And because everyone makes mistakes. I’ve made mistakes. You’ve made mistakes. We’ll all make mistakes in the future.
People who want to improve on their past performance should be supported.
(Why yes, I’m also volunteering in a state prison, to help people who were incarcerated for committing serious crimes re-enter society as productive members. I believe in improving the future rather than relitigating the past in most human endeavors.)
I say this sincerely and not snarkily- That’s great! Before Mike Lindell (the My Pillow guy) went insane, he had a policy of hring ex offenders and recovering addicts. He believed that on one hand, as nobody else would hire them they would be loyal and work hard. He also believed on the other hand, that it was the right thing to do and people needed a second chance.
Absolutely agreed. And I try to apply this to myself as well, because I’ve been a dick to people leaving conservatism before, even though I know it’s counterproductive and awful.
There’s a proverb, I think Persian, that blew my mind when I first encountered it: No matter how far you’ve gone down the wrong road, turn back.
I wish I could believe that these people existed in any significant numbers. In my experience, the average MAGAt, when confronted with the facts of tRump’s undeniable and manifold failures, double down and state with complete sincerity and fervor that he is The Greatest President Who Ever Lived. tRump could shoot their beloved pit-bull in front of their mother and these guys would thank him, with tears in their eyes.
MAGAts don’t “waver.” It’s a sign of unmanliness. You might as well look for feathers on frogs.
Yeah, it’s been a consistent pattern of the far right for as long as they’ve existed. They’ve never been persuaded, only forced. Most famously in the Civil War, but less dramatically time and time again throughout US history.
The MAGAs won’t change their opinions even if it kills them.
Weak.
Watch the polls. Trump has swung from a +11 approval rating on January 20, to a -9 approval today. At least one in twelve Americans has gone from supporting him to not supporting him.
Those people are out there, and I maintain that if fewer leftists are dicks to them when they’re thinking about leaving Trump, there’ll be even more of them out there.
There are maga true believers, and there are ordinary people who thought trump would reduce inflation and let fewer undocumented immigrants through the border. There aren’t nearly enough true believers to win general elections.
When it gets to eleven out of twelve, maybe I’ll have some hope.
When 36% decide to sit out the election, there’s enough.
If you want to get out of the hole you’ve dug the first thing you need to do is stop digging. Resistance can mean a lot of things, but you don’t have to be out on the street with a sign, throwing things at people, or even being an asshole. Sometimes it might just mean saying something when you hear someone spouting MAGA baloney. You don’t even have to get into an argument, just say your piece and be done. A lot of these MAGA types are in their own little bubble and aren’t used to hearing anything different.
That’s a very frail and precious hope, then, especially since it’s completely impossible: it isn’t true that 11 out of 12 Americans ever supported Trump in the first place, so 11 out of 12 Americans absolutely cannot go from supporting him to not supporting him.
I don’t have much patience with setting the parameters up to guarantee hopelessness. Instead, I want to hold onto hope with my last fingernail and claw our way back to something less horrifying. We can only do that by taking and holding every advantage we can, not by settling into a comforting despair.
The time to do anything was last year. But the time to resist is now
These two sentences don’t go together. The first is saying resistance is too late. The second contradicts that. I’d prefer getting straight to the point:
“It’s not too late to RESIST”
That’s what the fascists want you to believe. Don’t let them win in your head.
The Russians appreciate that. (Russians fund secessionist movements in the U.S.)
Exactly right. This is not the time to be picky about our allies. Anyone who prioritizes stopping the fascists needs to at minimum stay out of the way of anyone else trying to stop them. Even better would be to encourage anyone else trying to stop the fascists.
They are not funding the New England Independence Campaign. We are a group of New Englanders.
Yes, I am sure everyone there with you is a good loyal New Englandnik from beautiful New England Oblast, with its wonderful warm water ports.
And there are a lot of genuinely low-information voters, who simply believe that the Democrats are everything awful because that’s what they keep being told by the few voices they do notice.
I suspect that quite a few of them can at least be induced to stay home; and some might start to pay more attention as their particular oxen get gored.
And you can be out on the streets with a sign, but with a group who aren’t throwing things at people.
This is also true.
Quoted for truth.
Maybe at the moment, but it’s unlikely to avoid promotion by Russians. They snuck into recent California and Texas secessionist movements.
It seems that everything old is new again.
I have been under the impression that Reddit is rather similar to the latter days of Usenet: enormous volume, signal to noise ratio very low, with a lot of unsupported opinionating that frequently descends into flamewars?
But to be fair, I guess I should take a look at it.
“Comforting despair,” no. Righteous state of pissed-off.
I am weak.
Alone.
I don’t believe I’m alone though.
We screwed the pooch and believed too much nonsense from the media. And had too much trust in “all things being equal”.
Face it. We were sold a bill of goods. We’ll have to pay for our mistakes.
I gave money today to get democrats elected in the next mid-term elections.
You need to reach deep folks.
If you don’t have cash, write letters to your congressmen. Volunteer.