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Post by birdgal on Jun 28, 2018 0:59:10 GMT
This is about a year old but it's the first time I've seen it. If you've seen it already please SOB. If not, it's kind of how I feel. Sad, tired, and hopeless...
I don't know how to explain to someone why they should care about other people.
I haven’t run out of salient points or evidence for my political perspective, but there is a particular stumbling block I keep running into when trying to reach across the proverbial aisle and have those “difficult conversations” so smugly suggested by think piece after think piece:
I don’t know how to explain to someone why they should care about other people.
Personally, I’m happy to pay an extra 4.3 percent for my fast food burger if it means the person making it for me can afford to feed their own family. If you aren’t willing to fork over an extra 17 cents for a Big Mac, you’re a fundamentally different person than I am.
I’m perfectly content to pay taxes that go toward public schools, even though I’m childless and intend to stay that way, because all children deserve a quality, free education. If this seems unfair or unreasonable to you, we are never going to see eye to eye.
If I have to pay a little more with each paycheck to ensure my fellow Americans can access health care? SIGN ME UP. Poverty should not be a death sentence in the richest country in the world. If you’re okay with thousands of people dying of treatable diseases just so the wealthiest among us can hoard still more wealth, there is a divide between our worldviews that can never be bridged.
I don’t know how to convince someone how to experience the basic human emotion of empathy. I cannot have one more conversation with someone who is content to see millions of people suffer needlessly in exchange for a tax cut that statistically they’ll never see (do you make anywhere close to the median American salary? Less? Congrats, this tax break is not for you).
I cannot have political debates with these people. Our disagreement is not merely political, but a fundamental divide on what it means to live in a society, how to be a good person, and why any of that matters.
There are all kinds of practical, self-serving reasons to raise the minimum wage (fairly compensated workers typically do better work), fund public schools (everyone’s safer when the general public can read and use critical thinking), and make sure every American can access health care (outbreaks of preventable diseases being generally undesirable).
But if making sure your fellow citizens can afford to eat, get an education, and go to the doctor isn’t enough of a reason to fund those things, I have nothing left to say to you.
I can’t debate someone into caring about what happens to their fellow human beings. The fact that such detached cruelty is so normalized in a certain party’s political discourse is at once infuriating and terrifying.
The “I’ve got mine, so screw you,” attitude has been oozing from the American right wing for decades, but this gleeful exuberance in pushing legislation that will immediately hurt the most vulnerable among us is chilling.
Perhaps it was always like this. I’m (relatively) young, so maybe I’m just waking up to this unimaginable callousness. Maybe the emergence of social media has just made this heinous tendency more visible; seeing hundreds of accounts spring to the defense of policies that will almost certainly make their lives more difficult is incredible to behold.
I don’t know what’s changed ― or indeed, if anything has ― and I don’t have any easy answers. But I do know I’m done trying to convince these hordes of selfish, cruel people to look beyond themselves.
Kayla Chadwick Huffpost, June 29th, 2017
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Post by lani on Jun 28, 2018 1:24:28 GMT
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Post by nashville11 on Jun 28, 2018 2:42:21 GMT
birdgal, Pat, that is a great post. Thanks for sharing it.
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Post by yogamama007 on Jun 28, 2018 2:44:06 GMT
Patty-bird, Could not have said it better myself.
Thank you for re-posting that; lovely person that you are.
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Post by nashville11 on Jun 28, 2018 13:07:18 GMT
Republicans can push through a SC Justice to replace Kennedy without a single Democratic vote thanks to last year's rules change by McConnell. That's a big deal because it means progressives really have no voice, and whoever they place in Kennedy's seat could conceivably be there for the next 30 years. McConnell plans to push it through before the mid-terms, because they don't want to take the chance of losing their majority. So the only hope would be if Republicans don't all vote in lock step, which is unlikely but still possible. One can still hope anyway. It will be interesting to see who is nominated. Again hoping for a moderate conservative, but the JA is likely to want to really "stick" it to the Ds by nominating someone far right. We'll see what happens. Finally the JA is going to get his big meeting with his role model, Putin. He must be giddy with excitement, and he's working overtime again to tweet out his pretend doubts about Putin meddling in the election. Every intelligence agency says that they did, but somehow the JA in his infinite "wisdom" knows better; and, his gullible groupies swallow that without even questioning it. After all, Putin says he didn't do it, and we all know he would never lie. Right?
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Post by yogamama007 on Jun 28, 2018 20:13:34 GMT
Pity the Don can't run the country as well as he runs his mouth. Snark of the Day- Instead of spending our TAX money giving SHS Secret Service protection, can't they use that money to give her an OPRAH make over instead? Just sayin..... (I can not stand women who lie, but she must get that talent from her daddy) Hey Darlings, the glass is 1/2 full, don't despair.....We are not going to roll over for any nomination that will negatively impact Roe vs Wade. Rachel did an excellent presentation. Long but stick with it to the end. That women is Brilliant. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show And then Chris Murphy comes on.
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Post by nashville11 on Jun 28, 2018 21:14:54 GMT
Pity the Don can't run the country as well as he runs his mouth. Good one Anne!
Yes, I think my tax dollars would be much better spent on a makeover for SHS. I agree she gets her outstanding ability to tell any lie with a straight face from Daddy. And she could really use the makeover. All joking aside, she is the slouchiest, most badly groomed person on TV. Even if it wasn't for the fact that I want to put my hands over my ears every time she opens her mouth, I also want to put my hands over my eyes because she just looks so tacky. I need more hands!
I hope Rachel is right, and I agree she is extremely smart so she very likely is right. So that's the bright spot in the day.
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Post by nashville11 on Jun 28, 2018 21:22:01 GMT
So tired of hearing about mass shootings. No more thoughts and prayers from me, other than prayers of support for the victims' families. What's the point of sending our thoughts and prayers if no one is going to take any concrete action? NRA supporters, how do you look at yourself in the mirror each morning? Second Amendment fanatics, the same goes for you. There are other amendments you know, and the First one is pretty important yet the right seems to readily ignore it.
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Post by nashville11 on Jun 28, 2018 21:26:12 GMT
Really hoping Rosenstein is tough enough to stand his ground. Otherwise Nunez and his gang are going to steam roll right over him ignoring all precedent in their quest to toady up to the JA. So far today, however, he's been hanging tough.
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Post by yogamama007 on Jun 28, 2018 21:51:17 GMT
Agree, Rachel is extremely smart,and she does her Due Diligence,looks at the whole picture not just a bit here and there. (I will yell at her, "Rachel you already told us that" lol OMG is that a sign of old age?) She is always so gracious to her guests and you know if you were to take a course from her YOU WOULD LEARN! As far as polished KAC and SHS fall way short of the mark with style, polish and presentation. Maybe I am spitting into the wind but right now I refuse to accept that ........ is going to take down the Republic that our ancestors fought and gave their lives for. Hmm what about that wonderful Visit The Don made to North Korea..........do we give him credit for that or fall out of our chair laughing at how pathetic he is as a person. www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-korean-war-vets_us_5b352c42e4b007aa2f7e5080and North Korea is making 'rapid' upgrades to nuclear reactor despite summit pledges! What a mess.
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Post by yogamama007 on Jun 28, 2018 22:42:42 GMT
Renee IMHO- I think it will take more then a decade to get the country back where it should be on an even keel, but I hope you are right and we live to see it.
Your peaceful calm comments are so appreciated. Thank you.
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Post by nashville11 on Jun 29, 2018 15:43:37 GMT
As far as I know, no one knows a lot about yesterday's shooter yet but are learning more now that he has been identified. His attack on the press makes you wonder if he may have been listening to the JA and his rants against them. Of course, that may not have played a role at all, but it won't surprise me if we find out that it did. Either way the distrust and hatred the JA is building and directing toward the press is unhealthy for our democracy. I am feeling upbeat this morning. Yesterday I was able to have a good visit with my mom and dad. While never normal, my mom was the most lucid she has been in a very long time. Usually she is so deeply delusional and into a world only she can see that I leave sad and discouraged, so these rare moments like yesterday are a treasure worth more than gold. Of course, I've learned the hard way not to expect that to continue over into today so I'm prepared, but I will savor this moment as long as I can. Not even the JA can take that feeling away.
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Post by yogamama007 on Jun 29, 2018 16:56:44 GMT
Joyce you have been on such a roller coaster for so long with your parents. ((((((((we are here kid))))))))))
Glad you had a better day.
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Post by luanne on Jun 29, 2018 18:18:16 GMT
nashville11, as more has been discovered about the shooter in Maryland, it appears he had a long standing grudge against that particular newspaper. Who knows if he was incited by recent events and comments made, but it sounds like an attack had been planned for a long time and his aim was to kill as many people as he could. I was impressed to hear the it only took the police under 2 minutes from the time they received the 9-1-1 call to get into the offices and apprehend the suspect.
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Post by nashville11 on Jun 29, 2018 18:37:17 GMT
Thanks luanne ! I sincerely hope that the rhetoric coming from the WH in no way emboldened this man to carry out his attack yesterday.
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