General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI am losing all faith in Americans at this point.
Maybe even humanity for that matter. I have got to quit watching the local news here in Oklahoma, it is worse than the national news. We have become a self centered, nasty bunch of cretins who only care for ourselves, nobody else. What is in it for us? I wasn't raised like that. We didn't have much, but my parents always shared and were first to step up and help someone who needed it, so were our neighbors. This is nuts, a large percentage of this country mimic this horrible anti Christ who is sitting in the White House. His numbers hardly move no matter what horrible thing he does next.
I need to stop watching news and start sitting in my garden.
bdamomma
(63,922 posts)Healthier sitting in your garden
madaboutharry
(40,220 posts)It is very disheartening. I have a lot of trouble processing the reasons for the behavior of some people.
Laelth
(32,017 posts)-Laelth
2naSalit
(86,775 posts)it's really good therapy. You'll feel better, more hopeful.
Miguelito Loveless
(4,473 posts)People now know that if they wish to express their admiration for Trump, they damned sure better do it somewhere else.
BeyondGeography
(39,379 posts)A lot of people never grow up. Its a human problem, but Americans suffer disproportionately from it. And now they have a President who is just like them.
iluvtennis
(19,871 posts)Throck
(2,520 posts)I'm not seeing in the news how other countries are doing anymore.
Seeing the news makes me wonder how we survived WWII as a nation.
cagefreesoylentgreen
(838 posts)One of the YouTube channels that helps me keep my perspective.
https://www.youtube.com/user/france24english
iluvtennis
(19,871 posts)MFGsunny
(2,356 posts)KPN
(15,650 posts)ps - love your handle.
treestar
(82,383 posts)On Lawrence O'Donnel or Brian Williams: that people in WWII made enormous sacrifices for the common good, and that the people today can't make a much smaller one.
Throck
(2,520 posts)My dad was 16 and got hired at the steel mill. Most everyone took the bus to save on gas/tires. Occasionally some guy would die on the job of exhaustion. Another uncle made jeeps for Ford, same schedule. One of my aunts made airplane wings in Niagara Falls. My mom made heat exchangers for submarines.
End of the shift they went home and helped tend the victory garden.
And now we have a population that won't even stay home because they're bored.
Ferrets are Cool
(21,110 posts)SoonerPride
(12,286 posts)So yes I understand your despair living among so many hateful "christians" who worship Agolf Twitler and spew venom.
But even here there are plenty of liberal, good minded, caring people. Heck we even have a Democratic representative in Kendra Horn! So it's not as lopsided as the news would have you think.
Look for the helpers.
Look for the good people.
Tune out the news and spend more time in the garden (just not today because it is freezing again!)
is your governor still eating out, with his family & encouraging others to do the same? Im glad to hear there ARE sane, decent folks in Ruby red areas. I live in a Blue state with a Republican governor. Gov. Hogan will not lift the stay in place order..
SoonerPride
(12,286 posts)He is another mouth breathing con and moron.
GWC58
(2,678 posts)South Dakota as the next hot spot. Gov. Noem is an idiot! Her idiocy, though, is gonna get others killed! And thats too bad.
redstatebluegirl
(12,265 posts)qwlauren35
(6,150 posts)We're inching up toward 1,000 deaths.
I'm happy to self-isolate and social distance.
redstatebluegirl
(12,265 posts)We LOVE Kendra Horn! We have sent her money pretty regularly. The GOP is REALLY going after her this time. I think she kind of got in under their radar the last time.
Yes it is freezing again! I covered my peonie bushes last night, they are about ready to bloom and the cold would have gotten them!
Thanks for the good words.
NRaleighLiberal
(60,019 posts)I've always noted that humans, as a species, have some serious flaws - it is why advertising works, it is how religion works, it is how the trumps and hitlers form. We are prone to be swayed by propaganda. We love drama - we can't look away. We are tribal. Money is like a disease - power is like a disease - the more humans have, the more they want, the more they fear losing it. We hate change. We are lazy critical thinkers.
My wife and I are trying to do what we can to be part of solutions, not problems. By not watching it, we are keeping our spirits up - we are reading (I am half way done reading Grapes of Wrath to my wife - it is a custom we started years ago, me reading outloud to her while she knits). We garden - we help our daughters, we love our pets.
Don't lose faith in all Americans. Sad to say, I will be pretty much shunning - have given up on - conservatives, trump supporters, etc - they are a cult, and they are lost to us. And they are dangerous, because they hate us.
colsohlibgal
(5,275 posts)The good news is there are way more of us than them. Trump admitted as much when he said Republicans would never win if we had voting by mail.
We need to have voting by mail in as many States as possible. In the other states we need to show up and vote.
GWC58
(2,678 posts)Wisconsin backfired, BIG TIME!
redstatebluegirl
(12,265 posts)Karma13612
(4,554 posts)Spending time in your garden is really healthy. And youre fortunate you can do this now!
Here in my little red NY21 of wonderful Blue New York, we are still stuck with 30s to 40s during the day, with snow spitting and the heating oil grinding down our bank account.
We cant wait to hit the raised beds and plant our victory garden!
Just finished watching Netflixs Joe Exotic. Very disturbing character. I felt so bad for the tigers and the staff who truly cared for them. Joe is where he needs to be. If things go well for us, maybe we can get Trump an adjoining cell!
Your faith will return once we return sanity to the WH.
HUGS,
redstatebluegirl
(12,265 posts)Tomorrow is supposed to be better so I will take my little chair and sit in my flower garden that is beginning to bloom.
Danmel
(4,924 posts)Elise Stepanik was tapped by trump (maybe a bad choice of words) to be on the reopening committee.
G-d save us!
Scarsdale
(9,426 posts)gop members on that committee - except Mitt Romney! That'll teach Mitt to mess with The King. tRump is such a "little" person. Nancy Pelosi has more cojones than tRump ever had, or ever will have.
freepotter
(351 posts)Even Dog can't save us now. He also tapped our two moron senators, James Lankford and Jim Inhofe. Had to reach clear to the bottom of the barrel for those two. In my past life I was an insurance underwriter, and Inhofe was one of the agents who sold for us. He was so stupid he could even pronounce "insurance", and quickly bankrupted his agency. He was so pitiful, he would call and ask us to explain something in a policy for him, and "oh, by the way I have you on speaker phone so the inshored can hear you, too." Has no idea how to read a policy, and that was after every company had gone to "easy to read" format. We used to call him Agent Speaker Phone.
I don't watch the local news here in OKC, except for tornado warnings, because otherwise they are pretty useless. Have been trying to adjust to Okiehoma for 55 years, but still feel like I dropped through some sort of time/space warp. We moved to Del City, OK from Tokyo, Japan, and I thought I had died and gone to Hell City/Dull City. Would have left long ago except for family and circumstances along the way, and tried to convince my spouse several times, but it just didn't work. If I had it to do all over again, I'd be more adamant about leaving this region.
Karma13612
(4,554 posts)We NEED to put a stop to this little twit come November 3rd.
And by that I mean Elusive Elise.
As someone said yesterday, its Time for Tedra
Tedra Cobb is running (for the second time) against her. I think she will win this time.
Dog, I hope so!
Thanks for the sympathy!
Stay healthy!
Cousin Dupree
(1,866 posts)We dont care about others having healthcare coverage as long as we have ours.
We dont care about families being detained and separated at the border as long as its not us.
We dont care about starving children as long as we are eating.
We dont care that our young people are saddled with enormous debt and long as its not us.
We we we we we we.............
hkp11
(275 posts)it's just about themselves, never think about others..
Mickju
(1,805 posts)They are not, they just think they are. I'm not a Christian, and yet I am a better Christian than they are.
treestar
(82,383 posts)so charitable and giving and kind to others - in their circle.
I have a right-wing relative, retired, who trained as an EMT and volunteered his services! That's even a little beyond just helping his own, which interestingly, he did not do, having been rather prosperous but judgmental and unhelpful to a sibling who was struggling financially.
So you have to hear how wonderful he is and it's hard to argue, but their individual acts of charity are not enough. The right will argue it should be individual acts of charity rather than government. When you point out the tenets of Christianity that help others, they will say that Christ didn't say it had to be by government!
But if charity did work, government would never have gotten involved, because, well, it would have worked. And it's never enough, and it is dispensed with the prejudices of the giver, their judgment of others about who is deserving, while government is obliged to do it fairly.
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,431 posts)Sophia_Of_PlanetX
(73 posts)They want a strongman to take charge and give them their power back. They want permanent underclasses to beat up on so that they can feel powerful. They want to be the bully, because if they arent, the reality that they have no power may begin to set in.
Thats why they want an authoritarian bully as a president, and they want an arsenal of guns. Thats why they want Trump to torture minorities. Hes selling them a false sense of power they feel theyve lost but deserve.
Were at a scary crossroads.
mucifer
(23,565 posts)income want to survive, too. They should see trump not having a plan as the cause of all of this.
Here in Illinois we have a huge plan for feeding the hungry and the sheriffs at this point won't evict people. I don't know how long we can keep this going. But, I do believe most states don't have the infrastructure we have to help the needy.
I am a nurse so I am an essential worker. Being a peds nurse who can do much of my work through telehealth tho not all, I'm not at high risk as most nurses are.
I can see why people blame the stay at home orders on liberals and I actually think this will get trump elected again. I have a very dark view of our future and I can't get it out of my mind. I think we are too far down the rabbit hole at this point.
redstatebluegirl
(12,265 posts)I think that is part of it, I feel guilty. We have been buying gift cards from our favorite local shops and eating places and giving money to the shelter. I can't go out I have a compromised immune system so I can't volunteer any longer. This may be guilt.
Bleacher Creature
(11,257 posts)This situation - as well as Election Day 2016 - only exacerbates those feelings.
mnhtnbb
(31,404 posts)I can only take so much news and I have to mute the sound whenever the orange one comes on.
bucolic_frolic
(43,283 posts)There must be a few symbiotic thinkers out there
redstatebluegirl
(12,265 posts)freepotter
(351 posts)I've been able to find a few here (OKC). Every time I meet a liberal democrat here, I get a warm, happy feeling that just washes all over me. Similar feeling to being lost and suddenly finding myself at home. Their rarity here makes them precious.
rainin
(3,011 posts)to forgive the half of America who supports this guy. They're responsible for this. And, I don't want to be bitter, but how else can one feel?
kentuck
(111,110 posts)It is futile and useless to even try.
It is best to ignore them. They do not deserve the attention they get.
VladmireTrumpkins
(370 posts)To me the greatest crime a president can commit is to enter into a war for false reasons. George Bush did exactly that..whether by accident or design. Still he got reelected! That tells me much about the American people..not all of them of course, but enough to put him back in the WH with no consequences for his disasterous decision.
My neighbor voted for him the second time telling me, "Well you cant change horses in the middle of the stream!" Christ Almighty! Bush was the one that created the stream!
brush
(53,848 posts)Aristus
(66,462 posts)These wonderful people will restore your faith in (some of) humanity.
ramapo
(4,589 posts)Im 65 and all I can say is that I never imagined that we could end up in a place of such ignorance, stupidity, and selfishness.
I live in Northern New Jersey. Its somewhat eerie. No traffic. Everyone wearing masks. My town of 13000 has only about 130 active cases, a good number in a nursing home.
Every morning I think I have to get out to my usual routine...Ive only been sequestered for about 10 days when my wife said were in a higher risk category, youre staying home. I am very active in animal rescue and it is killing me to be home. But then I read about the healthy, fit 60-year-old, (or 50, 40 or 30) who get this monster and end up dead. I dont want to play that lottery.
Anyway, these people protesting the shutdown think theyre safe. They are delusional. We have only avoided an absolute catastrophe by taking these steps. Nobody likes it. It is stressful and unnatural and just plain awful. But so is ending up intimated or dead.
Wake up America
redstatebluegirl
(12,265 posts)Pacifist Patriot
(24,654 posts)I was appalled by the bitching, moaning, judging, and all around nastiness. People whining that they couldn't call it the China Flu, complaining about having to wear a mask to the grocery store, calling each other names for having different opinions. It was an absolute shit show. I really don't want to know that much about my neighbors anymore.
redstatebluegirl
(12,265 posts)SpankMe
(2,966 posts)Frankly, that describes the mindset of most states's citizens. Although I love California and have lived here all my life, we have some of that same self-centered-ness you're talking about. Texas takes this attitude to the n'th degree.
State pride is a common mindset. Cali, Texas, Maine (yes, Maine), New York, all southern states, Montana - they have almost asshole-like superiority complexes.
Delaware, Rhode Island, Michigan, Ohio certainly, Nebraska, Kansas are much more modest and genuine with their pride and display it in a non-assholic way. With all due respect to the OP, Oklahoma strikes me as one of those non-assholic states who keeps their expressions of pride more modest.
Yes, Oklahoma has a severe right-wing government that's doing a lot of stuff just plain hurtful and wrong. But, frankly, OK has a lot of genuine mid-west down-to-earth coolness that some of the rest of the country needs to get religion on. Oklahoma City is a little bastion of coolness.
redstatebluegirl
(12,265 posts)They are great when something terrible like a tornado happens. They all come together to help no matter who you are. That ends shortly after that. It has gotten much worse since 2016.
FakeNoose
(32,748 posts)Take heart in what happened in Wisconsin last week. The Democrats prevailed and the Wisconsin voters made their voices heard, despite the incredible dds against them. We're all Wisconsin Democrats now, as we rejoice in their victory!
The Faux News people want us to think we're already defeated, but it's just one more lie on top of thousands of other lies. November Third will be here sooner than we think. This will all be over.
ananda
(28,876 posts)I haven't watched tv news in yonks.
I use online sources I can trust.
appalachiablue
(41,171 posts)4-5 powerhouse owners like monopolies resulting from the major deregulation in the last 25 years. TV is possibly the worse although extremists and frauds dominate radio and have impacted print-digital news sources and social media.
Just turn off the TV? Why should we have to do that? If corruption of the media isn't tackled soon, virtually every news venue could be ruined in very little time. We can't keep on closing doors that should be open and running away...
OMGWTF
(3,975 posts)We got through Reagan, GHW Bush, and GW Bush's terms, but worshiping this misanthropic death cult leader is not acceptable. We had a good run, but values and truth and lives matter to me and that's where I'm drawing the line. Bye!
treestar
(82,383 posts)or try to. I know what you mean, when you hear or read something about these people going on about "I shouldn't have this problem" or "I don't want my tax money going to (the less deserving in their minds) where it's all about them and how smug and superior they wish to feel.
BigDemVoter
(4,157 posts)I have to take a break, as it is affecting my mood, and I've become angry all the time. I don't like it. I am going to do the same and start spending some time outside in my backyard where it is peaceful. . . .
Roland99
(53,342 posts)or "reopen america"
I had a cousin unfriend *me* last night. He'd posted some bs video from some alleged authority figure,. Knut Wittkowski, who claims we could achieve herd immunity in 4 weeks at a cost of 10,000 deaths.
I showed my cousin the stats from 1point3acres and from worldometers that we already had 34,000 dead and had been engage in Stay At Home almost nationwide for at least 2 weeks. That herd immunity would mean, minimally, 6-10 Million dead Americans.
His retort was that I was "a joke" and that there was no reasoning with me.
They're too far gone. It's beyond a cult. It must have become genetic at this point.
And I fully believe this:
They must be given no quarter
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213301309
PatrickforO
(14,587 posts)It is a time when hate becomes love, death becomes life and lies become truth. A time of tribulation and upheaval.
Supposed to end in 2025.
Autumn
(45,120 posts)his idiotic spokespeople. Done with it all.
hangaleft
(649 posts)I knew there would be at least one pretentious post proclaiming with pride that they dont watch TV at all.
I watched the news religiously until the pandemic. Im a politics junkie and really enjoy the round table discussions of politics and the interviews of our leaders. Well, the Democrats, anyway lol.
With the pandemic, its not a matter of disinterest. I just dont need 24/7/365 coverage of it. If I were a news director, Id establish a ten-minute slot at the top of every hour for pandemic news. The rest of the hour would be dedicated to politics and US/World news.
Of course, I wouldnt be able to enjoy any of that if I were a TV snob.