politics

My one coworker, a former Trump supporter, asked me today "Are you still 100% positive Trump will lose? Please tell me he's going to lose." She was visibly worried. Actually sounded upset, and was practically begging me to tell her yes. Never seen her like that before...

This has become a very confusing time in our political history. I'm nervous, if not outright afraid, because I can't tell which way the scales are going to tip. We need everyone to do their duty as a citizen, now more than ever.

The wild part is that both sides think this, but for totally different reasons. The center all the way over to semi-Left we have in the US sees the danger Trump posses to democracy, his weaponization of the courts (even without being in power), and his disdain for the rule of law.

The Right (minus Republicans that aren't MAGA that I would put more center thanks to the shifted Overton window) think that the "radical Left" is trying to replace them with "brown people", and trying to make everyone "woke", and somehow make everyone a pedophile by having a drag queen read them a story.

The Right uses "FUD" to control their base, with only wanting power over people and having zero desire to actually govern (as seen with congress currently), and everyone else that is paying any attention is afraid of what that means for everyone in their lives that will be affected by this cult. And even once Trump is gone from this earth, it's going to take years of mental health crisis to try and bring these people back from a cult this large and powerful. This is the kind of thing that Scientology looks at just goes "sploosh".

Then vote…

One in five Americans enjoy the country sliding into chaos.

Five out of five Americans ain’t seen nothing yet

5th American welcomes it.

Yeah but who out of those five describe “chaos” as things like social policy, lgbtq rights, and those “damn illegals coming in to the country”?

I think American politics today can be broken down as follows:

There are three main groups in America today: revolutionaries (we'll call them progressives), reactionaries (we'll call them conservatives), and the supporters of the status quo (we'll call them centrists).

The centrists are people who are generally doing well, are generally happy and content, and therefore don't want things to change significantly. They might be willing to accept relatively minor changes, but only if the changes don't negatively impact them in any meaningful way.

Progressives are people who are generally unhappy and discontent. They don't feel that things are working for them, so they want to radically change things, in the hopes of making society more like their hypothetical or theoretical ideal.

Conservatives are generally a reaction to progressives. Like progressives, conservatives aren't entirely content with the status quo, but they generally blame progressives for any problems. They believe it was progressives who created the problems when they tried to make radical changes, and conservatives therefore think the best way to solve the problems is to roll back any of the changes and to just generally go back to a better, more stable, more traditional past.

Progressives hate the centrists, for their opposition to the radical changes they propose, changes that progressives view as absolutely necessary. Progressives feel that the centrists lack empathy, as they are unable to see, or don't care, that progressives are very unhappy and discontented, and may even be suffering.

The centrists see progressives as overly idealistic malcontents who are simply blind to how good they have it and to all the status quo has given them. The centrists also resent the progressives for asking them to make sacrifices. The centrists believe they earned their success, and there's no reason to punish them for it, and that progressives are just “sore losers.”

Conservatives absolutely hate progressives, with a murderous rage. They hate that progressives want to radically change things, and they hate that progressives reject tradition and established hierarchies/hegemony. conservatives are infuriated that progressives won't show deference to traditional authority, and even dare, in some cases, to call for the destruction of said authority.

Conservatives don't necessarily like the centrists either, but any problems they have with the centrists comes down to any willingness they may have to work with progressives. For instance, if the centrists are ever willing to listen to or compromise with progressives, conservatives view that as total capitulation to the progressives, and/or the status quo being completely co-opted or infiltrated by progressives.

Conservatives now believe that the status quo has been taken over by progressives, and thus they make no distinction between the centrists and progressives, viewing both as the enemy. Therefore, it has become necessary for the centrists to ally with progressives (as much as they might hate that thought) against conservatives. However, the alliance is restricted only to opposing conservatives, and does nothing to change the centrists’ general opposition to the aims and ambitions of progressives. For this reason, progressives are reluctant to form an alliance with the centrists, since they believe the centrists are asking for the progressives’ help without offering anything in return. The centrists argue that they don't have to offer anything to the progressives, and that the progressives should help the centrists because it is also in their interest to see the conservatives defeated.

Hey look! Another poll! Let’s see what they want us to believe!

Head first!

four in five americans have eyes

That's great news. Chaos is good for ratings and that means more advertising dollars.

/s explicit if not implied.

Legit doesn't matter what side your on. The other side is destroying America and your guy is the savior. The outrage cycle won, guys. Now we're all outraged. What next?