I thought Columbus Day was Indigenous People’s Day.
Yes, it is. But people keep melding together anything that involves mentioning Indigenous Peoples. And IME the vast majority of liberals just enjoy their family gathering and the arguments with old Uncle Crank about more current things.
Exactly. As with so many things, the above exchange is about something that bothers many liberals/progressives a little — but the fact that it bothers them at all, itself bothers many conservatives/Trumpists a lot.
The strongest reactions come from the right — they’re the ones that are so easily triggered, so prone to exaggerate the other side’s views and priorities, going on and on loudly about some minor point some liberal made almost in passing, so afraid of anything and everything. There are parallels in the transgender issue (and many others), and in the competing “Derangement Syndrome” claims.
In practice, it’s Italian Heritage Day.
Oh that’s right. My mistake.
I would say that I have a lot of progressive values but the older I get, the more I’m irked by performative liberalism.
Columbus was the goddamned worst though. I wouldn’t be sorry to see his name phased out.
The only place I really see Thanksgiving mattering is when children are introduced to this event (myth? Legend?) it’s important for them to understand that reality is more nuanced. But to my understanding, this is an event that did happen, maybe not with such feel-good vibes as the story goes, but there were instances where settlers really did cooperate with native peoples, and that’s valid history too.
This is a good point. I’ve rarely encountered liberals who outright refuse to celebrate Thanksgiving. They just celebrate it along with some political soapboxing.
The answer to the OPs title is very simple. Things that affect voters personally bother them (high gas prices), things that don’t affect them personally mean fuck all (bombing schools).
QFT. See the fascists’ unending screaming about the War on Christmas, which isn’t a thing except on Fox News.
Which has already started this year,
It’s earlier every year. I remember when the war on Christmas didn’t start until after the war on Thanksgiving was over.
And let’s not forget, there are actual people who actually fight a War on Halloween. That’s just been completely lost amid the larger skirmishes.
Have mentioned it elsewhere, I believe USA is the only place that names the holiday after the man. Everywhere else I know it’s named after the event or something related to the history around it. Discovery Day, Día de la Raza, Encounter Day, Indigenous Day, Fiesta Nacional, etc.
Ken Burns next opus.
What always gets me is people who complain about Christmas becoming more secularized, and as evidence for their position, point out that they don’t even go to Christmas mass any more.
Don’t forget the War on Hanukkah:
I have become convinced through a knowledge of history and over time that human nature doesn’t change. Much like Rome, I think we’ve reached the “anything goes” stage in American society. Think about Caligula, Nero, et all, and how they got away with one atrocity after another primarily because Roman society was Okay with it. This guy should be serving a life sentence in Leavenworth prison, but he’s not, nor will he ever.
Richard Nixon actually had to resign because he actually would have been successfully impeached simply because he spied on his political enemies. That happened because of public outrage stemming from a society that was far, far different from that of today.
Nothing has beat the idealism out of me quite like Donald Trump.
I’m afraid I have to say a hearty, “Amen”, to that. Every sign indicates that we are an empire in dissolution. I do hope I’m wrong.
I guess my 8th grade history teacher was right.
She said every nation has a rise and decline and we were at its peak (in the 90s.) She predicted a decline within our lifetime.
I used to believe people are basically good, and that personality was generally stable. I believed in the learning potential of everyone.
Those were good times.
This touches on how the emergency caused by by MAGA’s takeover of the Republican Party, and of all branches of the federal government, has forced the rest of us to simultaneously become more radical than we were, and to become more moderate. “Radical” in how we talk to our neighbors, communicate in social media, and (some of us) do direct actions (marching in protests, helping out an immigrant friend, subverting an anti-scientific directive at work, etc.) – but “moderate” in how we strategically vote in certain Democratic primaries.
In other words, these desperate times call for a radical response in our personal lives, while (many of us) feel compelled to support the political careers of those who at least have a chance of attracting enough mushy-middle voters so we may regain some of the reins of power.
This is something I wish had been mentioned in this otherwise interesting exchange, especially because they did cite the 1964 Barry Goldwater quote that has a new (and politically other-end-of-the-spectrum) resonance today: “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!”
Interesting.
To give some of my background, I went to a notoriously liberal large public university, as a Spanish major, and it was doing volunteer work with immigrant populations that made me decide to go into social work. I ended up with my MSW from one of these elite institutions Republicans delusionally believe are liberal, but a social work department anywhere is going to lean liberal even if our Dean was a conservative legislator. I was also taught aspects of critical race theory by an 80 year old conservative Black civil rights leader. Over the last fifteen years I’ve encountered the full spectrum of liberal and leftist ideology, as well as self-identified anti-racist Republicans. Throughout this time, I’ve been a pretty active progressive with the bulk of that work showing up in my career in non-profit development.
My views are overall pretty progressive - I think I have the profile Republicans despise at first blush, as I check all the elite liberal activist boxes. But over the last ten years I’ve seen people on the left radicalize even more, and I ultimately left that space, particularly on social media. My problem isn’t with the underlying worldview but with the hamfisted and intellectually dishonest dialogue and the farfetched proposed solutions.
Since Trump has taken office again, the bulk of my response has been attending to the funding crisis of my particular nonprofit agency. In some ways I think I’m lucky to have something specific to do and concrete enough that I can measure progress. At the same time the amount of pressure on me to win more and more grants, in contrast with the political reality that grant funding is more scarce than ever, has increased so much I’ve been through some pretty intense burnout.
Have I been radicalized? I don’t think so. If anything I’m becoming more of a pragmatist. I’ve been thinking maybe the left got carried away a bit. I did vote for El-Sayed in the Michigan Senate primary but I had serious reservations about it. I just couldn’t give a blank check to Israel the way Stevens proposed. But I’m deeply concerned about growing anti-Semitism in progressive circles.
So the effect is that I feel like I’m being pushed more toward the center simply by nature of so many colleagues moving further left. But it’s not me that’s changed, it’s them.