General Politics XII World • Page 254

Yeah I remember how embarrassing it was as it was happening and I was so sure it was just something that would fade out but it kept gaining momentum and finding new targets to attack and not only are you correct with where they are now from 10 years ago but the "movement" is just as bad as it's ever been.

 

"yes I am going to continue doing what I'm doing, and I am going to continue to get shit on by the psychopathic demons on the right that are capturing the attention of young men, but that doesn't matter though. This is not simply just a cultural war that you can fucking win just by doing podcasts! You still need to have a solid defence mechanism at the very top"

 

those top 3 there ... telling af

 

why stop at 3 lol



I'm sorry

 

there's a lot of sadness in group and work chats, but also some of the above

curious what others are seeing

 

People I’ve talked to have been largely despondent. its distinctly different from the anger in 2016

like what exactly comes next? The Democratic Party has told progressives they don’t matter. No lessons will be learned and the party will move even farther to the right. And the fact that she got destroyed doesn’t help

 

here for the eventual elon/trump fall out and all that entails

 

I’m def seeing apathy and hopelessness from my friends. One of my friends volunteers with Justice for Migrant Families of WNY and she sent a text out to our group chat today and almost everyome committed to volunteering with them in 2025.

Some of those friends have mentioned they are giving up their volunteering in the political spectrum and will be replacing it with this.

this election and the overall radicalization of America on a widespread scale has my friends seemingly less interested in politics moving forward.

 

I still haven't fully recovered energy-wise from the pandemic. I know i should be more angry than despondent at everything..but well..

 

what i've seen, largely, as well.

was deeply unpopular and lost pop vote, gave people anger; harder when he is still unpopular but won it
impeached twice; nothing came of it
declared immunity and was granted it from supreme court

i see a lot "its what the people wanted" stuff so far

 

you know what else is embarrassing? You not answering what you meant by this:

 

Hasan giving great advise: "Work out, get healthy, do work in your community, find a hobby, improve yourself, do things that give your life meaning. Doing those things gives you at least a feeling of control of your own life when you feel like you can't control what is going on in the world around you. Remember there is a life outside of politics, try to take a breath and enjoy it. Rely on one another in times like this, rely on community in times like this, but also rely on yourself in times like this "

 

Same thing here. Seeing a lot of hopelessness and despondent stuff from friends and family. I feel the same way

 

yeah a lot of "welp, now what" from coworkers and friends. less fear than 2016, but despondent is the best word. i don't know if we see women's marches, DSA explosions, etc like we did in 2016t-2017. I do hope we see better candidates and a better answer to what the democrats are (rather, aren't) offering.

 

I think Nate said it best earlier - we had 4 years of Trump and now 4 years of Biden, during the last of which we have been witnessing a genocide (I think certainly the worst thing I’ve seen happen in my 34 years). Rights have been rolled back these past 8 years, material conditions have gotten worse in a lot of ways for so many people. The way forward just doesn’t feel that different to me right now (and to the group I’m closest to here, it seems) than it would have had Harris won. The work is still the work. The same thing I was saying we should be doing if Harris were to win is the same thing I will be saying we should do with Trump back in office.

In a sense, I see the electorate going Obama - Trump - Biden - Trump as an expression of “heightened contradictions” and those heightened contradictions bring with them opportunities for organizing in new ways that might work better than the things we’ve been doing in the past. I don’t mean that in an accelerationist way, but rather that throwing in the towel does not occur to me as a real option.

EDIT: I worry I get too autobiographical in these posts sometimes, but for context to what I’m trying to get at: I worked for a Democratic Senator (RIP Sherrod) the first few years of Trump, and that didn’t feel meaningful to me - in a ton of ways, it wound up feeling gross. I did a lot of campaigning for Bernie in 2020, and that wound up being an incredibly inspiring experience in a lot of ways but also I feel like a lot of us realized that was a dead end by April 2020. Labor organizing the past 5 years has been the one thing that’s led me to feeling like you can actually create changes in people’s lives for the better and oftentimes - not always, but it’s possible - bring them to better political positions than conventional wisdom might suggest.

 

yeah, those blue state shifts are interesting and i'm curious to see more. bellweather of something to come, or outlier for a change election rejecting a incumbent no one liked

 

Bibi's next target

 

anecdotal, but i know a lot of IL folks who stayed home since it was a "safe" blue state

 

Like you said, I can’t afford to do 2016-2020 again or handle it the same; I’ll k*** myself or fall further into addiction and I don’t want either of those things. I have no choice.

 

This is where I’m at.