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Mystifyed by FB

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Clarissa

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What I don’t get about Facebook is what possesses normally reasonable people to inform the same tiny group of relatives and friends how much they detest Trump day after day after endless day, often many times a day. I mean, how is it possible that people don’t realize that communicating the same inane Hitler analogy to the same group of folks six times in a week is a bit redundant.

I wish I knew any Republicans so I could ask them if it was the same for them during the Obama years. It had to be, right?

29 responses to “Mystifyed by FB”

  1. David Bellamy Avatar
    David Bellamy

    “I wish I knew any Republicans so I could ask them if it was the same for them during the Obama years. It had to be, right?”

    It was, and it still is. I saw someone on Facebook a few days ago saying that the eight years of Obama’s Presidency were “pure hell and nearly killed her.” She is an author, so she uses her words carefully. I know people on both the right and the left who feel this way about Obama. For the leftists, the complaint is mostly that he continually bombed innocent people in Yemen, for example. For the right wing people, the complaint is that he undermined the moral fiber of our nation by not holding the line against homosexuality, for example, and his socialism, because of the ACA and its individual mandate.

    As you may guess, I think Trump is far more damaging to us than any other President since the nineteenth century, although Wilson may be a contender. It is not clear that the damage can be undone in the next half century. The only things that normal people can do to counter his influence are to vote, to engage in mass protest, and to donate money to causes and candidates that work to stop him of at least slow him down. Mass protest has the effect, I think, of encouraging others to join in doing the last two of these. Seeing people engage in such mass protests as we have seen keeps me from total despair.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Bush Jr started the Iraq war. Reagan neoliberalized the economy. Kennedy got the US involved in the Vietnam war.

      What has Trump done that’s comparable?

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      1. David Bellamy Avatar
        David Bellamy

        Trump has normalized racism again, taking us back to the 1930’s or so in terms of civil rights for black people. If this continues, we can expect more KKK terrorism; likely even lynchings making a comeback. He is in the process of destroying the Supreme Court as a hope for justice for the poor. He has banned people entering this country on the basis of religion, and been upheld in this travesty by the Court. He has made it likely that women will be compelled to bring unwanted pregnancies to term, even ectopic pregnancies, taken away all hope of fair treatment except for billionaires, et cetera, via his judicial appointments. He is giving people permission to burn Mosques and other places of worship. He has made it OK for police to murder non-white people; this was formerly considered wrong and there was hope of ending, or at least reducing it.

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        1. Clarissa Avatar
          Clarissa

          Are you seriously saying that things are as bad for African Americans right now than in the 1930s?

          As for the rest, the Iraq war, the Vietnam war, support for the bloody Latin American dictatorships, neoliberalism, the Great Recession on the one hand and all of these fantasies you list on the other? Really?

          What’s worse, a travel ban or half a million dead Iraqis? I mean, let’s try to be serious for a second.

          I despair.


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          1. David Bellamy Avatar
            David Bellamy

            Another consequence of Trump’s Presidency.

            https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/06/27/milo-wants-vigilantes-start-killing-journalists-and-hes-not-being-ironic

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            1. Clarissa Avatar
              Clarissa

              Somebody said something obnoxious? Yes, that’s tragic.

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              1. Shakti Avatar
                Shakti

                Sometimes people act on these exhortations. And it should concern you that journalists are being killed.

                Of course it’s too soon to tell:
                Deadly Shooting at Maryland Paper

                What happened: At least five people were killed in a shooting inside the newsroom at the Capital Gazette newspaper office in Annapolis, Maryland.
                The suspect: A law enforcement official tells CNN that one person, believed to be the shooter, is in custody.
                “It’s bad”: A crime reporter for the paper tweeted the “gunman shot through the glass door” and added, “It’s bad.”…

                Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley revealed that the suspected incendiary device was a bag containing multiple gas cans in an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett on “Out Front.”

                “My understanding on the bag that could have been explosives, it was gas cans. I don’t know if there were any kind of detonation things with them,” he said. “I just know that our emergency responders didn’t even think about that.”
                Buckley called today’s shooting devastating. He said police were at the scene of the shooting within 60 seconds.

                “If they didn’t get there as fast as they did, I think there could have been a lot more devastation,” he said.

                I mean, let’s excuse some Neo Nazi talking about killing journalists (and whoops, a newsroom is shot up) and Sarah Palin putting gun sights on posters of Democrats running for re-election (and that rep takes a bullet to her head while at a meet and greet for constituents) … but someone insulting Sarah Huckabee Sanders is history’s greatest monster, amirite?

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              2. Clarissa Avatar
                Clarissa

                It’s totally the Obama death camps. Well, at least it goes both ways.

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              3. David Bellamy Avatar
                David Bellamy

                Five people were killed today as a result of this.

                https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/06/27/milo-wants-vigilantes-start-killing-journalists-and-hes-not-being-ironic

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              4. Clarissa Avatar
                Clarissa

                This is very tragic. Like all mass shootings. Which have been happening since long before now.

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              5. Clarissa Avatar
                Clarissa

                I just read that the shooter had a feud with the paper since 2011. I guess Obama must be to blame in this case.

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        2. Shakti Avatar
          Shakti

          Just locally, Clarissa:

          A mosque near my place had a bomb threat called in.

          The one near the city was burnt by arson.

          In a neighborhood where some family friends of mine live, a white man threatened to burn down a house some Muslims wanted to purchase

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          1. Clarissa Avatar
            Clarissa

            We had Jewish graves defaced locally, so you don’t have to tell me. But once again, this vs the Iraq war. Or the devastation of Yemen where people are dying of cholera.

            Right?

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      2. Z Avatar
        Z

        All the environmental deregulation is going to cause irreparable damage. And democratic institutions are being dismantled. I would say this is similar to Reagan in destructiveness and builds on the post 9-11 destructiveness of Shrub. But I’m not sure the comparisons work well; what seems new with Trumpy is the utter and complete disregard for democratic institutions even as facade, and I’ve always said it was the environment, poisoning of planet, that would do us in physically.

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    2. Z Avatar
      Z

      Oh, people have been embarrassed to be Americans for a long time. Maybe these people have just realized that their hopes for the country are in vain. It happens to everyone at some point.

      What I think is singular about the present moment is that it seems irremediable. It will take 50 years to roll back Trump policies and may be too late by then.

      But I don’t know, I don’t keep getting all the same articles on FB and I don’t think it’s just venting. Yes, my friends do send articles about the latest new policies. But one does want to keep up.

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      1. Clarissa Avatar
        Clarissa

        “But I don’t know, I don’t keep getting all the same articles on FB and I don’t think it’s just venting. Yes, my friends do send articles about the latest new policies. But one does want to keep up.”

        • Oh well, you have a better FB feed than I do. Keep rubbing it in. 🙂

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        1. Z Avatar
          Z

          Haha! I do, in fact, have a great one.

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        2. Z Avatar
          Z

          Oh God, though. I see someone saying they feel like dying over the Trump / immigration thing.

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          1. Clarissa Avatar
            Clarissa

            And just when I recovered my faith in Facebook. 🙂 🙂

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  2. Shakti Avatar
    Shakti

    What I don’t get about Facebook is what possesses normally reasonable people to inform the same tiny group of relatives and friends how much they detest Trump day after day after endless day, often many times a day
    It’s venting. Or FaceBook is their substitute for a blog or a Tumblr. It’s not like political venting is appropriate for the workplace so I’m sure it’s all pent up nonsense. It’s even more fun if you work in a place that has the channel set to the news station all day. Imagine 8 hours of a network. You get all the charm of the local crime report mixed with the absurd horror of national news. A vet sets himself on fire at the Georgia Capitol!

    If they don’t post this they post email forwards or reblog memes. Most people really don’t have significant shit to say about their lives anyways and half of relationships are communicating mundanities.

    I wish I knew any Republicans so I could ask them if it was the same for them during the Obama years. It had to be, right?
    I muted a FaceBook friend after the election because all he did was post dumb political memes about HRC and Obama. He’s libertarian.

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  3. UDR Avatar
    UDR

    As a person with many Republicans in my family…yes absolutely it was. And my family members who weren’t on Facebook were forwarding long, poorly researched, inaccurate, angry emails about Obama’s plot to destroy the US (most of which were near direct repeats of the latest Glen Beck episode- thanks guy)

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  4. UDR Avatar
    UDR

    But this all reminds me of a blog post I read the other day:

    http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2018/06/democrats-views-on-immigration-have-changed-dramatically.html

    It quotes one of Obama’s statements on the campaign trail about the US needing to figure out immigration reform, make a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who have lived here for a while, that illegal immigrants shouldn’t get priority over immigrants who came here legally, and that they should pay a fine for living here illegally. To me, that’s a reasonable statement, but at the time (to Republicans, anyway) it was a sign that Obama was plotting to destroy America by bringing in so many immigrants our culture would be lost. Of course if Trump said the same thing today, there would probably be cartoons of him with a Hitler ‘stache by the end of the week.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Great observation. 🙂

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  5. Shakti Avatar
    Shakti

    OT:
    Google News failed to load and I have no idea how to feel. “Uh-oh, something went wrong. Please try again.” The upside down ice cream cone doesn’t help.

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  6. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    I wasn’t keeping up with mainstream republican stuff but in the weirdo stuff I did listen to* was a fair amount of apocalyptic prophecy and a lot of outrage but not the weepy hysteria that you get know.
    Also, the demographic most angered by Obama was traditional white men who don’t do weepy hysteria (in public though they can get unhinged in other ways) Trump mostly angers women and more progressive and/or non-traditional men both of whom are more public and out there with emotions (for better or worse).
    Also outrage at Obama was usually more about what they thought he might do next while Trump is making people see the ends more by what he’s doing or has just done (even when that’s continuing previous republican or democratic policy).
    I think I’ve never seen anything remotely like the intensity that Trump brings about in his opponents (and my conscious memory of presidents goes to back to LBJ so that’s a non-trivial sample). And I’m in Europe where I mostly can avoid it, I can’t imagine what it miust be like at ground level…
    *I feel stupid saying this but “listen to” is not the same thing as believe in or agree with

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      I don’t remember anything like this even after Abu Ghraib or after the 2008 recession. People were angry, I’m still livid over those things but I don’t remember anything even remotely as intense as this. I was on very progressive campuses back then socializing with people far more to the left than me, but nobody was foaming at the mouth like this. I’m the most outraged person I know about the Recession and its aftermath. I remember thinking, God, these Americans can’t get truly upset over anything.

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      1. cliff arroyo Avatar
        cliff arroyo

        I don’t remember anything like this during the watergate hearings or Nixon resignation or Reagan’s first term (which was very traumatic for a lot of the country for the first couple of years).

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        1. Clarissa Avatar
          Clarissa

          Two seconds ago, I went on FB and saw a colleague from my university, a professor with a pretty enviable life, write “I’m so ashamed of being an American right now that I’d rather be in jail or dead.” I don’t know how to work with this person after this because it’s not a normal statement, in my opinion.

          Another colleague on FB right now is bashing Zara because it’s somehow to blame for Melania buying a jacket from them.

          These are all highly intelligent people I know and love. I had no idea they had all this drama pent up inside them.


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  7. Stringer bell Avatar
    Stringer bell

    OT.

    This really looks like Putin’s idea, doesn’t it?

    https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1012517033160962048

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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