It is like Mark Twain said: “If voting made any difference, they wouldn’t let us do it.”
OTOH, nearly half of eligible voters couldn’t be arsed to exercise the right this time around, and now we’re on a crazy train to 1950. So congrats, non-voters, YOU made the difference! When you see the mushroom cloud over Tehran on TV and look around and see all your right-wing acquaintances slavering over the millions of vaporized women and children, pat yourself on the back and say, “I did that!”.
But yeah, nice to hear you’ve learned your lesson.
He *was *fooled; I just didn’t say how. *He *did - he had been fooled into thinking it didn’t matter and that only fools vote.
I’ts the sort of superciliousness most of us have grown out of before we’re old enough to even register. So he finally caught up, a little of the way, although he’s still having trouble with understanding the importance of lower offices. But that gets praise? Why?
Praise costs nothing, and encourages others to consider that changing their minds and learning would be met with a welcoming attitude, rather than condescension and mockery. Condescension, on the other hand, accomplishes nothing, while risking that others on the fence might see the voting-and-engagement side as a group that they would prefer not to be a part of.
Basically, it’s as simple as “be kind except when being kind causes harm”. In this case, being kind causes no harm.
But that’s not true. You cannot hold Idle Thoughts to blame for the apathy of the other 100 million voters.
You can hold the apathetic attitude that he held prior to the election to blame, and disparage that, but once someone has changed that attitude and “seen the light” as it were, it is pointless to continue to berate them for the attitude they held before (unless they are regressing, of course.)
Holding the individual responsible for the similar actions of millions of other people will only cause them to be less likely to admit their error, and continue to act in the fashion that we find irresponsible.
Have you ever made a mistake? If you made a mistake, and learned from it, do you think it fair to continue to berated for that mistake after you have already stated (rather sincerely and eloquently) what you have learned from it?
If you were berated for admitting to a mistake and learning and growing from it, do you think that would increase or decrease your chances of admitting to and learning from a mistake in the first place?
Now, I will agree that there is no reason to praise the idea that he will take up the mantel of a civically engaged adult, but praise can be given for the willingness for self examination and improvement.
I like watching infighting between angry liberals.
The OP claims that “I was wrong and you were right”.
I contend that you are both wrong and you’re both ignorant.
I even remember how many liberals wanted Trump to win the nomination, because they were just dying to run against him. He would be beat so easily. Trump was the preferable candidate.
Some idiot liberals even proudly boasted that they voted for him in the primaries. You can’t even make such stupidity up. It’s no wonder that so many of you have now become completely mental.
You may now continue to squabble over who was most wrong among you as you descend further into chaos, anger, despair and hopelessness.
Liberals really are awful, right? Wouldn’t America be better off if they were just rounded up and worked to death? Might as well get some productivity out of those layabouts, and make room for the real Americans.
I served in the Navy with many liberals, and sure, they would risk their lives to save mine, and served honorably… but how patriotic could they be if they were liberal? I’m sure they were faking, and really commies and jihadists in disguise.
I actually crossed party lines and voted for Kasich against Trump, because, while I did think that Trump would be easier to beat than Kasich, I also thought that trump would be an absolute disaster of a president. Seems I am right on that so far.
I showed my solidarity with Idle Thoughts by participating in the self-flagellatory aspect of this mea culpa pit thread. It is part of the whole sin and redemption cycle- the wrongdoer admits their fault, they take some lip (at the very least), and then things are ‘even’ and everybody moves on as normal. It is a sort of grounding of the psychic energy, see what I mean?
But there is the whole epidemic side to voter apathy. It is such a large phenomenon- what if it is being induced? What if radical right-wingers have figured out the best propaganda to turn people off to voting entirely? Or maybe some other change in the culture or environment is inducing widespread voter apathy. Whatever the cause, you’re right, in this case blaming the individual is barking up the wrong tree.
But Idle Thoughts is claiming agency. Maybe that is the model for other apathetic voters to follow. We hold them responsible for their actions, and keep blaming the ones who still haven’t seen their error. At least he stopped being one of those dumbasses.
There is this webcomic I read, which stars a homeschooled fundamentalist girl. Through a bunch of situations, she finally comes to the revelation that homophobia is wrong. She has an epiphany about this guy she’s been trying to “convert” and runs out to go apologize to him.
And there’s this one girl who complains about how everyone is being nice to her when she knew that homophobia was wrong all the time. Nearly all the fans in the comic consider this an asshole move, and over half of them now hate this character.
Why? Because, if she really cared about all these things, then someone having this revelation is a time for celebration. You’ve helped make the world a better place. Being an asshole to them will only risk undoing this. You have to a selfish asshole to do this without later apologizing.
If you’re actually being condescending to the OP while you purport to “being kind”, which is frankly what it seems, then I’m happy to join you.
(Side point: Yes, this form of “being kinds” does cause harm. It lets the target think he’s advanced in his moral and civic responsibility when he’s really still pretty damn far behind. It lets him slow down his maturation. That’s harm.)
But really, is it “praising” someone when you truly mean “It’s about fucking time you caught on!” ? *Should *you refrain from saying that and condescend instead? Go right ahead and keep patting that head if it makes you feel better. Maybe **Idle **will even wag his cute little puppy tail for you before he goes and shits on the carpet again.
If you are training your dog to not shit in the house, and it takes longer than you thought it would, and he finally does go outside, do you really think that rubbing his nose in it then is going to do any good?
Now, I realize that humans are not dogs, but dog training philosophy can be adapted, as humans are like dogs but with less self awareness and agency.
Glad you came to your senses, Idle. Now go and sin no more. And please vote in every election that you can. Local, state, general, primaries, the works.
Why even give him the attention? All you’ve done is obligingly rubbed his troll spot. And quoting him served only to pipe his garbage to those of us who have him on ignore where he belongs. Don’t. Feed. The. Trolls.
God I wish this board had a feature where ignoring a poster also blocked posts that quoted them. Not that it’ll ever happen, but a man can dream.