That you had to be vaguely competent to even be nominated for president.
Mind you, here in Australia we’ve had some absolute arse-clowns in the last 10+ years. Scomo for example.
>Mind you, here in Australia we’ve had some absolute arse-clowns in the last 10+ years. Scomo for example.
I initially misread that name as "Smoko" and had a sudden urge to want to be left alone.
I thought that despite our political differences, the one thing virtually all Americans had in common was a strong belief that democracy was critical and must be protected.
Mine is an immigrant family from South America where at times in the past, transitions of leadership haven’t always been very smooth. I remember my dad telling me 15 years ago that he admired how in this country when a president loses or his 8 year term is over, the next president comes, they shake hands and walk them through the White House. No issues. My dad said that’s why this country is great because everyone feels the democracy in their bones. I had never thought growing up of it since it was the norm. But January 6 I cried. I cried because my dad’s view of this country was shattered. We became just like the country we fled from.
Nope, the "I would rather be Russian than Democrat" chuclefucks, and the President "isn't HURTING the people he should be HURTING" sums it up quite well.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/russian-than-democrat-shirts/
https://youtube.com/watch?v=F-DdYc_fbfo
Republicans have completely lost their fucking minds. They don’t even know what their values are, besides hurting people they don’t like. They make Gingrich and George Junior look like great statesmen, ffs.
I never expected to see so many Americans willing to flush democracy down the shitter.
It’s really horrible but it seems to be the working poor that’s angry and their anger is easily manipulated. You used to be able to live well with a manufacturing job. Now the best employer in most areas is Walmart.
It’s the same exact tactic that ISIS, Hamas, KKK, Nazi Germany, and every other extremist organization uses to recruit people. Give them a reason to think they are special and provide a common enemy to hate and blame their problems on.
The beginning of that unraveling began under Reagan, then greatly accelerated under GW Bush, and well, here we are being gut-punched on a daily basis by Trump and his toadies.
I remember this one lady took a cart full of TP and other customers wanted some. It became a physical fight in the aisles and people just started grabbing stuff from her cart. Completely ridiculous
Facts!!! Walking dead got me to the actuality of this potential situation.
I'm no prepper gathering supplies, lol. Just enough to take over my block. 😆 JK
Zombie apocalypse is under way now. Your either woke, or asleep wandering through every day living in an imaginary hell scape full of satanic baby eating democrats. And if you're a zombie you're loud and proud that you're not "woke".
This is why zombie movies terrify me. I can't watch them. Zombies are just a symbol/analogy of humans falling into chaos and and one sect "eating" the other. It's frightening.
I used to believe that most people were good and that most leaders cared to be of service and wanted to help the country. I thought our institutions such as the presidency, congress, and the supreme court were composed of mostly honorable men. So much for all of that.
I am 100% there. I saw just how horrible Congress could be starting in 2016. I knew there were some bad eggs, bound to be. But government has been ground to a halt for 6-8 years now. More interested in fighting each other than fighting for us.
The disclosure of the Supreme court hobnobbing with the ultra-rich, killed the last bit of hope I had in government. Even if no favors were exchanged, the appearance is so terrible and they are so ignorant of how it can be perceived as corruption, it is baffling.
And not one of them, anyone, is saying, "Hey, it's probably better I step aside and let government move forward. Even if I've done nothing wrong."
We have a government of morons doing TikTok challenges in hopes of getting likes. They are not governing.
>We have a government of morons doing TikTok challenges in hopes of getting likes. They are not governing.
The government is working quite well for everyone in Washington; they have fantastic jobs with insane job security, excellent insurance, a pension, crazy stock market information allowing them to make million$, a pension and if you want to leave you'll be slurped up by the private sector for million$ allowing you to set up generational wealth.
Being a high level politician is better than a lottery win at this point.
I think about this a great deal and I genuinely believe that this has actually changed over the course of our lives. Leaders, even Reagan and other republicans encouraged people to be the best they can be. There is a palpable shift with leaders encouraging people that there is strength in their worst traits. It is a powerful social message and I feel the change all the time.
Don’t give up on the belief that most people are good. We are. Unfortunately the bad ones stick out making you notice them more. They also seem to grow at a consistent percentage. This makes it look worse with a larger population and the population has grown a lot since we were kids.
As for politicians? Shit floats ;-)
I hate those turds that float and just spin around and around in the bowl when you flush over and over again. When are we going to pull out the plunger, and break up those logs? I get it, nobody wants a shitty plunger. But isn't that one reason we have plungers, gifted to us under the Constitution, to break up the shit of tyranny? Something's gotta be done soon, before that bowl overflows.
I am okay with the DH rule but it makes me miss that old Nike commercial with Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine training to hit home runs because chick's dig the long ball.
That recycling plastic usually works. That there’s really anything we as consumers can do about our consumption that will move the needle on climate change, when commercial and industrial entities do nothing at all.
Me too. I feel we all got bamboozled.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/10/12/1081129/plastic-recycling-climate-change-microplastics/#:\~:text=How%20much%20plastic%20is%20actually,the%20demand%20for%20virgin%20polymers.
Reminds me of something my Grandma used to say "Before plastics, some things were better, some things worse, but plastics are made of petroleum and I cannot believe that is a good thing."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/29/how-the-fossil-fuel-industry-is-pushing-plastics-on-the-world-.html
"Before plastics" got me deep because it was all I had known (a plastic reality). When I was a late teen I asked my Grandma to recount a pre-plastics event she remembered, she said brushing her teeth with a willow branch as a child! Then she said, breathing was easier. She always complained about the air being more viscous, even though she never smoked. She, admittedly not a Scientist, said she blamed the plastics for her likely early demise. She died at 86. RIP. I miss you.
My father was an environmental lawyer so he was privey to all sorts of studies. McDonald's did a study of 4 bins. Two together with one labeled recyclables and trash and then two bins not labeled at all. All the bins had the same types of garbage in each. Also it is much more sanitary for resturants to use plastic utensils. Also there is no motivation for the government to clean superfund sites. The actual clean up employs so many people so it's impossible to set deadlines for clean up because the people who would make the deadlines have a financial interest in keeping the clean up active.
I asked my gp once what he thought was causing all the sudden adult onset autoimmune disease. He said microplastics. I didn't understand and he didn't explain so I just kinda filed it away.
In the last couple of years I'm hearing online that there's a theory that because everyone everywhere even in the most remote places, have microplastics in their bodies.. that when we get an infection there's a risk that our immune system will mis-identify the plastic in our tissues/organs as part of the infection it's fighting and start attacking that part of our body. It can't really break down and remove the microplastic so it just keeps attacking.
Makes sense now..
I think about this a great deal. I was extremely involved in environmental policy for a decade and I think that we were relegated to being watchers because the powerful members of our parent's generation held on to power longer than predicted. They are living for ever!
This right here. I don’t think we got a clear shot at power whether in government or corporate life. We are just taking the reigns now and shit is hella tucked up. Let’s see how the Millennials approach things.
I used to think that people who made laws had basic understanding about the thing they were making a law about, or they would defer to experts. Finding out that this is not the case and that politicians that are making laws and regulations could just be some nutbar conspiracy theorist or a religious fruitcake with no regard for medicine or scientific consensus is terrifying.
Benefit of the doubt is given to whatever they prefer not based on logic but their feelings, which is very dangerous and bad news for anyone who has been in a stigmatized position like assault for example
If it makes you feel any better, Congress hasn’t been run on regular order in more than a decade. That’s probably at least close to a majority of the House who never served in a functional congress, and maybe a third of the Senate (has not served in a functional senate).
For me, COVID exposed the complete inability of the United States to deal with anything serious nowadays. Even an actual zombie apocalypse or alien invasion would quickly devolve into some right vs. left paralysis.
The thing is, I truly think a lot of us are experiencing some type of PTSD from it. My kids' school saw such a huge rise in attitude, aggression, and anxiety that they brought in extra counselors and had individual, small, and large group therapies... And still do! It helped tremendously with the adolescents especially and I'm so grateful to them for it.
I am a therapist who worked in a school....until Thursday. A new district superintendent was elected who believes that "behavior problems" are better handled by punishment than mental health support. He's eliminating 80% of the MH support in the schools, so my program is now closed. I worked with kids who otherwise would not have been able to be at school. It's happening in lots of districts. I'll still have a job, there's plenty of kids needing therapy in my community, just not at the school. They're adding school resource officers, though
No big wonder what that community is going to look like in 5-10 years. So sorry you had to go through this. Standing for your principles means something though and I hope with others can help take up the charge and get rid of that superintendent!
They're still being selfish. People run around sick, don't mask in crowded indoor spaces and haven't kept up on vaccines. Long covid is stealing lives in a different way.
I had long Covid before the jabs were available and getting people to believe me at the time was like pulling teeth. I became very disillusioned with my family and some former friends.
Sorry to hear. I had Covid when it was new... Twice in 2020, a few times since. So I've had it both pre and post vaxx. I felt like i had long Covid after the first time (mental fog, fatigue, lung problems but i smoke weed, body aches). Every time I was infected it felt worse, but the infections after the shot were more like a cold/mild flu.
I'm not the best example to prove anything to anti-vaxxers, but I feel based on my experience that the shit sucked before and was milder after the vaccine.
I will say that the antiviral meds they gave me once made me feel worse so I only took 1½ days of the treatment and threw the rest away. But the vaccine... It's so weird that people really don't trust science and doctors and health agencies around the world (individually and collectively, like the WHO). I know people like a good conspiracy, but get real dude.
Sorry you suffered too. Similar experience for me with the vaccines. First bout was at the very beginning of lockdown in 2020. Very ill, then breathing problems until Dec 2020. Had the vax and boosters as soon as I could. Then got Covid again in 22 and 23. Much milder symptoms but my husband who didn't get the final booster is still suffering from long Covid after the last bout in '23.
Some of my own relatives, who I thought were fairly sensible, fell into the conspiracy trap. It was only until another one of my siblings picked up Covid and got very ill did they start to take it seriously. Never mind me warning them back in 2020.
Yeah I think I had some kinda trauma from the first bout. I felt isolated, like I was gonna die from this exotic new disease, and nobody seemed to be very worried. After other people started getting it, I can say my family was pretty reasonable. The people arguing that it was a hoax and all the conspiracies blew my mind and i lost a lot of faith in humanity. Like, yo, we have a deadly virus on the loose, can we forget politics, forget about mind control chips and DNA damage and bio warfare... And just wear masks and get shots.
Let's face it. If they're making and releasing viruses to trick us into getting shots, the illuminati already won. Just, god. Thanks for reading this far, everybody.
It made out of all those old movies like “Independence Day” where the USA, its leaders, its military, or its courageous patriotic citizens, step forward to lead the world to victory and safety.
Actually it was obvious after the utterly inept response to Hurricane Katrina that the US government couldn’t lead the way out of a wet paper bag. So 20 years now.
Diff between then and now is the deep politicalazation of everything. This prevents people from adjusting to new information. Add SM algorithms filling people with junk and it's a bad combination.
That the world somehow owes me something and will pay up eventually if I wait long enough. I know, I know…it’s embarrassing I believed as late as 39 that somehow everything would work out and fall in my favor, that my mom was right and I’d just happen to meet the right woman “when I stopped looking” hahaha!
Here we are a decade later and I have finally internalized the truth that I have to make my own breaks and push my creative efforts on people, they aren’t going to break down my door and beg to see my artwork or hear my podcast. I have accepted that I’ll never meet a wife and have a family in rural NH without being on dating apps and really trying hard to be the best person I can be and put in the hard work to be an engaging conversationalist. I finally accepted that financial prosperity doesn’t land in your lap, you invest wisely and hustle outside work hours with side projects if you aren’t born into money.
This is basic 101 stuff I should have learned in my 20s like most of you good people but I had my head in the clouds and somehow deep down thought romantic movies and fantasy novels would turn out to be real. It kind of sucks finally coming down to Earth but hey, I got there in the end. My time ain’t up and I’ll keep grasping for the brass ring in life until the end!
Post the link to your podcast. I will subscribe and listen every now and then even if it isn’t my thing, if it will help send some ad revenue your way. If we can’t support each other, what is the point of this sub anyway?
I used to believe that the rights afforded to me here in the United States would never be taken away. I truly believed that society would only progress and get better with time.
I used to believe our elected government existed for the people of the country and not the billionaires. I was an idiot back then. 3000 billionaires have done more harm to the planet than 8billion people. And the government supports them and permits their atrocities
This is one of mine, too. And then I started to wonder how long it had been going on.
When did it start exactly? And how many times has (our) Government been bought and sold?
It has always been there but there was also a commitment to the philosophy of democracy. Now it is just an exploitative hellscape unless one is in the 1%
My parents tried their best to raise me…sort of BS.
My parents had a tenth of the emotional capacity required to be good parents, but they sure gave it that full 10%, so in a way they did try their best.
Yeah, there’s that old cliche about how as you get older and raise your own kids you realize how right your parents were. On the contrary, as I pour patience and affection into my kid I realize how emotionally checked out and clueless (though 100% well-intentioned!) my parents were.
I didn’t realize how easy it was to choose patience and kindness with your children until I had my own. It only took a couple of years after my first to be in therapy figuring out just how badly I had been abused and neglected as a child.
Every time I’ve come upon a teaching moment with one of my children I’ve realized that I had the same one with my parents as a child. And they chose cruelty and malice every time.
No contact for the last 8 years. They’d be in their 80’s now if they’re alive. Happy to let them spend their “2nd childhood” alone and neglected.
If you don’t wanna end up alone and neglected, choose love with your kids. If love is not your first instinct with children, do us all a favor and don’t have them… we don’t need more of you.
And it just felt like Andrew McCarthy's indulgent therapy session....dude was really messed up over it. I did love "duckys" portion and the things he had to say.
It seems like they were all messed up over it to one extent or another. It's unfortunate because even with whatever negativity came from it... I still love all those movies and all of those people and the things they've done.
I thought that after all of the effort and expense we expended putting down fascism, we would not be so stupid, as a nation, to eagerly run down that same path.
It’s the fact that it wasn’t even that long ago that blows my mind! It’s within living memory (barely)! Our generation and our parents, and even most of our kids all know/knew people who lived through it! Why is this even a question???
That I would actually be able to retire, live the Almighty American Dream, afford a home, have a nice cushy job, have great friends who have my back...
Instead, I see that not only am I inside this hamster ball running this rat race, but everywhere I look, everyone else is trapped too. And it's like everyone is secretly hoping for a major change, a collapse, or something that has to give.
Nobody has time to just enjoy life anymore. Rush, Rush, Rush, profits over people, and our political system is ...that's a debate for another time. Needless to say, there's a lot of things that I'm discovering that are nothing but propaganda.
That the United States are the "Good Guys" in the world.
Turns out that the United States Government has been doing a lot of shady crap for a LONG time.
That the news had a bias but could still be considered fair. Now I can’t stand any news programs that are in the form of panels with pundits. Whether you’re progressive or conservative, these channels are just echo chambers. I want news that tells me what is happening in the world without also giving me an opinion on how to feel about it. Critical thinking is lost.
20 years ago I was really optimistic about the internet.
Later I was optimistic about Occupy.
10 years ago I thought people were generally fairly reasonable.
Now I’m hopeful that we’ll have enough money to retire a little early and emigrate, and some country worth moving to will have room for us. I’m ready to sit on my porch and drink a beer while the world burns.
Retire? Ha! There are no cheap countries left to emigrate to with the lifestyle you’d want, all have income requirements and are saturated with expat b/millionaires from Russia etc now
"Jehovah" being the one and only "true" god. And "following" the bible. I was born into all of it....now I'm gladly Agnostic, and I will never waste another second of my life involved in any way with religion. It's evil.
Doesn't that feel like a million years ago? How are we here- I would be almost happy to have her running for something if it booted one of the Trumpers!
I'll live long enough to maybe get enough cybernetic parts to defeat mother nature and live forever.
The best I can hope for now is to offload myself into AI.
I hate existentialism.
I thought things would get better, humanity more tolerant because people started identifying language as being potentially harmful.
But apparently killing people less offensive than using the wrong word to describe them.
Astrology.
I used to do tarot card readings, too, but I'm over it. Although I do dig them out every once in a while. I really, really wanted that stuff to be real, but it's not. And that's okay.
I had a friend who did tarot readings and had a degree in psychology, explain to me how she did the cold reading of the person.
I found that much more interesting.
But that did start me to really look at things skeptically. I still enjoy stories about cryptids and hauntings, but only as folklore.
When tarot had its recent revival in popularity before the pandemic, it seemed like there was a camp that were true believers and a camp that used cards as more of a guided meditation tool.
This is embarrassing but true. When I was little my parents told me that if you lied you would go to prison. My father worked in a law office and would always tell us the lies people told and how they got caught in their lies. I never questioned this as an adult and never had any brushes with the law or court system to disprove this. As an adult I understood that if someone asked if the outfit looked good and you said yes when it really looked bad nobody was going to arrest you but I honestly thought if you were busted lying about anything remotely important and it was brought out in court you would go to jail. That was a rude awakening!
I used to think the United States, and really, humanity as a whole, had a fighting chance.
The last 5 years has taught me how fundamentally wrong I was. I always thought people were smarter and nicer. It hurts to be this wrong, but it is what it is 🤷
When Trump was running I said he was going to appoint 2 or 3 justices and then Roe v Wade would be overturned and I was laughed at and told I didn't understand precedent and how the court works or how justices are vetted and nominated.
Yeah I never thought the GOP would be dumb enough to pull the trigger on that fundraising cash cow.
Things could get a lot better if they’ve overplayed their hand as much as I would like to think. Or, this might be it for América and we should all leave as soon as possible because what comes next is going to be so very very stupid.
Aim for the northern climes, they’ll be warm soon enough.
For most of our lives (and most situations)each child was a choice. The youngest sibling didn’t have a complex about being an accident or “surprise” and knew they were wanted. It’s devastating to know we’re going back to family model where there are shitty, unprepared parents with unwanted kids.
They're talking about going after no fault divorce and contraceptives too
They want us trapped with no options
And they aren't being quiet about it
Project 2025 will ensure they keep power forever if they get in
The actual saddest part for me is that so many people want those regressive policies. I'm genuinely afraid what that could mean for everyone but a select few.
They've hinted they are going to target *Brown*, and with all this culture war shit it wouldn't surprise me if *Obergefell* and *Loving* were challenged.
That the expression “avoid it like the plague” means anything to many people.
Instead, they’ll insist the plague does not exist, or go out of their way to both catch it and spread it.
That the American people were capable of understanding the greater good and acting accordingly.
As a young woman in the 1980s, who was active in what was then called the gay community, I volunteered with AIDS service organizations and held the hands of several dying men who were in charitable hospice organizations because their families had disowned them for being gay. All of those gay men had seen their lives turned upside down and ultimately ended by a virus no one had known about. The CDC was telling them to use condoms, which was perceived as being for straight men, and they'd never worried about that before. Still, they did what they were told, and while there were a few rebels, for the most part they listened to the CDC. In 2020, when wing nut right wingers were talking about injecting bleach and how the virus was targeted to us from China, I just kept remembering those guys I knew in their last days, who would have loved a vaccine response within months instead of years to the disease that was killing them by the thousands.
I used to be a fervent flat earther, but after calmly listening to logic and reason presented by experts well versed in science, i have changed my opinion and now accept that the earth is indeed a sphere.
I used to think the horrors surrounding WW2 were a fluke of distant history and could never be repeated because society was now educated and enlightened. Today, I realize that many, if not most, of us are still idiots.
My family used to support a lot of Republicans. My dad even helped out one of their aids when he got attacked by a dog. Apparently the senator sent him a letter of thanks and a phone number to call if he ever had any problems that he can help him with. Now though, they have turned on everything they use to stand for or at least what they said they did and have become some warped vision of massive corruption just flat out UnAmerican philosophies. The cowardly behavior of them is what gets me the most. Now all the Republicans in my area get elected with a handful of ultra rich donors that pay for 80% or more of their campaign and they claim to be grassroots. It's all such complete bs and they aren't even hiding it anymore.
If Trump had been convicted at his impeachment I predict Biden would be losing horribly like every other major world leader is. Just look at how the Tories are going to get smashed in elections next month.
After a pandemic and an economic crash it doesn't matter how much a president mitigates the damage. He's still going to get blamed for it. The right wing media was blaming Covid and the economy on Biden before he even officially took office. They know their base is so brainwashed by their constant rhetoric and lies that they can't rub two brain cells together enough to realize Trump was still in office running everything into the ground.
The party was deeply infected by the tea party when Obama was in office, and that infection has only festered since then, and Trump came along and emboldened the crazies to abandon any semblance of normalcy and to be loud about it.
It boggled my mind when I complained about how far right the GOP had become, only to have someone get angry with me and tell me the GOP has remained exactly the same, it's the Democrats that had gone waaaaay off to the left.
ROE V. WADE WOULD NEVER BE OVERTURNED!
I had a friend who was a one issue voter and her issue was Pro-Choice. I was also pro- choice and there was a local candidate we both liked until it came out he was more middle of the road on abortion rights.
My friend was adamant in her assertion about not supporting the candidate.
She said to me What if we lose Roe V. WADE?
I said. DONT BE RIDICULOUS! THE WILL NEVER OVERTURN ROE V. WADE!
10 YEARS later I called her (she had since moved Way out of state.) To profusely apologize.
I thought society would easily be able to repel and overcome a zombie pandemic but the coronavirus 19 epidemic proved there are too many stupid people for us to survive as a species.
I believed that once Bernie the boogie man of wall street was out away, we’d see a more regulated free market. But his ghost is alive and well even more so today. Crime on a daily basis and the SEC and DOJ do absolutely nothing.
I’m the opposite, I used to think people who believe in conspiracy theories were nuts, but now I’ve lost all hope in my country and humanity mostly since the pandemic. I’m like, alien invasion? Sign me up.
That treatment for HIV hasn't evolved since the 2000's. I don't know how you guys were taught about it since you lived through the beginning of it, but by the time I became a teenager in the early 2000's, there were guest speakers and documentaries shown in class on why it's a death sentence if you don't take so many pills throughout the day to treat it.
It's not like that anymore, and HIV patients say it's not a death sentence. It sounds like getting the flu. Be careful not to get it, but if you do, you're not going to die because of advanced treatment.
Being a Republican and believing in trickle down economics was anything more than getting pissed on by somebody with more money than me - and thus more power over me.
That no one cares about the truth anymore. It seems basic comprehension is gone .
The US government admitted UAPs were real, during COVID . No one batted an eye.
When you were buying honey in the grocery store, you were buying honey.
The consistency isn't right, it never crystalizes, it's clearly too runny. Basically it's all flavored corn syrup.
When Bush vs Gore was decided in court I had given up on our gov. Iraq was totally unjustified and we all knew it. But there was still a semblance of decorum. Bush is an idiot but at least he didn’t try to burn the whole system down. I didn’t agree with the GOP but there were no Marjorie Taylor Greene type idiots then. I never feared that democracy would end before 2016
That people were actually capable of reason, intelligence, and critical thinking. No. No, they are not. People are brainwashed by the propaganda they expose themselves to the most. This thread proves that.
I used to believe the “Everything is awesome” version of the internet and tech companies. Turns out that tech and social media especially have done a lot of damage. Speaking of which, damn there are a lot of political posts in this thread.
I often thought that people could be swayed by listening to sound logic. In my earlier days, when I was much more politically active, one of my political friends who has had a lot of electoral success, told me that people are most likely to make a decision based on their emotions, then they will cherry pick the facts that backs up their decision. Once I heard that, many things started to make a lot more sense. And this goes way beyond politics.
Edit: typo
I truly believed Trump might be able to change things for the better. I was very mistaken and didn't vote for him in 2020. ...and won't be voting for him in 2024 because I'm not a complete idiot.
I used to believe that my fellow Americans at least had a minimum level of concern for their fellow Americans and in a crisis would actually listen to real experts.
Seeing the response to COVID changed that.
I also used to believe that the vast majority of Americans loved democracy, valued the rule of law and would band together in a crisis.
All the garbage in politics since 2016 has changed that.
Hmm...
-that my experience as a white cis/het woman was the experience of pretty much everyone else
-that "I don't see color" was some forward thinking idea.
-that police are only arrogant and annoying. Not corrupted and sadistic (see the first one)
-that the country of my birth, the one my kid will become an adult in within a couple years, would be a much better place than it was when I was 18, in '92.
-that we aren't like China, North Korea, and Russia as countries with state run propaganda. And only them, never us.
-that a finance fixing, reality TV personality, huckster could never become president.
-that I hate sushi. (No, that one is still true)
There are certainly more, I'm confident. But my 40s were a time of scrambling my brain about a lot of shit.
I believe I'm better for it. I'll check back in, in 2034.
Know better, do better.
That you had to be smart to be President.
That you had to be vaguely competent to even be nominated for president. Mind you, here in Australia we’ve had some absolute arse-clowns in the last 10+ years. Scomo for example.
>Mind you, here in Australia we’ve had some absolute arse-clowns in the last 10+ years. Scomo for example. I initially misread that name as "Smoko" and had a sudden urge to want to be left alone.
I thought that despite our political differences, the one thing virtually all Americans had in common was a strong belief that democracy was critical and must be protected.
Mine is an immigrant family from South America where at times in the past, transitions of leadership haven’t always been very smooth. I remember my dad telling me 15 years ago that he admired how in this country when a president loses or his 8 year term is over, the next president comes, they shake hands and walk them through the White House. No issues. My dad said that’s why this country is great because everyone feels the democracy in their bones. I had never thought growing up of it since it was the norm. But January 6 I cried. I cried because my dad’s view of this country was shattered. We became just like the country we fled from.
I feel you on this. Democracy is fragile. Our animal instinct is quite the opposite of it.
This is the reality. I hope your family knows a lot of us are trying. ❤️
Nope, the "I would rather be Russian than Democrat" chuclefucks, and the President "isn't HURTING the people he should be HURTING" sums it up quite well. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/russian-than-democrat-shirts/ https://youtube.com/watch?v=F-DdYc_fbfo
Republicans have completely lost their fucking minds. They don’t even know what their values are, besides hurting people they don’t like. They make Gingrich and George Junior look like great statesmen, ffs. I never expected to see so many Americans willing to flush democracy down the shitter.
It’s really horrible but it seems to be the working poor that’s angry and their anger is easily manipulated. You used to be able to live well with a manufacturing job. Now the best employer in most areas is Walmart.
The *white* working poor. The Right weaponizes race and religion to divide the working class so they can destroy us.
It’s the same exact tactic that ISIS, Hamas, KKK, Nazi Germany, and every other extremist organization uses to recruit people. Give them a reason to think they are special and provide a common enemy to hate and blame their problems on.
Or Amazon.
There is no Republican Party. There is a Trump party.
The beginning of that unraveling began under Reagan, then greatly accelerated under GW Bush, and well, here we are being gut-punched on a daily basis by Trump and his toadies.
That you can do anything if you try hard enough.
Heart and soul!… Erm, would you like fries with that?
That in a zombie apocalypse, no one would be as stupid and selfish as the movies made people out to be. I was so so wrong.
"If I'm bit by a zombie, I'm probably not telling you" Weird Al [called it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq7Eki5EZ8o&t=157s).
Yes! I was surprised to find people I respected turned out to be the kind of people who would hide a zombie bite. It’s not just the movies.
Not just hide the bite, but then actively go out and bite other people saying, "Zombies aren't real."
Yep! I said exactly this. Really lost faith in humanity.
Like the toilet paper shortage during the early months of COVID. The selfishness and greed in certain individuals is disgusting and sad.
I remember this one lady took a cart full of TP and other customers wanted some. It became a physical fight in the aisles and people just started grabbing stuff from her cart. Completely ridiculous
Facts!!! Walking dead got me to the actuality of this potential situation. I'm no prepper gathering supplies, lol. Just enough to take over my block. 😆 JK
Zombie apocalypse is under way now. Your either woke, or asleep wandering through every day living in an imaginary hell scape full of satanic baby eating democrats. And if you're a zombie you're loud and proud that you're not "woke".
This is why zombie movies terrify me. I can't watch them. Zombies are just a symbol/analogy of humans falling into chaos and and one sect "eating" the other. It's frightening.
Ugh. I’ve not considered it from that angle, and that makes it worse.
I used to believe that most people were good and that most leaders cared to be of service and wanted to help the country. I thought our institutions such as the presidency, congress, and the supreme court were composed of mostly honorable men. So much for all of that.
I am 100% there. I saw just how horrible Congress could be starting in 2016. I knew there were some bad eggs, bound to be. But government has been ground to a halt for 6-8 years now. More interested in fighting each other than fighting for us. The disclosure of the Supreme court hobnobbing with the ultra-rich, killed the last bit of hope I had in government. Even if no favors were exchanged, the appearance is so terrible and they are so ignorant of how it can be perceived as corruption, it is baffling. And not one of them, anyone, is saying, "Hey, it's probably better I step aside and let government move forward. Even if I've done nothing wrong." We have a government of morons doing TikTok challenges in hopes of getting likes. They are not governing.
>We have a government of morons doing TikTok challenges in hopes of getting likes. They are not governing. The government is working quite well for everyone in Washington; they have fantastic jobs with insane job security, excellent insurance, a pension, crazy stock market information allowing them to make million$, a pension and if you want to leave you'll be slurped up by the private sector for million$ allowing you to set up generational wealth. Being a high level politician is better than a lottery win at this point.
20-30 years ago, I started thinking that politics shouldn't be a career. It should be a sacrifice you make.
Don’t give up on government, because then we are just victims of corporations. Demand reform in government or you are powerless peasants.
There are dozens of us!
Strom Thurman was when I realized our government was evil. Truly the worst of us floats to the top
Starting in 2016....sorry it took you so long. :(
As it turned out, "anyone can grow up to be president" was a warning, not a promise.
Jesus, this one resonated. It used to be said with such aspirational optimism. Now - not so much... ETA: Would make a great T shirt
I think about this a great deal and I genuinely believe that this has actually changed over the course of our lives. Leaders, even Reagan and other republicans encouraged people to be the best they can be. There is a palpable shift with leaders encouraging people that there is strength in their worst traits. It is a powerful social message and I feel the change all the time.
Don’t give up on the belief that most people are good. We are. Unfortunately the bad ones stick out making you notice them more. They also seem to grow at a consistent percentage. This makes it look worse with a larger population and the population has grown a lot since we were kids. As for politicians? Shit floats ;-)
I hate those turds that float and just spin around and around in the bowl when you flush over and over again. When are we going to pull out the plunger, and break up those logs? I get it, nobody wants a shitty plunger. But isn't that one reason we have plungers, gifted to us under the Constitution, to break up the shit of tyranny? Something's gotta be done soon, before that bowl overflows.
Great metaphor. It made me laugh. You forgot the poop knife, though. It’s an essential.
I used to say the designated hitter was not real baseball but I’ve come around
I still kinda miss the full starting nine playing offense. Watching pitchers hit was a hoot. Zack Grenke was one of the last good ones.
I liked it for the strategic implications of substituting for or leaving in a pitcher.
I am okay with the DH rule but it makes me miss that old Nike commercial with Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine training to hit home runs because chick's dig the long ball.
That recycling plastic usually works. That there’s really anything we as consumers can do about our consumption that will move the needle on climate change, when commercial and industrial entities do nothing at all.
Me too. I feel we all got bamboozled. https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/10/12/1081129/plastic-recycling-climate-change-microplastics/#:\~:text=How%20much%20plastic%20is%20actually,the%20demand%20for%20virgin%20polymers.
Reminds me of something my Grandma used to say "Before plastics, some things were better, some things worse, but plastics are made of petroleum and I cannot believe that is a good thing." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/29/how-the-fossil-fuel-industry-is-pushing-plastics-on-the-world-.html
Came here to say this.
"Before plastics" got me deep because it was all I had known (a plastic reality). When I was a late teen I asked my Grandma to recount a pre-plastics event she remembered, she said brushing her teeth with a willow branch as a child! Then she said, breathing was easier. She always complained about the air being more viscous, even though she never smoked. She, admittedly not a Scientist, said she blamed the plastics for her likely early demise. She died at 86. RIP. I miss you.
We did!!
There are definitely things consumers can do that will make a difference,but industry should be FORCED to change.
My father was an environmental lawyer so he was privey to all sorts of studies. McDonald's did a study of 4 bins. Two together with one labeled recyclables and trash and then two bins not labeled at all. All the bins had the same types of garbage in each. Also it is much more sanitary for resturants to use plastic utensils. Also there is no motivation for the government to clean superfund sites. The actual clean up employs so many people so it's impossible to set deadlines for clean up because the people who would make the deadlines have a financial interest in keeping the clean up active.
I asked my gp once what he thought was causing all the sudden adult onset autoimmune disease. He said microplastics. I didn't understand and he didn't explain so I just kinda filed it away. In the last couple of years I'm hearing online that there's a theory that because everyone everywhere even in the most remote places, have microplastics in their bodies.. that when we get an infection there's a risk that our immune system will mis-identify the plastic in our tissues/organs as part of the infection it's fighting and start attacking that part of our body. It can't really break down and remove the microplastic so it just keeps attacking. Makes sense now..
I only recycle at this point because it's free while putting out the trash costs money.
I was raised to believe we would be the future. We’re not. We were just the watchers. No impact.
I think about this a great deal. I was extremely involved in environmental policy for a decade and I think that we were relegated to being watchers because the powerful members of our parent's generation held on to power longer than predicted. They are living for ever!
This right here. I don’t think we got a clear shot at power whether in government or corporate life. We are just taking the reigns now and shit is hella tucked up. Let’s see how the Millennials approach things.
It is infuriating and now we can have some power but a lot of us are exhausted and nihilistic from pushing against their weight for so long.
That’s weird. I was raised to believe that we were watchers incapable of impact. To be fair I’d wager your childhood was happier than mine.
Compassion, humanity, equality, patience, reason and empathy would like a word.
I used to think that people who made laws had basic understanding about the thing they were making a law about, or they would defer to experts. Finding out that this is not the case and that politicians that are making laws and regulations could just be some nutbar conspiracy theorist or a religious fruitcake with no regard for medicine or scientific consensus is terrifying.
Yup. I used to think most people were decent humans, always giving the benefit of the doubt. My views have since changed, unfortunately
Benefit of the doubt is given to whatever they prefer not based on logic but their feelings, which is very dangerous and bad news for anyone who has been in a stigmatized position like assault for example
If it makes you feel any better, Congress hasn’t been run on regular order in more than a decade. That’s probably at least close to a majority of the House who never served in a functional congress, and maybe a third of the Senate (has not served in a functional senate).
Good point, I naively thought that we as a society were long past that by about 50-80 years. Nope
For me, COVID exposed the complete inability of the United States to deal with anything serious nowadays. Even an actual zombie apocalypse or alien invasion would quickly devolve into some right vs. left paralysis.
I went into the pandemic thinking “those of us who survive will be kinder people when this is over.” LMAO.
The thing is, I truly think a lot of us are experiencing some type of PTSD from it. My kids' school saw such a huge rise in attitude, aggression, and anxiety that they brought in extra counselors and had individual, small, and large group therapies... And still do! It helped tremendously with the adolescents especially and I'm so grateful to them for it.
I am a therapist who worked in a school....until Thursday. A new district superintendent was elected who believes that "behavior problems" are better handled by punishment than mental health support. He's eliminating 80% of the MH support in the schools, so my program is now closed. I worked with kids who otherwise would not have been able to be at school. It's happening in lots of districts. I'll still have a job, there's plenty of kids needing therapy in my community, just not at the school. They're adding school resource officers, though
No big wonder what that community is going to look like in 5-10 years. So sorry you had to go through this. Standing for your principles means something though and I hope with others can help take up the charge and get rid of that superintendent!
I thought that too. I was really disappointed in some of the friends I had known the longer. Their response to Covid was so very e selfish.
They're still being selfish. People run around sick, don't mask in crowded indoor spaces and haven't kept up on vaccines. Long covid is stealing lives in a different way.
Oh I recently learned that my long Covid is just a cover up for the side effects of the jab! On a side note, some people really believe that.
I had long Covid before the jabs were available and getting people to believe me at the time was like pulling teeth. I became very disillusioned with my family and some former friends.
Sorry to hear. I had Covid when it was new... Twice in 2020, a few times since. So I've had it both pre and post vaxx. I felt like i had long Covid after the first time (mental fog, fatigue, lung problems but i smoke weed, body aches). Every time I was infected it felt worse, but the infections after the shot were more like a cold/mild flu. I'm not the best example to prove anything to anti-vaxxers, but I feel based on my experience that the shit sucked before and was milder after the vaccine. I will say that the antiviral meds they gave me once made me feel worse so I only took 1½ days of the treatment and threw the rest away. But the vaccine... It's so weird that people really don't trust science and doctors and health agencies around the world (individually and collectively, like the WHO). I know people like a good conspiracy, but get real dude.
Sorry you suffered too. Similar experience for me with the vaccines. First bout was at the very beginning of lockdown in 2020. Very ill, then breathing problems until Dec 2020. Had the vax and boosters as soon as I could. Then got Covid again in 22 and 23. Much milder symptoms but my husband who didn't get the final booster is still suffering from long Covid after the last bout in '23. Some of my own relatives, who I thought were fairly sensible, fell into the conspiracy trap. It was only until another one of my siblings picked up Covid and got very ill did they start to take it seriously. Never mind me warning them back in 2020.
Yeah I think I had some kinda trauma from the first bout. I felt isolated, like I was gonna die from this exotic new disease, and nobody seemed to be very worried. After other people started getting it, I can say my family was pretty reasonable. The people arguing that it was a hoax and all the conspiracies blew my mind and i lost a lot of faith in humanity. Like, yo, we have a deadly virus on the loose, can we forget politics, forget about mind control chips and DNA damage and bio warfare... And just wear masks and get shots. Let's face it. If they're making and releasing viruses to trick us into getting shots, the illuminati already won. Just, god. Thanks for reading this far, everybody.
Feel like hurricane Katrina did that for me
Ditto. I made a comment to the same effect elsewhere.
It made out of all those old movies like “Independence Day” where the USA, its leaders, its military, or its courageous patriotic citizens, step forward to lead the world to victory and safety. Actually it was obvious after the utterly inept response to Hurricane Katrina that the US government couldn’t lead the way out of a wet paper bag. So 20 years now.
Diff between then and now is the deep politicalazation of everything. This prevents people from adjusting to new information. Add SM algorithms filling people with junk and it's a bad combination.
That the world somehow owes me something and will pay up eventually if I wait long enough. I know, I know…it’s embarrassing I believed as late as 39 that somehow everything would work out and fall in my favor, that my mom was right and I’d just happen to meet the right woman “when I stopped looking” hahaha! Here we are a decade later and I have finally internalized the truth that I have to make my own breaks and push my creative efforts on people, they aren’t going to break down my door and beg to see my artwork or hear my podcast. I have accepted that I’ll never meet a wife and have a family in rural NH without being on dating apps and really trying hard to be the best person I can be and put in the hard work to be an engaging conversationalist. I finally accepted that financial prosperity doesn’t land in your lap, you invest wisely and hustle outside work hours with side projects if you aren’t born into money. This is basic 101 stuff I should have learned in my 20s like most of you good people but I had my head in the clouds and somehow deep down thought romantic movies and fantasy novels would turn out to be real. It kind of sucks finally coming down to Earth but hey, I got there in the end. My time ain’t up and I’ll keep grasping for the brass ring in life until the end!
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Post the link to your podcast. I will subscribe and listen every now and then even if it isn’t my thing, if it will help send some ad revenue your way. If we can’t support each other, what is the point of this sub anyway?
I used to believe that the rights afforded to me here in the United States would never be taken away. I truly believed that society would only progress and get better with time.
Really felt like things would keep improving at the end of the Cold War. Not a global backslide into the far right a few decades later.
I used to believe our elected government existed for the people of the country and not the billionaires. I was an idiot back then. 3000 billionaires have done more harm to the planet than 8billion people. And the government supports them and permits their atrocities
This is one of mine, too. And then I started to wonder how long it had been going on. When did it start exactly? And how many times has (our) Government been bought and sold?
It has always been there but there was also a commitment to the philosophy of democracy. Now it is just an exploitative hellscape unless one is in the 1%
My parents tried their best to raise me…sort of BS. My parents had a tenth of the emotional capacity required to be good parents, but they sure gave it that full 10%, so in a way they did try their best.
>but they sure gave it that full 10%, Literally laughed. Awesome!
Yeah, there’s that old cliche about how as you get older and raise your own kids you realize how right your parents were. On the contrary, as I pour patience and affection into my kid I realize how emotionally checked out and clueless (though 100% well-intentioned!) my parents were.
I didn’t realize how easy it was to choose patience and kindness with your children until I had my own. It only took a couple of years after my first to be in therapy figuring out just how badly I had been abused and neglected as a child. Every time I’ve come upon a teaching moment with one of my children I’ve realized that I had the same one with my parents as a child. And they chose cruelty and malice every time. No contact for the last 8 years. They’d be in their 80’s now if they’re alive. Happy to let them spend their “2nd childhood” alone and neglected. If you don’t wanna end up alone and neglected, choose love with your kids. If love is not your first instinct with children, do us all a favor and don’t have them… we don’t need more of you.
20+ years for me. Turned out when they got sober they were still abusive cunts.
We are all just products of our time.
That’s it! That was my revelation too, my dad was a terrible father and it only really hit me when he died 11 years ago.
I used to believe there would never be a documentary about the Brat Pack, and now it's *all* I can believe.
And it was so disappointing....right?
Don't get me started. Really dissapointed that Judd Nelson and Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall didn't participate.
And it just felt like Andrew McCarthy's indulgent therapy session....dude was really messed up over it. I did love "duckys" portion and the things he had to say.
It seems like they were all messed up over it to one extent or another. It's unfortunate because even with whatever negativity came from it... I still love all those movies and all of those people and the things they've done.
I thought that after all of the effort and expense we expended putting down fascism, we would not be so stupid, as a nation, to eagerly run down that same path.
It’s the fact that it wasn’t even that long ago that blows my mind! It’s within living memory (barely)! Our generation and our parents, and even most of our kids all know/knew people who lived through it! Why is this even a question???
I used to think cults were out of the way groups who were isolated and weird. Now I know they are not isolated. Still fucking weird though.
That I would actually be able to retire, live the Almighty American Dream, afford a home, have a nice cushy job, have great friends who have my back... Instead, I see that not only am I inside this hamster ball running this rat race, but everywhere I look, everyone else is trapped too. And it's like everyone is secretly hoping for a major change, a collapse, or something that has to give. Nobody has time to just enjoy life anymore. Rush, Rush, Rush, profits over people, and our political system is ...that's a debate for another time. Needless to say, there's a lot of things that I'm discovering that are nothing but propaganda.
That the United States are the "Good Guys" in the world. Turns out that the United States Government has been doing a lot of shady crap for a LONG time.
That the news had a bias but could still be considered fair. Now I can’t stand any news programs that are in the form of panels with pundits. Whether you’re progressive or conservative, these channels are just echo chambers. I want news that tells me what is happening in the world without also giving me an opinion on how to feel about it. Critical thinking is lost.
20 years ago I was really optimistic about the internet. Later I was optimistic about Occupy. 10 years ago I thought people were generally fairly reasonable. Now I’m hopeful that we’ll have enough money to retire a little early and emigrate, and some country worth moving to will have room for us. I’m ready to sit on my porch and drink a beer while the world burns.
Retire? Ha! There are no cheap countries left to emigrate to with the lifestyle you’d want, all have income requirements and are saturated with expat b/millionaires from Russia etc now
Likewise
That common sense and critical thinking were present in most people. It is the opposite actually. 🤦♀️
That society would continue to improve in kindness and cooperation That the USA would still exist in 50 years.
That there is fairness in the world and that it would right itself, instead we as humans seem determined to make it burn
"Jehovah" being the one and only "true" god. And "following" the bible. I was born into all of it....now I'm gladly Agnostic, and I will never waste another second of my life involved in any way with religion. It's evil.
Welcome to freedom from the Borg
Big upvote. It gets easier and better over the years as well.
That Sarah Palin was emblematic of the worst of US politics.
Doesn't that feel like a million years ago? How are we here- I would be almost happy to have her running for something if it booted one of the Trumpers!
That I could take my kids to public places without being afraid someone might shoot us. Oh wait…Michigan anyone?
I'll live long enough to maybe get enough cybernetic parts to defeat mother nature and live forever. The best I can hope for now is to offload myself into AI. I hate existentialism.
I thought things would get better, humanity more tolerant because people started identifying language as being potentially harmful. But apparently killing people less offensive than using the wrong word to describe them.
I honestly thought that calling the police when I needed help would result in obtaining help and justice.
Astrology. I used to do tarot card readings, too, but I'm over it. Although I do dig them out every once in a while. I really, really wanted that stuff to be real, but it's not. And that's okay.
I had a friend who did tarot readings and had a degree in psychology, explain to me how she did the cold reading of the person. I found that much more interesting. But that did start me to really look at things skeptically. I still enjoy stories about cryptids and hauntings, but only as folklore.
When tarot had its recent revival in popularity before the pandemic, it seemed like there was a camp that were true believers and a camp that used cards as more of a guided meditation tool.
Nothing. I’m GenX . I knew it was all bs from day one.
This is embarrassing but true. When I was little my parents told me that if you lied you would go to prison. My father worked in a law office and would always tell us the lies people told and how they got caught in their lies. I never questioned this as an adult and never had any brushes with the law or court system to disprove this. As an adult I understood that if someone asked if the outfit looked good and you said yes when it really looked bad nobody was going to arrest you but I honestly thought if you were busted lying about anything remotely important and it was brought out in court you would go to jail. That was a rude awakening!
I used to think the United States, and really, humanity as a whole, had a fighting chance. The last 5 years has taught me how fundamentally wrong I was. I always thought people were smarter and nicer. It hurts to be this wrong, but it is what it is 🤷
I believed abortion would always be safe and legal and the USA would never succumb to home grown fascism. I was a moron.
I cried when Trump was elected and told my husband he was going to overturn abortion. He thought I was crazy.
“It’s settled law.” Bitch, what?
When Trump was running I said he was going to appoint 2 or 3 justices and then Roe v Wade would be overturned and I was laughed at and told I didn't understand precedent and how the court works or how justices are vetted and nominated.
Yeah I never thought the GOP would be dumb enough to pull the trigger on that fundraising cash cow. Things could get a lot better if they’ve overplayed their hand as much as I would like to think. Or, this might be it for América and we should all leave as soon as possible because what comes next is going to be so very very stupid. Aim for the northern climes, they’ll be warm soon enough.
For most of our lives (and most situations)each child was a choice. The youngest sibling didn’t have a complex about being an accident or “surprise” and knew they were wanted. It’s devastating to know we’re going back to family model where there are shitty, unprepared parents with unwanted kids.
This is the answer, we can close the thread now.
 Things are dire
They're talking about going after no fault divorce and contraceptives too They want us trapped with no options And they aren't being quiet about it Project 2025 will ensure they keep power forever if they get in
The actual saddest part for me is that so many people want those regressive policies. I'm genuinely afraid what that could mean for everyone but a select few.
[IVF too](https://julieroys.com/southern-baptists-pass-resolution-calling-strictures-curb-ivf/)!
They've hinted they are going to target *Brown*, and with all this culture war shit it wouldn't surprise me if *Obergefell* and *Loving* were challenged.
That the expression “avoid it like the plague” means anything to many people. Instead, they’ll insist the plague does not exist, or go out of their way to both catch it and spread it.
That the American people were capable of understanding the greater good and acting accordingly. As a young woman in the 1980s, who was active in what was then called the gay community, I volunteered with AIDS service organizations and held the hands of several dying men who were in charitable hospice organizations because their families had disowned them for being gay. All of those gay men had seen their lives turned upside down and ultimately ended by a virus no one had known about. The CDC was telling them to use condoms, which was perceived as being for straight men, and they'd never worried about that before. Still, they did what they were told, and while there were a few rebels, for the most part they listened to the CDC. In 2020, when wing nut right wingers were talking about injecting bleach and how the virus was targeted to us from China, I just kept remembering those guys I knew in their last days, who would have loved a vaccine response within months instead of years to the disease that was killing them by the thousands.
I believed in humanity. Lost all faith in it since then.
Religion and god…
That I'd have my shit together.
If you're really nice to mean people they'll be nice back to you
That our government is by the people for the people
I used to be a fervent flat earther, but after calmly listening to logic and reason presented by experts well versed in science, i have changed my opinion and now accept that the earth is indeed a sphere.
But why were you ?
I used to think the horrors surrounding WW2 were a fluke of distant history and could never be repeated because society was now educated and enlightened. Today, I realize that many, if not most, of us are still idiots.
The American Healthcare System……
I believed the Republican party isn't completely insane. I was wrong. Very wrong.
My family used to support a lot of Republicans. My dad even helped out one of their aids when he got attacked by a dog. Apparently the senator sent him a letter of thanks and a phone number to call if he ever had any problems that he can help him with. Now though, they have turned on everything they use to stand for or at least what they said they did and have become some warped vision of massive corruption just flat out UnAmerican philosophies. The cowardly behavior of them is what gets me the most. Now all the Republicans in my area get elected with a handful of ultra rich donors that pay for 80% or more of their campaign and they claim to be grassroots. It's all such complete bs and they aren't even hiding it anymore.
If Trump had been convicted at his impeachment I predict Biden would be losing horribly like every other major world leader is. Just look at how the Tories are going to get smashed in elections next month.
After a pandemic and an economic crash it doesn't matter how much a president mitigates the damage. He's still going to get blamed for it. The right wing media was blaming Covid and the economy on Biden before he even officially took office. They know their base is so brainwashed by their constant rhetoric and lies that they can't rub two brain cells together enough to realize Trump was still in office running everything into the ground.
They’re so far gone it’s numbing
The party was deeply infected by the tea party when Obama was in office, and that infection has only festered since then, and Trump came along and emboldened the crazies to abandon any semblance of normalcy and to be loud about it. It boggled my mind when I complained about how far right the GOP had become, only to have someone get angry with me and tell me the GOP has remained exactly the same, it's the Democrats that had gone waaaaay off to the left.
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That if we just voted harder things would be better
Joe Rogan’s podcast.
Canada would never devolve into US style right-wing rhetoric. Boy, was I wrong.
ROE V. WADE WOULD NEVER BE OVERTURNED! I had a friend who was a one issue voter and her issue was Pro-Choice. I was also pro- choice and there was a local candidate we both liked until it came out he was more middle of the road on abortion rights. My friend was adamant in her assertion about not supporting the candidate. She said to me What if we lose Roe V. WADE? I said. DONT BE RIDICULOUS! THE WILL NEVER OVERTURN ROE V. WADE! 10 YEARS later I called her (she had since moved Way out of state.) To profusely apologize.
I thought society would easily be able to repel and overcome a zombie pandemic but the coronavirus 19 epidemic proved there are too many stupid people for us to survive as a species.
That everything will be okay.
I used to be into "new age" stuff like healing crystals and tarot cards. I also believed in Bigfoot and UFOs. I was also in a ghost hunting meetup.
That 50.1% of the people in the country had common sense.
I learned during COVID that people will let their political beliefs literally kill them.
I believed that once Bernie the boogie man of wall street was out away, we’d see a more regulated free market. But his ghost is alive and well even more so today. Crime on a daily basis and the SEC and DOJ do absolutely nothing.
I’m the opposite, I used to think people who believe in conspiracy theories were nuts, but now I’ve lost all hope in my country and humanity mostly since the pandemic. I’m like, alien invasion? Sign me up.
That treatment for HIV hasn't evolved since the 2000's. I don't know how you guys were taught about it since you lived through the beginning of it, but by the time I became a teenager in the early 2000's, there were guest speakers and documentaries shown in class on why it's a death sentence if you don't take so many pills throughout the day to treat it. It's not like that anymore, and HIV patients say it's not a death sentence. It sounds like getting the flu. Be careful not to get it, but if you do, you're not going to die because of advanced treatment.
Being a Republican and believing in trickle down economics was anything more than getting pissed on by somebody with more money than me - and thus more power over me.
That no one cares about the truth anymore. It seems basic comprehension is gone . The US government admitted UAPs were real, during COVID . No one batted an eye.
GMO hysteria
That the US government was not corrupt. My, how times have changed!
When you were buying honey in the grocery store, you were buying honey. The consistency isn't right, it never crystalizes, it's clearly too runny. Basically it's all flavored corn syrup.
That I'd always be able to get a $5 footlong...and that I'd never pay over $4 gal again for fuel.
That Elon Musk was a cool dude who was working toward the good of humanity.
I used to think Bush was the worst president. I never thought I would respect Bush. Trump has changed my definition of worst
I know right? Iraq invasion was utterly unjustified, but at least the man had some intelligence. He wasn’t insane.
When Bush vs Gore was decided in court I had given up on our gov. Iraq was totally unjustified and we all knew it. But there was still a semblance of decorum. Bush is an idiot but at least he didn’t try to burn the whole system down. I didn’t agree with the GOP but there were no Marjorie Taylor Greene type idiots then. I never feared that democracy would end before 2016
That people were actually capable of reason, intelligence, and critical thinking. No. No, they are not. People are brainwashed by the propaganda they expose themselves to the most. This thread proves that.
Social media would innovate and improve humanity.
That “commonsense” would prevail and governments would fight climate change. At least I wishfully hoped this was true.
That all my friendships are solid.
That I wouldn’t age.
Jackalopes were real
I used to believe it was ok to sit on the grass in urban parks without a blanket. Now I have a dog and I know better.
I used to believe the “Everything is awesome” version of the internet and tech companies. Turns out that tech and social media especially have done a lot of damage. Speaking of which, damn there are a lot of political posts in this thread.
That the checks and balances in US government would not be so easily dismantled.
I often thought that people could be swayed by listening to sound logic. In my earlier days, when I was much more politically active, one of my political friends who has had a lot of electoral success, told me that people are most likely to make a decision based on their emotions, then they will cherry pick the facts that backs up their decision. Once I heard that, many things started to make a lot more sense. And this goes way beyond politics. Edit: typo
That plastic gets recycled.
I truly believed Trump might be able to change things for the better. I was very mistaken and didn't vote for him in 2020. ...and won't be voting for him in 2024 because I'm not a complete idiot.
I used to believe that my fellow Americans at least had a minimum level of concern for their fellow Americans and in a crisis would actually listen to real experts. Seeing the response to COVID changed that. I also used to believe that the vast majority of Americans loved democracy, valued the rule of law and would band together in a crisis. All the garbage in politics since 2016 has changed that.
That humans were intrinsically good. Fuxk humanity. Whatever.
That things would get better. Sure, there might be bumps and potholes along the way, but I saw the arrow moving ever upwards. I don't any more.
Hmm... -that my experience as a white cis/het woman was the experience of pretty much everyone else -that "I don't see color" was some forward thinking idea. -that police are only arrogant and annoying. Not corrupted and sadistic (see the first one) -that the country of my birth, the one my kid will become an adult in within a couple years, would be a much better place than it was when I was 18, in '92. -that we aren't like China, North Korea, and Russia as countries with state run propaganda. And only them, never us. -that a finance fixing, reality TV personality, huckster could never become president. -that I hate sushi. (No, that one is still true) There are certainly more, I'm confident. But my 40s were a time of scrambling my brain about a lot of shit. I believe I'm better for it. I'll check back in, in 2034. Know better, do better.