Long time No see

I love political discussion among people I consider my peers. Even I can't handle it as a steady diet though. We all need to get away sometimes and recharge our batteries.

BBC America is similar to TV news I've seen overseas.

Back then there was actually some intelligent, real debate going on and the hosts weren't total idiots. Now they make me puke and I avoid them like the plague they are.

Still listen to the evening news for one hour only while I rest or do other things, but that's it. Since I am a bona fide news junkie, I keep up with an online news feed from 6-7 different sources. And I do watch presidential candidate debates after first taking some Pepto Bismol.

the national news out of habit. Sunday shows and 60 Minutes: dead to me.

Have fun both here and in your breaks from DU too Scuba!

But I think all of us understand.

never said anything outright, just had to take a break from all the bad news.

I think that Grovelbot is telling me to take a break from DU. I've been called to juries 3 times today and every time the jury was full when I responded. Hrm.

...for a couple of days. There must be a glitch with the software.

TYY

Sometimes you just have to recharge your batteries.

Peace to you, Scuba.

and i'm in the same boat i think. it can be tiring these days.

Still love DU, though, but only when I feel like loving it.

Even if it's not on a daily basis these days.

When mid-terms will start to heat up, well, that may change a lot.

Until then it's

Seriously, come back soon!

I check a few websites nearly every day, so I figure if it's big enough I'll hear about it.

Life's too short to get wrapped up and dragged down in the news 24/7

FNC most definitely tries to make their viewers crazy.

Love you.

Or is my sarcasm detector malfunctioning?

but it may not be sensitive enough. I used "misogynist" because "'terrorist" is just so overused, and "communist" doesn't have the power it used to.

Or any other of those smears?

"misogyny" is used as a sledge hammer around here. Sometimes it's used to stop conversations or derail them, and sometimes it's used, in my opinion, because people get off on being outraged. Similarly, "terrorism" is used way too often by the right. Perversely, it's avoided for cases of domestic terrorism. "Communist" was used (McCarthy) as a sledge hammer to go after political opponents, and also (again, in my opinion) to derail conversations that were uncomfortable to some politicians. As in: "Hey, why aren't you doing your job and regulating the coal companies in West Virginia so they don't dump chemicals into the water supply?" "You're a stinkin' communist!" I guess "socialist" would be more common these days.

So yes, this was kind of a joke.

There is so much of the "you are wrong, because you are a big poopy head (or insert the red herring of your choice in for poopy head).

Thanks, mindwalker_i, for reminding me that being a member of the big poopy head society is more a badge of honor than an insult.

My sarcasm detector is making little chirps, and I'm not sure which way it needs to be adjusted

I have the hiccups.

I too take it as a badge of honor to have been accused to certain things. It means that I've not been subsumed into the twisted world that some people live in where everything is a threat.

I try to form opinions based on facts, and I find it annoying when people are unhappy that I don't share their emotional crisis that is the drama of their lives just because there apparently isn't a crisis.

you can't swing a dead cat around here without hitting someone's conniption.

I took a slightly different tack on the OP in that sometimes it's really hard to navigate the treacherous path of conversation without someone taking offence. There are a lot of things that just can't be discussed, and a lot of words that can't be used without one getting accused of being misogynist or some other variation of "you're not a progressive."

There was a post from someone saying they weren't going to alert except on overtly racist things, which seemed to be an attempt to reign in on totally freaking out over everything that could be even slightly offensive to anyone. That sounds like a good idea to me, but another post complaining about it said, so women and gays can go fuck themselves? The point of that post was to say, you need to be appropriately outraged or you're not a progressive.

Where does that get us? Perpetually outraged about everything, no matter how small. There are real issues to deal with and yes, there are serious issues having to do with women that need to be worked on and solved. Being perpetually outraged about stupid things seriously diminishes our ability to talk about the real issues, and through that, find paths to address them.

I've never seen Scuba even slightly misogynous so I think your joke is waay off.

Above, I mentioned that the word "misogynist" is used as a sledge hammer. Similarly, "terrorist" is used way too often, as "communist" was used in the '50s. So when I said (originally) that "only a misogynist would say that," it was a sarcastic joke about how the word is applied too often, to situations that are way outside its scope. Let me try to illustrate it:

Someone says that maybe we should tax people who make a lot of money a little more than we tax poor or middle class people, as opposed to taxing the rich less than we tax poor people. Response: "Your a socialist who wants to punish the rich."

You say that gay people should be able to marry their partners. Response: "You're taking away my religious freedom."

Possibly, we should limit what kinds of weapons people are allowed to own, such as miniguns, grenade launchers, or possibly by not allowing people who are clinically insane, are schizophrenic, or have a history of shooting people to own miniguns or grenade launchers. Individuals should not be allowed to own nuclear weapons. Response: "You'll pry this ICBM from my cold, dead hands."

I'm going to open the door for my wife. "You're a misogynist!"

I'm sure that will make many happy. I am tired of the "we suck less".

... that try to discuss how our latest actions in Iraq threaten to pull us back into that country militarily it simply reinforces my ideas about the low-information American citizen.

I love DU, and love reading the news, but I don't want to read about the horrors of the world everyday. Twenty six days a month is enough.

All the bad news and craziness gets to me. I take vacations from my information sources.

I don't visit DU as often, but that is more work-related than any problem with DU.

Take time to enjoy.

Speaking of info I found a post on Facebook/Justice for Geist that really made sense to me concerning police brutality:

My neighbor who is a retired officer explained to me that the behavior of Brett was most likely conditioned during his experience in the military: "After being trained on the rules of engagement, many military 'brothers' began to make decisions on the very edge of the rules, for example: if a 'brother' shot and killed a man - he can simply claim that he felt threatened by the man and his cell phone" - "...Another thing the military trains these types for is to NEVER leave a brother behind. Never betray a brother. Never rat on a brother. Never go against your brothers. This is called "being a good boy blue" and this is where you will find most of the corruption and lies within your current police station."

Now I'm pulling the blankets up over my head and remaining in that position until 2078.

squirm...but good for you though!

Last edited Sun Jun 29, 2014, 01:37 AM - Edit history (1)

But I do know how you feel.

LEMME AT YOU!!!

I've been there a few times, even recently.

...and I had to give that up. I was going crazy. I was so spitting mad at all my relatives and friends who tune in to that crap, and FIRMLY believe it is reality. I was losing my mind, my friends and my over all health. Had to give it up. Fook it! It's bad enough to deal with the propaganda from the left at times. A steady dose of that crap from right wing radio and fox will rot your brain in short order.

Call me a wimp; I love the conversation but don't need the fights. For me, some distance is a good thing these days.

I've stopped mid-way through writing a post and thought, "You know, I just don't need the fight this opinion may stir up with some people," and just deleted it.

But a pattern emerges too often of people just getting mad and becoming insulting, and I got shit to DO, if you know what I mean.

This morning, a DU'er badly misconstrued one of my posts and accused me of being a racist. In my thirteen years at DU, this the first and only time I've ever received that ugly designation. I guess I ought to let the scales fall from my eyes and realize that this place has changed a great deal, and not for the better. It's a damn shame.

but, as I like to remind him, it's an election year!

There is so much insanity out there it's gotten ridiculous. Last night I took my family to the town park to play Bingo, which we do every weekend in the summer in our tiny resort town. I haven't been to Bingo much the last couple of years since the ultra conservative Rotary Club of our town took it over as their main fund raising, but I knew it'd be fun for the kiddos.
Friday night I bought our cards and got tickets as a "receipt." Something new, but ok. Sat night I try to pay for our cards and am told to get tickets first. I joked about them changing procedure as I got in the ticket line and a woman kept yelling "it's the government, it's the government." Finally, after the 5th time she said it, I looked at her and said "what government?" and she said "Obama!" I burst out laughing and said "where? I want a picture of him messing with our Bingo!" A lot of people laughed as did my 5 granddaughters (my built in audience) but, the Rotarians weren't laughing.

I swear, these days, if I don't laugh I'll just never stop crying and my husband will build that rubber room he keeps talking about.

Have a nice time off, but come back soon.

I try not to get into "relationships" online, so mostly use DU as a news aggregator--it's the best! But the social aspects get quite irritating sometimes. Good ol' internet anonymity! and thanks to Earl and Skinner for the best forum design ever!

See you around, I'm sure! Love the cartoon.

Sometimes I'm too busy to participate consistently. Sometimes I've worked late the night before & come to DU the next morning to catch up on news & views (don't watch TV except for weather reports or nova specials).

Sometimes my co-workers are soo RW it's really depressing & I come here for some sanity.

Not some get-wet-and-cool-off-for-an-hour in a local quarry, but someplace like wreck diving off of New Providence Island in the Bahamas. A good wreck is a great dive, whether you have ten dives under your weightbelt or a thousand. Why do we find wrecks so fascinating? Is it the history they reveal, or the tragedy they conceal? Or is it simply the excitement of seeing a familiar shape appear like a faded blue apparition as you descend toward the bottom? There is something strangely compelling about passing beneath the encrusted propeller of a large wreck or swimming through the dark passages of her interior. Whatever the reason, wrecks have a special appeal of their own.

... the Bahama Mama for my first dive as a C-card holder. Loved it, and the wreck is memorable, but the Caribbean Reef Sharks are what I most remember. Awesome close-up experience with a guy twice my size. I had to remember to keep breathing!

But you take the world too seriously. It's all just a big joke someone is playing on us.

I sent this to my conservative sister in law after I wanted to make peace. We were going around in circles. (I of course pictured her as the one in the rain.)

I've been giving thought to the same thing. Both here and Discussionist. There are some real lulu's there. Might be a good idea to take a summer break and regain some peace of mind.

and go for a walk.

I've been wearing down what few teeth I have left...gritting them.

Eating eggshells.