My BFF knows me very well and she sent me this link that explains exactly what I’m trying to say in my posts of this morning .
What I Mean but Better
Opinions, art, debate
Opinions, art, debate
My BFF knows me very well and she sent me this link that explains exactly what I’m trying to say in my posts of this morning .
Clarissa's Blog 
Ok, I’m not sure. Did you post the article as an act of self-reflection? I see so many things mentioned in it that you’ve yourself advocated or believed in.
Didn’t like the article. Guy’s trying too hard. He imputes all sorts of negative qualities to city people/liberals and then adds a disclaimer: ‘I know it’s not true, but that’s what they think’. Well, if it’s not true then why the fuck is this guy beating us on the head over it? You can’t fight perception with reality now can you?
Note that this is all a variant of the ‘look what liberals made me do’ type of explanation which I’ve never been a fan of. Neither are you, I believe.
We all scoff at those explanations when non-white people do terrible things. Like, you’d never accept the explanation that a suicide bomber did what he did because he was outraged at the continuous bombing of his country by western forces, or that he was radicalized after his cousin back home got killed by a drone. Or when even the US intelligence community unequivocally states that indiscriminate droning and general US foreign policy is a great source for terrorist recruitment. To that some liberals (and most conservatives, eager to co-opt the language) say that explanation infantilizes them, or that we’re denying them agency or whatever.
But when white people make terrible decisions (voting for Trump is an objectively terrible decision) it’s all about let us make efforts to understand their rage, gather around in a circle and listen to their grievances while nodding respectfully.
It is absolutely true that we should all expand our respective bubbles. To that, I will agree. Not sure I’ll go any further for now. Seems we’re overreacting.
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I couldn’t have been more wrong about this election if I tried. But I believe that aside from clear deplorables who are irredeemable and fuck those mastodons, there is a 10-15% of people we could have with us. Maybe I’m delusional but I need to believe it. I didn’t manage to turn anybody or change anybody’s mind this time around except for Dreidel. (Joke). But I want to try. Because otherwise I don’t know how to continue in this country. This election is a huge blow. I can’t just sit here impotently and not even try. People are saying that we’ll get another chance in 4 years. 4 years! Lots of shit can happen until then. Life is happening in the meanwhile. Can we afford to wait?
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2 years. Mid-term elections. Fire Rauner!
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Also, perhaps it’s time to talk about broken white families. While conservatives have made a yuuuge deal about broken black families, absentee fathers and whatnot, not much attention has been paid to white families that are fundamentally broken, but in different ways.
In white US families you have absentee children.
Even the author of that article so proudly brandishes his liberal credentials and then informs us about his trump-loving family living in some rural area. That’s quite common. You have a whole class of people who moved away from their small towns, made little to no effort to understand their family, and now only use their parents stories to signal how far they’ve made it in life.
‘”Ugh, thanksgiving is such a drag, listening to my racist uncle talk shit about Obama, OMG somebody kill me. Good thing there’ll be alcohol, and I’m only there for 3 days.”
I have so many friends who proudly claim they don’t get along with their parents. Like, wtf, it’s not enough that you’re virtuous, but can you please initiate a dialogue with your mom about gay people or whatever? Maybe she’ll get convinced, maybe not, but at least fucking try. How can we even talk about understanding each other and empathize with absolute strangers when there’s a whole generation of people not even willing to talk to their family??
Family dysfunction is not funny, guys. There are consequences to it!
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GREAT point! This comment is the best thing I read all day. Absentee children, absolutely. That’s an idea that needs to get developed.
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I swear to all that is holy, I wrote my comment before I saw this:
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I am one of these children in the sense that I fled a red county in a blue state at 18, although I wouldn’t call my family dysfunctional–I visit 2-3 times a year, they visit me, I don’t drink my way through it, etc. Arguing with people you love, who do not change their minds, over and over, for 20 years is incredibly painful. I do it, because I think it is important, but I have to consciously limit my battles as well. This is also one reason this election is so painful for me–it’s my lurking childhood rising from the past to bite, or something.
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