# I'm frightened for my country **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 12, 2018, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-frightened-for-my-country/817795 "2018-07-12T17:49:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2018, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-frightened-for-my-country/817795/41 "2018-07-15T03:24:57Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Vote. …and get out in the streets on your days off. Protest. Make it known that this is not acceptable to you. There are times in our lives when we have to take to the streets; these are those times. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2018, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-frightened-for-my-country/817795/42 "2018-07-15T10:37:24Z")
When the state of the world bugs me, I try to listen to music that addresses it. I’ve been listening to one of my favorite songwriters singing about the new president, rampant homelessness and income inequality. He writes lines like: “_All these Trumped up Towers are just golden showers – Where are people supposed to live?_” And rhymes it later with “_It’s All Take and Never Give_!”. Another of his songs bemoans excessive military spending _"…beating plowshares into swords, for this tired old man that we elected king…_" and continues in this vein. Then I chuckle and relax, remembering that the world hasn’t changed at all. [Those](https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/donhenley/gimmewhatyougot.html) [songs](https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/donhenley/theendoftheinnocence.html) were written in 1989. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2018, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-frightened-for-my-country/817795/43 "2018-07-15T11:12:15Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > I’d never snitch anyone out to a moderator directly, so I’ll just ask here: **contradancer** can you please refrain from using that confrontational, insulting, and frankly arrogant signature? I doubt they care; I’ve had a harsher signature for years and it’s never been mentioned: ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2018, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-frightened-for-my-country/817795/44 "2018-07-15T12:16:18Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > I’d never snitch anyone out to a moderator directly, so I’ll just ask here: **contradancer** can you please refrain from using that confrontational, insulting, and frankly arrogant signature? Doesn’t bother me. If it bothers you, you’ve come to the wrong forums. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2018, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-frightened-for-my-country/817795/45 "2018-07-15T14:08:06Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > I’d never snitch anyone out to a moderator directly, so I’ll just ask here: **contradancer** can you please refrain from using that confrontational, insulting, and frankly arrogant signature? Truth hurts, I guess… ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2018, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-frightened-for-my-country/817795/46 "2018-07-15T14:38:47Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > I’d never snitch anyone out to a moderator directly, so I’ll just ask here: **contradancer** can you please refrain from using that confrontational, insulting, and frankly arrogant signature? > [@](#): > > Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you’d have good people doing good things and evil people doing bad things, but for good people to do bad things, it takes religion. > Steven Weinberg Arrogant how? ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2018, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-frightened-for-my-country/817795/47 "2018-07-15T15:32:40Z")
Telling huge swaths of humanity that their deeply-held beliefs are an insult to human dignity? Are you kidding me? **contradancer** may think her signature is some kind of poke in the eye to American evangelicals who support Donald Trump, but what it’s actually doing is saying that everyone from Buddhist monks in Tibet to Muslims in the Middle East to Orthodox Christians in Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Serbia, Russia, Greece, etc, Native American Shamans, practicioners of Shinto in Japan, Jews all over the world, Bahai all over the world, Sikhs all over the world, _all kinds of people all over the world_, that the values that guide them through their lives every day, are an insult to human dignity! This is horseshit! I’m not going to fucking back down on this, it’s a callous and arrogant thing to pin to the end of every post in a forum that’s NOT meant for debates about religion. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2018, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-frightened-for-my-country/817795/48 "2018-07-15T17:21:49Z")
At least start a new thread about it, don’t hijack this one. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2018, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-frightened-for-my-country/817795/49 "2018-07-15T17:38:31Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > I’d never snitch anyone out to a moderator directly, so I’ll just ask here: **contradancer** can you please refrain from using that confrontational, insulting, and frankly arrogant signature? You can turn signatures off in your User CP, why not go do that instead of trying to get the entire world to conform to the narrow view you prefer? I find nothing whatsoever objectionable about that sig, it’s truth and if you don’t like truth then it’s up to you to make sure your blinders are on good and tight. Wouldn’t want any of that reality seeping into your worldview, the horror. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2018, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-frightened-for-my-country/817795/50 "2018-07-15T17:39:39Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > I’d never snitch anyone out to a moderator directly, so I’ll just ask here: **contradancer** can you please refrain from using that confrontational, insulting, and frankly arrogant signature? It’s not snitching, and junior modding in this fashion is frowned upon. Just let us know your concerns, please. For now, drop the sig highjack, everyone. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2018, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-frightened-for-my-country/817795/51 "2018-07-15T21:12:30Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > This is advice that works best if you’re in a swing state, mind you. Myself all I’ve gotten from voting was a profound sense that I’d wasted my time - a sense that was borne out in the election outcomes. If you were dedicated enough, you’d _move_ to a swing state. But, as I’ve said numerous times on these boards, go vote to vote in your local elections. That is what is important, that is what your vote really has an effect on. Know your local elected officials, talk to them, give them a piece of your mind from time to time. They listen, because they know that your vote actually counts, that it would not be hard for you to rally enough votes for their competitor to get them out of office if they become non-responsive to their constituent’s needs. If they do really well, then they may gain recognition and run for higher office. John Boehnor didn’t start as speaker of the house, he started as a member of the local swimming pool committee. While you are there, voting on the matters that you have an influence upon and that matter to you, might as well vote in the national elections as well. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2018, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-frightened-for-my-country/817795/52 "2018-07-16T10:59:24Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > It’s not snitching, and junior modding in this fashion is frowned upon. Just let us know your concerns, please. > > For now, drop the sig highjack, everyone. Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2018, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-frightened-for-my-country/817795/53 "2018-07-16T12:38:23Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > But, as I’ve said numerous times on these boards, go vote to vote in your local elections. That is what is important, that is what your vote really has an effect on. > > Know your local elected officials, talk to them, give them a piece of your mind from time to time. They listen, because they know that your vote actually counts, that it would not be hard for you to rally enough votes for their competitor to get them out of office if they become non-responsive to their constituent’s needs. If they do really well, then they may gain recognition and run for higher office. John Boehnor didn’t start as speaker of the house, he started as a member of the local swimming pool committee. Indeed. Too many in this country are looking at electing a President or Senators who will save us from whatever threatens us, or who at least are the living embodiment of The True (Conservative/Liberal/Wacko) Way, and lamenting that our state is so red or so blue that our share is meaningless, while giving up on the bottom-up part of the process which is how the state becomes so totally red or blue. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-frightened-for-my-country/817795.md?page=2)