now I shall have to look for Graeber's book, and add it to my ever-lengthening list of "to-read" books. I really have to get my head out of fanfic for a while!)
spent half an hour reading comments and came away gibbering
Oh, I completely understand. As I said to someone, I read those things and don't realize just how much they affect me until I realize that I'm afflicted with the intense desire to take a long, hot, cleansing shower.
Oh god, you mean I have to think? Heh.
I especially like the idea of buying someone's debt and forgiving it.
But the second two links cheered me up. Especially the Rolling Jubilee project. What an utterly wonderful, beautiful idea. Take advantage of the commodification of debt, and then erase that debt in order to free people of it. Beautifully simple, wonderfully effective.
*hugs*
The difficult part will be for those of us who are indulging in more than a little gloating to calm down and somehow try to communicate, meaningfully, with at least some portion of these people. We may tell ourselves that they're only a portion of the far end of the political spectrum, but their portion of that end of the spectrum is far larger than it should be. And for every 1 complete nutter, there are 10-20 people who share at least some portion of their beliefs. And they are our fellow Americans; we have to break through their apprehensions and misapprehensions somehow; that will involve us being willing to listen to a lot of crap and being willing to stop being quite as self-righteous as we might think we have a right to be. (And my pardon for that last rather convoluted sentence.)