Glide

Fuckin' preach. It's easy to see that it's all shadows on the wall once you're out of the cave. That doesn't make the people chained up inside any less intelligent or human. There's something else keeping them there, and it's hard to be convinced that something you've lived with your entire life is chaining you down.

The "they called me racist, so now I'm going to hate immigrants harder!" memes are both more real and more damaging than anyone, self-included, realized.

The only way to start bridging this division is to keep in mind that they're people too. I'd even argue against calling Trump Voters strictly shitty, hateful people (though truly shitty, hateful people are among them). More often than not, they're scared, hurt people. They're people who have been convinced that if they don't defend themselves and their neighbours, the "other" will come for them.

Never forget that these people all genuinely believe that what they are doing is right. Attempting to dismiss and demean them is only going to further validate that they are right and you are the enemy. We need them to see the right-wing brain rot that has wormed it's way into the hopes and fears for what it is, and we'll never get there through further division and demonization.

It's very easy to fear becoming the minority when you are willing to treat minorities like they're sub-human. This is the divide: it's not that I don't think the world is becomming less white; it's that I don't care. I WANT diversity, and I am willing to become a minority in support of that. Hopefully in a world where diversity is the standard, one wouldn't need to be afraid of being a minority.

Oh boy, I can't wait for abstinance to be taught as the only form of sexual education in America.

I'm really glad to hear my words reached someone, regardless of whether they resonated with OP. Right now especially, we have to remember that life is what we choose to make it. Thanks for letting me know, as well. Makes it feel worth typing out, sometimes.

To be fair, I have heard a lot of vague fear mongering around the project with very little clear statements of exactly what it's proposing, until this thread. None of this is to suggest it's not as bad as people were making it out to be - it seems fucking horrific and regressive - but I won't attack someone for wanting to know the specifics.

Mind you, I'm Canadian. If I were American, I suspect I'd have read at least parts of the primary text, because that's what I tend to do.

EDIT: Okay, I decided to start reading about it right after making this post. It's fucked. You all are fucked. Welcome to a White Christian Nationalist Ethnostate.

She isn't even the most interesting or well-written character in Origins. /shrug

What an insane take. If both sides are equal on one completely undefendable thing, then you vote based on other issues. One of the two parties are going to be in power at the end of this election cycle, regardless. Both are permitting genocide, and it's a fucking problem, meanwhile only one of those parties are actively working to strip the people's right to do something about that.

All this "both sides" bullshit feels disingenuous. If you were really concerned, you'd be focused on paths to solutions, rather than focusing strictly on trying to devalue Democratic votes. I certainly don't see any path to stopping this genocide that starts with permitting a Trump presidency.

My life is almost a total failure. I am in my 20s

Your life has barely started. It can't be a failure when it's barely begun. You spend 18 years with no real control over yourself or your trajectory, then you finally begin to make a few relevant decisions for yourself. Even if you're 29, you really only start your life when you're 19-20. That's 10 years out of 50+, assuming you live to be at least 70. You have only lived a small fraction of your life.

I won't pretend to know the unique challenges you're facing, the difficulities of finding work in your region/with your degree, or the social/economic struggles you're facing because I am so far divorced from your life that any direct discussion is so meaningless. I would never have the relevant information and context, so I can't suggest what you should do in a tangible way. What I can say, is this: find what you want to measure your life in, and work towards that. If you value your life through work and wealth, I can understand why you'd feel the way you do, but there far more ways to be prosperous, and things you can focus on.

A healthy dose of positive nihilism would do you wonders: each and every one of us is so tiny, so insignificant, that the difference between a "successful" and "unsuccessful" life in the terms you've defined literally do not matter. You and Elon Musk will both die and decompose, and regardless of either of your impact on the world, this rock we're riding around the sun will continue to support life for a time, and one day everything humanity has ever conceived will be dust, and our sun will explode, and the universe won't care if you lived with your parents or owned a mansion. The only things that matter are the things we, individually, give meaning to. If you choose to find meaning and value in creating art then your work has meaning and value. If you choose to find meaning and value in helping others find joy and happiness, then dedicate yourself to your friends, your family and your community, because that has meaning and value. If you want to experience the world through literature and media, then engaging with that material has meaning and value. No one else can define what matters to you in this world, because they're not you.

I'm sorry that what you've spent time and energy on isn't panning out for you. I really, truly am. But step back, and think about if those things matter to you because they matter to you, or because everyone else has told you it's what a successful, prosperous life looks like. Then consider what your version of a good and meaningful is, and chase that. Many people waste 10, 15, 20+ years on things that they ultimately realize don't bring them joy. In a way, you're lucky to have found out sometime in your 20s that what you've been working on isn't leading you where you want to be. It took me until 33.

Yeah, there's a lot of cheeky "hurr, thanks for finally catching up!" in response to all these recent articles about Trump being an ignorant, bigoted dictator wannabe, and while none of them are wrong, it's just not useful commentary. All this self-servinf political-intellectual one-upsmanship only serves to talk down to people who are finally coming around to the reality of the situation, and I'd much rather be glad it's finally being said than jerk myself off over the fact that I've known it for the past 8 years.

I get that it's frustrating to have mainstream media only finally admitting to Trump's anti-democratic position as early ballots are beginning to make things look like he's losing this race, but it's just not constructive conversation. Spread the word, get more people exposed to this, rather than lording it over others that it's old news.

My man, if a shadowy cabal of elites were dictating who won and lost the upcoming election, they sure as fuck wouldn't be manipulating results in such a base-level way. They'd just have the numbers fudged at the end, rather than take risks with tracked objects going missing.

God, I can't wait for the election cycle to end so the majority of the trolls, nutters and Russian astroturfers can finally crawl back into their respective holes for another 3.5 years.

I can't believe someone uttered that monologue with the expectation that it's a winning argument. Like, yes? Perform sex acts without consent and the police should be, in fact, after you.

"You sick bastards will permit anything as long as it's between consenting adults!"

Ummm, yeah? Glad you finally grasp what we've been saying.