Are people getting meaner and angrier?

I was wondering in general--if others are noticing that people in general
seem angrier, mean and nasty?

Don't get me wrong--I know a lot of nice people and enjoy my neighbors, friends
and all of that.

However, I'm talking about the general public. I especially notice this when I'm
driving. People seem to be in a hurry to get to nowhere--and their cars seem like
an extension of some rage that they harbor.

I also notice this while shopping--at malls and Target, etc. People seem pulled
inward and moody. Maybe I'm not explaining it well, but there seems to be a general
undercurrent of unrest and stress out there.

Maybe it's the economy.

Seems to me that anger and meanness have been endemic in our society for a long time.

I only have four people on this site ignored, but one of them likes to jump in fast on most of the threads I'm on. And my life is sweeter just seeing ignored than it would have been if I'd let the little twit do his thing.

"Greed is good". The "Me" decade. "Deficits don't matter". The emetic Reagan and his devil spawn george w bush have between them given America a sucker-punch it may never recover from. (Reagan tripled the national debt; slacker bush merely doubled it.)

The people you see around you filled with hate, rage, and fear are, I would wager, predominantly Beck-loving right-wing jerks. We have a few right here in my otherwise decent neighborhood. They are killing our country, all the while accusing us of the same. (Projection is 100% universal on the right.)

Lord, please! Bring the Rapture! Take these dreadful people away! I want my country back.

Trust me.

...the middle aged woman who thinks that those darn young people are so mouthy!

It's not just young people. Everyone seems stressed out.

To the big scary and crazy city.

It's so nice to know that I cannot get shot for stealing someone's parking spot up here.

First of all there are plenty of partking spots. Second of all, no one cares.

As an absent minded person, this is a huge load off my mind.

Then it's all about me, me, meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Watch your community change. Mine did.

Ours would have changed too. But then the housing bubble popped.

Still the mere two and a half hours that stands between us and the SF Bay area will mean that eventually every other person sick of the Bay Area will be up here.

Until then, I am enjoying it.

It's mostly people my age (30s) and up.

(clarification: That wasn't addressed at you personally. :) Just as a possible solution to the problem afoot.)

The Internet has made it possible for all the loons and haters to communicate with, and inflame, each other. But the same nastiness was present in the '60s -- believe me.

I yelled "Hey!! Fuck you!" at a guy holding a cardboard sign that said "Obamacare Kills" at the ferry dock this morning.

I'm done being nice to imbeciles.

here? Let me at them, arrrrrrr

The son of a bitch had two kids with him - I didn't see them until after my yodel....

Hiding behind children ought to be a felony

You are one pissed off dude. My rage ebbs and flows. I thought it would float away when we elected the savior who could walk on water. Unfortunately, he was a bit overhyped and while it is soothing to the soul to listen to a President who can also manage to speak eloquently and yet understandanbly and know that he understands so much more than I do about what is going on globably, he is still not the saviour we were promised. We are that savior and that will be the next big swell as we the people begin to figure out that we are the ones who have come to save us and stop corporations.

I'm not pissed off all the time.

Well, not completely pissed off.

Well, not road rage pissed off....

Ok, I am one pissed off dude.

:rofl:

some very angry religious zealots I know.

Your t-shirts for your "big swell" are going to have to read " What would We the People Do?"

Cheers.

I didn't even realize until a few months in that I had been promised a savior and gotten just a man. Then I went back through my inventory and realized that I hadn't ordered one of the righteous, just a righteous dude, to quote Steven King. This one is looking a little iffy even on the second definition. We shall see.

WWWTPD.

Remember that Acronym. It's gonna be big.

Wages started to fall in the 70s and have never gone back up. They're being lied to by everybody they are supposed to trust, and they dimly realize this even if they try to repeat the lies in an attempt to look like they've got a clue.

There are too few resources to go around in the way of jobs, the ability to save for a retirement, and now they can't even float the life they want on plastic. All the bills are coming due at once and they don't like it.

That's the bottom line: depressed wages, vanished credit, shrinking assets, and little hope for anything better, ever.

This makes them suckers for demagogues who give them all the wrong people to blame and give them permission to hate all the wrong people.

The whole world has turned to a mouthful of ashes for a lot of people out there. If they're cranky, they have a perfect right to be. They've just had the rug pulled out from under them and their asses hurt from the fall.

The increasing volume of their screams is to drown out the inner honest voices that tell them that they've been played for perfect fools.

<--Just saw it for the 3rd time. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Truth can be a motherfucker when it rears its head.And when people realize they have been fucked without so much as a reach around they tend to really get pissed off.

I was able to have a civil conversation about politics in the past - not any more.

I was schooled by a medicine man who taught me that what I saw in others' faces was my own reflection.

since then, I always give a soft smile and gentle nod of recognition whenever my eyes meet another's.


in this way, imho we grow the good in one another.


we are all changing. change is difficult.

I also think it's nice to nod and smile and people.

We're all connected---it's silly to pretend otherwise.

smile

say please and thank you

i'm polite and show an interest in them
and they think i'm a goddess!

i love to make contact, and make someone
smile.

one of the few good things about doing
retail.

Whenever I'm out and about, I always try to make a habit of being polite to others. Holding a door open for someone else...thanking someone who holds the door for me.

Being polite to the waitress in a restaurant or the clerk behind the counter in a store.

Saying "excuse me" if I have to walk in front of someone or try to get by them.

It costs nothing, yet could be the very thing to make someone's day, especially if the person has spent all day being invisible or verbally abused at a job they hate, but need. And it always pays to treat others the way we ourselves want to be treated. :)

has a dramatic effect on other people.

that is some deep stuff. I sincerely mean that. I'll be thinking about that for awhile, maybe try it myself.

It makes me feel good and I hope it passes forward. There's an old man I see almost everyday
sitting on his porch. I waved to him once and now I see that he has started to wait for me to pass bye and wave. Human contact, people. It is needed by elders.

walk past an elderly gentleman's house as well, and then on a chance encounter he was out while I was passing, and out of the blue he gave a gruff but still friendly "How are ya?" to me, a complete stranger. Despite my surprise, I returned the pleasantry and asked him the same. And that's the way it was whenever I passed him, even when I was coming back in the opposite direction on the other side of the road and saw him I would pre-empt his greeting with my own. Just a simple hello, and how are ya?
Unfortunately, not too long ago he got injured, or so I heard, and he wasn't out anymore. But it was very nice. He was truly a classy, old fashioned guy, with what appears to be by today's standards, old fashioned manners.
I wish more people would start practicing those old fashioned manners more often. They provide for a great deal of human contact.

I smile at people on the street, too. They look absolutely shocked.

I've also found that amazing things happen when I ask for things and use the words, "please" and "thank you". I'm not doing it to get special treatment. It's just a good thing to be patient and have good manners. Even if people are freaking out, they hear the "magic words" so seldom anymore that it makes a big impression.

:hug:

His words are true.

It's all I can do to steer away from political discussion when my boss found out I was a liberal. I've done my best to find common ground in spite of his telling me he went to a "tea party". :(

it doesn't stop the change -- but neither does the change stop the worst from coming out.

this from someone who lived throught the sixties and seventies.

Our country seems to be going through a major paradigm shift.

The economy is in tatters and what emerges from the ashes will be something new. I think
we may be coming to grips with that. Same with the environment.

I also think people may be coming out of denial about our political situation. I think
people are finally realizing that the corporations have corrupted our government.

Maybe all of this isn't the reason for angry drivers on the freeway, but I do sense that
undercurrent of unrest--and I agree with you that it's about change. No one who is paying
attention can deny that we're on the brink of some major changes.

as well as for the better.

there are always bad set backs along the way.

I live in a rural community that has lots of older people. Many and I mean many, of the men are just plain angry. It is not unusual for a man to blurt out a GOP talking point, compliments of Faux, if waiting in a long line. They are quick to dump the daily talking points on people they hardly know. I had a man run into the back of my car when I didn't turn fast enough for him.
Another man mistakenly thought I had left a shopping cart in the parking lot and he ran into it with his truck (GOP stickers all over truck), intending to hit my car. Thank goodness the cart veered off.

Not all - but many older men fill themselves with hate media all day and then expect or look for a "fight" with someone.

I know these people were raised to have manners but since faux has appointed every nut the quasi-president of the US - that is all forgotten.

"get outta my way I'm in a hurry".

Caring less about everyone else, focus on the earth's orbit around them. Brings out the worst in folks.

Just my opinion.

at the dog park because Ollie jumped on him. His reaction was so inappropriate and over the top I was couldn't believe it. Unfortunately there are lots of assholes in the world. He looked like a cop or military guy to me.

What the hell did he expect at a dog park?

If he'd mace a puppy, what would he do to a human? Shoot?

days. I noticed a real change with the impeachment foolishness, and once Bush was installed, it got markedly worse. imo-

:hi:

More and more seeking satisfaction in external possessions/circumstances, and more and more frustration at not finding it.

There is a lack of respect for others, it is the saddest thing Americans can do, it is ugly.

People bragging about confronting people or telling them off. There used to be this thing called manners. Everything little thing doesn't have to turn to conflict. Somebody cut you off? so what? Maybe it was a simple mistake. I remember when I first learned to drive, egad, the mistakes I made.
The anger you build up inside yourself harms only you. How do you think the freepers, etc came about?
Their type used to stay home and scream at neighbor kids. Somehow they got loose. Oh well, that's a different Oprah. Try laughing off these minor annoyances.

With the internet, Facebook, DU, FR, those stupid "Comments" sections under most major "news" stories, and so many cable channels that no event can go untelevised, mean people can always find a way to get in your face, and they can spout their bigotry and idiocy with impunity and anonimity.

I haven't noticed that people in real life are meaner. The opposite, actually. Often when I expect confrontations these days I'm impressed by how generous people are at avoiding them. Maybe that's just a southern thing, I don't know.

in the crosswalk in front of the market leading to the parking lot. He had a stop sign and careened right through it. I saw where he parked and was going to voice my protest but decided to just leave him a little note instead. The fact is he could have hit me and I was pissed. I don't know why some folks do think it's all about themselves. If you're out there, Mr. Land Rover, fu!

:scared:

There seems to be a misconception among RWers that Dems are a bunch of scared pantywaists who refuse to fight. We're believed to be pacifists. There was even a stupid email about hitting a lib in the face over and over, that was supposed to be so funny. I was circuklated when there were anti-war protests.

The aggression comes from that idea, I think. RWers think if they say "Boo!" we'll run off and leave our posts, political offices and beliefs. They want to scare us so badly that they actually think they do. Hence, the repititious posts on forums of "Dems are so afraid of Beck" or whichever other idiot makes the news that week.

Especially in the light of the paralyzing fear and terror they obviously feel about the horrible things they have made up that Obama is supposedly going to do at some unspecified future time. (In a sense, they are afraid of themselves and their own crazy fantasies, but it comes across as an overwhelming, debilitating fear of Obama.)

Wingnuts routinely mistake our withering scorn for Beck, Palin, et al. as fear. I assume it is because they have just three emotions (hate, fear, rage) and they assume we are the same. As if!

:eyes:

:rofl:

..and the lame$tream media that feeds it.

The issue is who is meaner and angrier, and right now, it sure isn't the liberals.

I think it's a MASSIVE cultural divide that separates Republicans and Democrats (really liberals and conservatives) with a lot of anger.

edit/left out a word

and we helped each other out. Even the neighbors who weren't so hungry, helped out the ones that were. I really do not understand this mean world we live in.

In a world wherein there was no real want. Or need.

We watched a TV movie last night - the "Pit Pony"

Gorgeous and realistic film. Filmed on site in Nova Scotia. About the perils of being a youngster in a mining town.

But people helped each other out a lot. The miners' lives were hard, but they tried to care for each other, as that was the only real positive in their world.

As people have gotten more affluent, they have also become more isolated and self centered. They do not physiclaly need each other, so they live in their own little bubble.

They think they can afford to be rude.

I remember once visiting a remote area of Colorado. "People are so nice up here, Ralph" I commented.

"Well, in the winter when the wind is blowing 80 miles an hour and it's ten below zero, and your roof has caved in with snow pile-up, you don't wanna find out that your car won't start, AND THAT your neighbors down the hill from you are still pissed off about how rude you were the summer before."

I don't have the stats onhand, but I was watching a TED talk and the speaker said back in the 1980s about 10% of us lacked someone we could talk to about personal issues. That is now up to 25%.

Also the rates of membership in social organizations is down.

So we are becoming more and more isolated from each other. Plus we are working longer hours for (after adjusting for sky high education, health and real estate bills) less money.

Thats probably part of it.

If the president is pro-society, he will HAVE to address this and make a stand.

A lot of it is the lack of commonality we have with the public-at-large. We all have our own echo chambers, comfort zones, cable channels with our particular spin, websites, forums and it all creates a Us/Them kind of thing that carries over into so many things. And it's not so much 'political' in the strict sense, but cultural; and a fear that OUR side (whichever 'our' side might be) is under attack. We all retreat to our corners and prepare to fight. Constant anxiety and agitation. No common purpose as Americans, only agendas as liberals, conservatives and to a lesser degree libertarians and anarchists. Nothing that glues us ALL together.

You gotta get that book, by the way, Thom has distilled his observations on just about everything into this one book. I think it's his best and that's saying a lot as I consider Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class as one of the great books that pushes a clearly progressive agenda.

What do YOU read?

I, too, have been known to read books by talk radio hosts. If they're good.

Largely due to its great public transportation. Without a car culture (everybody has their own echo chamber on wheels) lots of Europeans utilize public transportation which places people "in the same boat" (commonality) on a regular basis. It "glues them all together" if only for 20 minutes a day. It teaches young people respect for others.

Assholes.

and no war that their kids could die from.

Yep, lots of us are pissed off because hope & change was just a catchy advertising slogan that meant absolutely nothing. :argh:

and with the example of the Wilson's of the World I don't expect things to get more civil anytime soon. :-(

Many who had faith in Bush, changed their minds and it hurt. Most express their hurt quietly.

The Bush era was an emotional roller coaster for them--first the incredible high and now the incredible low.

It's still the withdrawal phase.

Cell phones, iPhones, iPods, Internet, cable "news" 24/7, Blackberrys, Bluetooth, handhelds, notebooks, FM radio, satellite radio, news radio, iTunes, CDs, DVDs, movies, TV, newspapers, magazines, flashing signage, pant pant pant...

I'll bet we now process more information in one day than we did in a month (or more) just a few years back. We are laden down with "hardware," "software," and "peripherals." It's insane -- all this technology, and has the ***content*** of anything improved?
Emphatically, No.

Everything is debased and cheesy, from our inane cellphone conversations to the rantings of Glenn Beck. People everywhere are in a daze, probably sleep deprived. Just doing basic stuff seems difficult.

And the future does not look good -- none of this toxic stuff is going away. If anything, there'll just be more technology, more crap and more people.

decades ago, people did seem more relaxed, inclined to joke, be less serious. Neighbors talked to each other. More were likely to volunteer or join clubs like bowling leagues, etc.

Now it's more than being independent of each other. People seem insular, almost protective of themselves.

I have a friend who I worked with for 10 years, been out of a job since January. Another friend of 5 years, declaring bankrupcy.

What do you think that kind of worry does to people?

If the world feels ruder then, IMHO it's because we've become more sensitive to these kinds of things.

My parent's and grandparent's generation beat the shit out of their kids, their wives and brown people, pretty much with impunity. People made a community festival out of hangings and lynchings.

My generation will put up with a little cutting in line (mostly behind the wheel) rude talk and general obliviousness from our fellow Americans (well, a lot actually). But beat the shit out of a kid a woman or a brown person and your ass is going to jail. Period. And few of us can really stomach the death penalty at all, but even those of us who can want the criminal to die as peacefully as our pets do when the vet gives them that shot.

If you look out your window and ask the person what's he's worrying about,

His family
His job
His house
His freaking life


The bar is ampped up already, it don't take much to push it over the edge.

Seems to me people are more snarky and many people think it's cute to be a smartass.

But thanks for the points you pointed out.

As you said, our parents' and grandparents' generation thought nothing of beating or slapping their kids.

and it's in large part the fault of the media.

I believe they should get meaner and angrier, but not against each other... rather against those "forces" which are making them meaner and angrier against one another.

I'll do my part, but, you know, the "other side", has to do its part too - by providing jobs.

With luck that will be addressed in 2010.

probably just after the Gingrich "Revolution." I was expressing pretty much that same thought back then, that the world was turning meaner and nastier. So I guess my answer to you is that I think you're right in your observation, but it started quite a while ago.

And yes, I think people are very stressed these days, and are pushed toward extremes of emotion.

and not to forget hate radio!

Let's not minimize the role "Freedom Works" and other professional right wing bullies are playing in stirring up more and more fear and hatred in vulnerable populations to get them to scream in anger and terror against any reform.

It serves corporate interests to get people riled up and angry enough to shout down Big Government. In that way private profits will be protected from those damn reforms the Democrats seem to want.

Yes, people are angry and afraid, the right wing knows that very well and hires amoral PR firms to "support genuine grass roots groups" to storm town hall meetings and stream into Glenn Beck rallies shouting down Big Government.

Right wing Kingpin Grover Norquist must be a happy camper. He's the one who hoped the people could be pushed to distrust Good Government so much that they'd de-fund it and shrink it to a size small enough to be drowned in a bathtub.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010514/dreyfuss

I have old cars and I don't like to push them too hard. I don't like to lead-foot my way from one stoplight to another. I notice that there always seems to be someone inches from my rear on surface streets, wanting to go 10 to 20 miles per hour over the speed limit, which means about 50 to 60 miles per hour on surface streets and putting their foot to the floor as soon as the light turns green. Their extreme rush to get somewhere might result from the fact that there are more cars on the road than ever before, more drivers, and more people living in the anthill that is southern California. It also might have something to do with the expectations of instant gratification that have evolved in modern society. Worries over the economy probably don't help, either.

people are more rude..just nastier all around. It all boils down to one thing...everyone is in a damn hurry,and if you cost them a few seconds of their time, they lash out.

I am just glad I am not in a hurry. I take the bus everywhere. I run my errands during the day so the lines are minimal. I never go shopping on the week-ends. And I keep my phone handy so I can amuse myself when I find myself waiting somewhere.

This also why people roadrage..because they are in a hurry.

And I directly attribute much of it to the fact that many people can't use their houses as ATMS anymore. So many people down here were living off of wealth that didn't exist for quite some time, and this came right after the stock market boom and bust. People had been living the high life for quite a while on borrowed money, and the rug (and their home values) have been pulled out from under them. Also, many of their jobs, since so many people here were employed in the mortgage and real estate businesses. So, yeah, i do see a lot more pissed off people. People here were always rude and selfish, but now I sense much more anger. I really want to move, but my husband's company is doing well so I don't see it happening for quite some time.

stupid.

We used to like going to our place of employment, people were nice and the job, although sometimes challenging, was actually fun. And it's not a small company -- we had 2000 just in our location.

So what happened? Where is the civility? In our case, it's when the "Executive MBA's" came in and decided to apply their "case studies" on us. Now don't get me wrong, I have an MBA (got it because it was 100% paid-for by same company) and don't paint all people with a broad brush, but these people are nuts. Now we have to please the boss by acting happy (yes, that was the directive) and walk around like Stepford employees. They make life miserable yet we're supposed to be happy about it.

Add that to daily life stresses (kids, spouses, parents) and things just ain't fun. Although I don't necessarily want to go back to the 50's, in one way they were better -- there was less emphasis on STUFF and more emphasis on humanity and each other. This me/myself/I stuff stinks and sadly, it was my generation (the kids from the 1980's) that perfected it. For my part, I truly apologize and am trying to make things better. I just wish others would do the same.

They come in and ruin the same company they supposedly were to help.

But after they ruin it, they can move on. You and your fellow workers have to hope that the company will still be solvent after they have gone.

You MUST be HAPPY at work!

HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY

Sorry bro, that's some real stupid shit, even considering the stupid shit I've had to do at work.

last night. I think in addition to the economy and the sense of divide in this country, technology plays a role in this. Hubby and I were celelbrating our anniversary at an upscale restaurant and watched another couple who were celebrating an anniversary. After making a big production of presenting her with flowers and jewelry, he ordered his dinner then spent the remainder of the meal on his cell phone. He hung up as their dessert arrived but removed his phone shortly and began texting in earnest. We later saw them strolling along the river, laughing with the cell phone to his ear and her looking miserable.

Grumpy old white guys and grumpy young white guys.

I am afraid to strike up conversation in my rural area b/c they will start bitching about Obama.

Last year I was in line in Wallyworld and the line was pretty long. They didn't have enough checkers. I said, "God forbid they should hire enough checkers, and have enough sackers for the customers."

Then some scrawny female in line said, "Ma'am, you should keep your opinions to yourself."

Fortunately I had a large friend with me. :wtf:

And get off my lawn.

What I am alarmed by is not that people might be becoming meaner and angrier, but ones ability and willingness to be cruel has become virtuous seemingly society wide and this goes hand in hand with an inflated sense of superiority and authenticity.

end, because they don't want to be around to see people get uglier and uglier.

That is SAD, and yet.... it doesn't seem to affect most people.

We have rapidly become a sociopathological society.

That's one theory. Not a very good theory, mind you, but one theory nevertheless.

The Far Right has become not only more mean-spirited but a lot louder as well. I think this contributes to a general lowering of civil discourse.

One reason -- not the only reason -- the economy in the United States has taken such a hit has to do with the unsustainability of the industrial model. That model was not sustainable. The economy that rose from it was likewise unsustainable. We "won" the Second World War and the quality of material life improved in the United States, but the quality of our spirity (small 's') life did not improve. An argument could be made, IMO, that it began to go down the toilet.

Take the money, buy a stationwagon, move to the suburbs. A lot of people did this, telling themselves that they deserved the prosperity and deserve a bigger, "nicer" home in the suburbs.

I'm not seeing how people with more money in 1948 or 1955 deserved a "nicer" home any more than anyone else.

It was an abandonment of the cities of the United States in part on racist grounds.

Gas was cheap then. It is not cheap now. Our foreign policy has absolutely sucked door knobs since the end of the Eisenhower administration. Witness the desperate chaos of the rooftop escape from Saigon. Witness the deceit in both Gulf Wars. Witness the futility of military presence in Afghanistan (see Frank Holt's INTO THE LAND OF BONES). Witness the paychecks of the average Blackwater mercernary versus the meager take-home stubs of our volunteer army.

Many of Bush's not-coincidentally white pals got terribly rich on the Iraq invasion. This in a presidency in which barely a finger was lifted to offer rescue to the citizens on the Gulf Coast generally and New Orleans especially, again, in part owing to the callousness and incompetence of the Bush administration and the apparent disregard they demonstrated for people with dark skin.

This good-news / bad-news dichotomy plays out a lot in our recent history. In the years after the Allies' victory in Europe and Asia, U.S. citizens' standard of living went way up and quite a few people on riding mowers out in the burbs were thinking, 'Hot dog, we've got it made. God bless America!"

Simultaneous to that rise in material well-being was an astronomical rise in the use of tranquilizers.

It seems to me that if you migrate in significantly high numbers to the suburbs you have not only abandoned the physical city but even more, you've cut yourself off from Community, from neighborhood, from that pulse of emotional navigation. As if losing the noise was worth the numbness and sameness of the burbs. As if losing the crowdedness of an inner-city neighborhood was worth losing the richness of the neighbors who comprised it. As if a few piss-ant maple saplings in the front yard could compensate for the rich, diverse fabric of a city community.

It was a shitty trade.

And now even the trade seems to be undoing its own terms. Governments a world away from ours have a significant say in our financial well-being. And how much fossil fuel will be sucked out of the wind-blasted deserts of the Middle East. That used to be cheap oil for our big cars to drive back and forth from the suburbs.

Almost no one -- even many of the Far-Right warmongers -- believe that George W. Bush was right to attack and occupy a sovereign country in the Middle East which posed no realistic threat to the United States. Any number of our high school seniors know we are fighting in Afghanistan but far too few of them could locate Afghanistan on a world map. Their parents, some of them anyway, are no more keenly aware of geography than their high school-aged kids and in any case are too busy to assist owing to the schedule of town hall meetings they've been asked to attend to rudely shout at their elected representatives and make mockery of the public forum.

There may be a confluence of exasperation and anger rising out of the slow but sure realization that the plan we put in place and enjoyed for a very long time was a bad plan. Bad for us, bad for the environment, bad for cities, bad for cultures. That realization, IMO, was hastened by the stupidity, avarice, deceit, and mean-spiritedness of the Bush administration. It's made his successor's job that much more difficult, and it makes our job harder as opposers of what Bush and Cheney stood for all that more difficult also.

We should be aware that the landscape is shifting fairly quickly now, and that tempers may be short. Robert Louis Stevenson talked about the calm mind, one that fully weighs the circumstances of common problems or great peril but proceeds with a reasoned serenity, "like a clock in a thunderstorm."

It may be time to synchronize our watches.

or comment

I have never seen such assholes as in the last week

where there are chocolate syrup rivers and the streets are paved with taffee. Where DUers are widely known to be loving and tolerant to all beliefs and walks of life, the sky is made out of light blue cotton candy, and everyone sings each others praise.

It's the only thing that lets me go on day after day.

quite happy and very polite. The weather was beautiful. The music was great. The mood was light and fun. I didn't see one act of meanness.

Then I got home and read some posts on DU about the healthcare reform debacle and now I am angry and trying to figure out if I want to be mean too. I'll let you know what I decide when I decide it.

Until then, peace and love to you, CoffeeCat.

P.S. It could be the caffeine.

Not that I've noticed.

Since my childhood and teenage years? YES. I noticed the shift during the Reagan era.

I mean, first we wanted to engage in reasoned debate, then there were the accusations hurled followed by character assassination. Now, and I am guilty of this as much as the next person, there seems to be a "fuck you" attitude when confronted with media personalities or politicians who are distorting facts and outright lying and are not held accountable for their malfeasance.

I used to think people in high places were the "best and brightest" the nation could offer for that particular role. Now, the minute someone opens his/her mouth, I immediately assume they're lying and try to figure out for whom and for what reason...