Originally Posted by dawglover05
Originally Posted by FATE
Hold on bro, now I'm a boomer?! And just who do you suppose will be cleaning up your mess. poke I suppose that will be Generation X Æ A-Xii, named after Musk's son after he completes his third term.

I didn't mean to sound so preachy, I'm just saying that a typical reaction to this story should be "what an idiot" not "see, this is what I'm talking about, it's staaaarting!!". To each his own, I suppose, that's just my opinion.

I want to be clear about the "overwhelming majority" comment though. I'm not speaking about election results, I'm talking about people that recognize this story as fodder for fake outrage with no chance of becoming reality. I'll grant you the steady decline, but I'll argue that my >20 years on you guys gives me more wisdom through retrospect. I was at the tail-end of hiding under a desk with my fingers interlaced behind my head because the Russians were about to hit us with nuclear warheads nearly fifty years ago. At that age, you were getting your first participation trophy. (I'm just ranting now because I love busting your balls lol)

I'm not saying you shouldn't have a reaction to a "story". Your feelings are yours and you have every right to express them. "With great power there must also come great responsibility". Your power is that you can influence judgment, you're intelligent and well-respected. If you read that story and believe what you posted, that's fine. I'm trying to adopt a step-back and think litmus test: "am I repeating this because I think it's true or am I posting this to elicit a certain reaction". Again, that's me, and probably more guilty of failing this test than you are.

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Something crazy occured to me in 2016. Trump couldn't keep his mouth shut for five seconds, yet we were starting to wake up to the reality that he may actually win the presidency. He said so much crazy ish that the media couldn't even keep up. The news cycle became a never-ending vortex of "Trump said, Trump did, did you see who Trump just blasted, he said that dude's an idiot, he said she's ugly". It served to make sure that we never stopped talking about Trump. Did he entice the tail to wag the dog in order to win a presidency?? History may say yes. If so, we're the doodle that got whacked, and we all provided our own hammer.

Aaaaand my post got deleted again as I was responding. The boomer thing was mostly a joke. I'm 41, at the vanguard of the millennial generation. I'm the youngest of six kids with all my siblings being between 13 and 20 years older than me. I used to get so much grief from them about being in this generation until I once said "Hearing you guys talk about how we're irresponsible is like watching someone rack up a huge bar tab, tell his buddy about how he needs to be more responsible, and then walking out and leaving him with the tab." laugh

I would normally be with you on the reaction being "What an idiot." and moving on. Like Swish just mentioned, that would have been my reaction a decade ago. My family is where I started seeing the creepy change first, and that had an impression on me that started scaring the ish out of me. I fully anticipate receiving a text out to the family where they will say "I could get behind this" or something along those lines when it comes to this Amendment.

Let me "read" you the last text my sister sent out on politics: *Sharing a link to the story on renaming Denali to McKinley* "I thought it was awful when they changed the name of this mountain. It was an insult to Ohio." Ten years ago, I would have seen that article linked and laughed, thinking "Man, this guy is a nut." Not anymore, though, because people like her, and I'm sure people in the Tennessee constituency get mobilized by this stupid stuff.

That's the kind of ish that I see that gets me to react more and more. She wasn't always this way. My family wasn't always that way. It's gotten a lot worse over the last decade. Sure, it happens on the other side, too, but I think theirs is more of a problem of ineptitude and chickens coming home to roost on their double-speak and disingenuousness.

Frankly, I don't know what to do about it, moving forward. I just know I'm not excited about where things are headed, as a whole.

I keep a notepad open and copy/paste as I go as soon as a post becomes lengthy, particularly before I "preview". There is nothing more frustrating here, not sure why it happens but it happens a lot and always has.

Siblings 13-20 years older? Sounds like your nickname should be "Oops!" 🤣

We all have our own reality. I can see where you're coming from. I just voted for Trump again... and for the second time, I wasn't voting for him as much as what I was voting against. Watching the last four years of a shadow presidency had me more worried about our future than I've ever been. Sounds crazy, I'm sure, but that's my reality.