Götterdämmerung -- The Twilight of the Gods

[Dutch Uncle]

Hello Dutch Uncle,

Do know who originated that idea but it certainly is ultimately true.

No, I don't know but truisms often stick with a society no matter how many people say it in different ways.

Judging a society is based on the morals of the judge. I could judge a society from a warrior point of view: kill all the deformed babies and banish any person over 18 who can't participate in battle. Wars are won by never giving mercy; destroy all who oppose you. All that matters is to win and to die honorably if we lose.

OR I can judge it from a humane, Christian, Buddhist point of view: freedom to live one's life without being forced, care for others, strive for the betterment of one's life, one's family and humanity as a whole.

Both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States share the latter point of view:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed"

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

 

[Dutch Uncle]

Hello Dutch Uncle,
Usually change is slow. Sometimes a lot happens at once.

I should have phrased that better; human societies and turning large ships is slow. Like a plague, impact event or supervolcano, change can occur rapidly in both nature and society. For the most part, however, where humans are concerned, it's slow. People can see it coming if they are looking for it.

 

[Dutch Uncle]

Hello Dutch Uncle,

This pretty well sums it up:

Disagreed for two reasons: It doesn't explain "why" people feel that way and, second, explain that hatred and selfishness is self-destructive. If so, why are so many people seeking this? Saying "They're all haters. Fuck them" then throwing one's hands up and walking away does and answers nothing. Without answers, we can't move forward.

 

[Bill]

Well said and agreed. About 60% of Americans belong to one of the two major parties. They are the ones directly responsible for selecting their nominees....with 2016 being a noted exception due to DNC corruption and HIllary's Foundation money. The fact the best candidate the Democrats could find was Biden is shocking enough but the fact the Republicans continue to applaud Trump's nuttiness is even more shocking.

We all know about getting the government we deserve so now all we can do is stay informed, vote and hope our nation can unfuck itself in our lifetimes.

I see that as similar to the comedian, laughing hardy on the outside, & dying silently inside......

 

[Bill]

Hello Bill,

 

[Bill]

Hello ThatOwlWoman,



Long ago and on a chat board far away I recall the deplorable mindset's response to calls for conservation when gas prices got so crazy high. Oh no, it was their god-given right to burn up as much gas as they wanted, and just to rub it in one said he just liked to hear the sound of the motor, and he knew that revving it up at a light would 'light up the liberals.' It made him happy to think that what he was doing was making other people sad.

How pathetic. To have a human mind, and be so incapable of finding anything else in life to bring a smile at that moment other than bothering others.

And that's all part of the we/they - winners/losers mindset.

It is a foolish belief that there are these simple divisions between groups, one group being all good, and the other being all bad. Naturally people want to be in the good group. So they make out like the other group is horrible. And this is then used to justify actually being horrible. The reasoning being that if somebody else does something wrong, then that makes it OK for everyone else to then do that wrong thing. Like it isn't wrong any more. Because somebody else did it already and got away with it. Makes it OK. /sarc

That leads to the secondary belief that if you're being bad to bad people, that makes it OK to be bad.

Which is nonsense, of course. It's that belief that got George Floyd killed.

That is how trump got elected-they wanted someone to stick it to the liberals~his one & only qualification, & lucky for him the only thing required to be their nom......

Sad that linsey talked all that shit then bowed & bent for trump........ cruz?? How texas can have a shamed coward for a senator is beyond me....... Do they think Calgary is some small town in the panhandle??

 

[PoliTalker]

Hello Dutch Uncle,

Disagreed for two reasons: It doesn't explain "why" people feel that way and, second, explain that hatred and selfishness is self-destructive. If so, why are so many people seeking this? Saying "They're all haters. Fuck them" then throwing one's hands up and walking away does and answers nothing. Without answers, we can't move forward.

Some will decide the way to deal with trolls and deplorables is to be a scrapper and mix it up with them. Others will prefer to ignore them and simply lead by example. Show the world it is quite possible to really enjoy a life of good will and contributing to society. Thinking of others is good for the individual because what goes around comes around. The proper example is set and society becomes more cohesive, builds positive momentum. You look out for others, they look out for you, it's all part of creating a great nation.

One thing is for sure. A great nation cannot be comprised of individuals who think: "I got mine, the hell with you."

 

[PoliTalker]

Hello Bill,

Sly did a great version as well....

Right on! Thanks for that.

 

[Dutch Uncle]

I see that as similar to the comedian, laughing hardy on the outside, & dying silently inside......

LOL. IMO it would be normal to be saddened by the stupidity of the collective "Will of the People", but it still funny.

 

[Dutch Uncle]

Hello Dutch Uncle,

Some will decide the way to deal with trolls and deplorables is to be a scrapper and mix it up with them. Others will prefer to ignore them and simply lead by example. Show the world it is quite possible to really enjoy a life of good will and contributing to society. Thinking of others is good for the individual because what goes around comes around. The proper example is set and society becomes more cohesive, builds positive momentum. You look out for others, they look out for you, it's all part of creating a great nation.

One thing is for sure. A great nation cannot be comprised of individuals who think: "I got mine, the hell with you."

Agreed. As a biblical quote states, and as Lincoln famously repeated, "a house divided cannot stand". There has to be a line between individuality and what's best for the group. For me that line is when the actions of an individual harm others. Me owning an AR-15 harms no one. Me dumping toxic waste into the aquifier harms everyone who drinks from it.

 

[ThatOwlWoman]

No it isn't. It is to be empowered with knowledge.
That knowledge will undoubtedly spur you to vote.
Imagine if millions more Americans had the same knowledge.
We have to spread the word far and wide.

Now I have a mental vision of a ragged, unkempt, barefoot prophet, wandering the dusty streets and calling out to warn the villagers of a coming plague. The little kids throw stones at him while the adults laugh behind their hands.

No doubt many credible journalists today feel like that disrespected prophet, eh?

 

[ThatOwlWoman]

No, they are not. That sentiment is still alive and well. It is a quieter, but larger and more powerful sentiment. America will pull together for the common good on November 3rd.

I hope that you are right. I fear that you are not.

 

[/MSG/]

The rot was already in the heart of our culture. It took #TRE45ON only a couple of swings to split the bark and expose it. How can we repair our nation? Can it be repaired?

No, it can't. You can thank Boomers for that.

 

[ThatOwlWoman]

That is how trump got elected-they wanted someone to stick it to the liberals~his one & only qualification, & lucky for him the only thing required to be their nom......

Sad that linsey talked all that shit then bowed & bent for trump........ cruz?? How texas can have a shamed coward for a senator is beyond me....... Do they think Calgary is some small town in the panhandle??

Bingo. This was more important than the future of the nation. Some of the Deplorables here *still* gloat with glee while claiming that he "makes libtards' heads explode."

 

[ThatOwlWoman]

No, it can't. You can thank Boomers for that.

Of course. It's important to blame others because then you don't have to do a single thing to improve the situation.

 

[/MSG/]

Of course. It's important to blame others because then you don't have to do a single thing to improve the situation.

There's nothing that can be done anymore. I don't waste my time looking for the fountain of youth or writing letters to Santa, so too will I not waste my time trying to fix a irrevocably broken nation.

 

[/MSG/]

It's hilarious how Boomers bemoan the fate they have brought upon themselves. Pity so few will live through enough of it to see how horrible they were. And a greater pity that we, their children, must pay for their innumerable sins.

 

[NiftyNiblick]

In a dark season of pestilence, COVID has reduced to tatters the illusion of American exceptionalism. At the height of the crisis, with more than 2,000 dying each day, Americans found themselves members of a failed state, ruled by a dysfunctional and incompetent government largely responsible for death rates that added a tragic coda to America’s claim to supremacy in the world.

For the first time, the international community felt compelled to send disaster relief to Washington. For more than two centuries, reported the Irish Times, “the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the U.S. until now: pity.” As American doctors and nurses eagerly awaited emergency airlifts of basic supplies from China, the hinge of history opened to the Asian century.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politi...19-end-of-american-era-wade-davis-1038206/amp

Our handling of Covid, the worst handling of it in the entire developed world, could only happen in the one developed nation without a national health system.

This is the thing with conservatives, superstition-addled born agains, and Trumpanzees: facts simply don't matter.
It doesn't matter how often that they're PROVEN wrong.
They don't change their perverse ideas.

Which is exactly why we needn't afford them any consideration at all once we get rid of this obscene regime.
The founders got it right when they spoke of counting certain people as 3/5ths of a person.
They just identified the wrong people and made the percentage too high.

 

[Bill]

Bingo. This was more important than the future of the nation. Some of the Deplorables here *still* gloat with glee while claiming that he "makes libtards' heads explode."

Yes, I understood it @ first.... Getting their asses repeatedly kicked, & that is tough on ppl feed a daily barrage of paranoid persecution theories.

So many, unfortunately were not looking to the future, but to the past & their own seething victimology & revenge........

Anger satiated yet??

If anything it has increased...

 

[ThatOwlWoman]

Yes, I understood it @ first.... Getting their asses repeatedly kicked, & that is tough on ppl feed a daily barrage of paranoid persecution theories.

So many, unfortunately were not looking to the future, but to the past & their own seething victimology & revenge........

Anger satiated yet??

If anything it has increased...

Yes, it has. The sad thing is, it doesn't have to. America is in no danger of becoming socialist, even if/when the (D)s take both houses and the WH as well this November. If voters wanted that on the (D) side, we'd be looking at Sanders running against the Toadstool, rather than Biden -- and ditto for 2016. The RWers truly believe that will happen though, because that's what the puppet masters want them to believe.