Musings on "can we come together"

[gratuitous]

Right now, on all the major news outlets, we're being treated to a buffet of "Can't we all just get along" with healthy dollop of "E pluribus unum." Since I haven't been kicked in the head by a horse, I have a pretty clear recollection of the last four years. I remember Trump supporters wearing "Fuck Your Feelings" t-shirts and gloating about the Trump Train running over the weak, the powerless, and the oppressed. I remember serious discussions by Trump supporters about whether certain people had a right to exist, let alone be granted basic human rights. I remember Trump supporters brutalizing and killing people for no better reason than their victims thought differently from them. And they boasted about it, laughing at our distress and rubbing our noses in our powerlessness.

And now Fortune's Wheel is turning. It hasn't even finished turning, we haven't even won yet, and already we're being cautioned against enjoying our victory. While I agree that our country is in need of healing, it would be nice if the national schoolmarms currently admonishing us had spent some time during the last four years addressing themselves to the bullies. Did they suspect that it was an exercise in useless futility, and that their message of kumbayah is more likely to appeal to us? Siding with the oppressors until they lose their ability to oppress and then calling for civility and comity is to be a tool of oppression.

I have my ideals, but I'm also a human being with emotions and feelings. Before I'm ready to make nice, I need to see some movement from the Trump supporters. I need to see some contrition. I need amends to be made. I need to hear resolutions and follow-through to behave better in the future. They don't get to grind their boots in our faces for four years, and when we get up to suddenly sue for peace. I need to hear denouncements of the violence and the whackos, their aiders and abettors. When Mitch McConnell comes out and vows to obstruct a prospective President Biden in ways he never reined in President Trump, I know that the oppressors are just lying doggo, waiting their turn on top again, and to be even more destructive next time.

[dalton99a]

1. Yep. The chorus is starting: "Close Election - Biden Must Reach Out"

Did they say that to Trump and the Republicans?

[wheelman]

2. I moniter several

rightwing internet forums regularly. There is a consensus amongst them: 1. All liberals are commies. 2. The only good commie is a dead commie. Its fucking terrifying. Being on the dry side of the Cascades in oregon means I am surrounded by them. Far too old and poor to move. It's hard livin being hated for refusing to hate. Hating back does not sit litely for my wife & I. Its a dilema i have not solved. Its fucking depressing.

[BruceWane]

3. Nope.

I do not believe in "making nice" with these people.

I do not trust them in any amount. Zero.

They have clearly shown that they have no morals and will say/do ANYTHING to ultimately get what they want.

1)The "hypocrisy" of Merrick Garland vs Amy Coney-Barret. Don't even call it hypocrisy. What was given as reason to deny Garland was a lie, and we all knew it at the time. Thinking Rs had even the smallest shred of integrity and would abide by their own proclamation was foolish.

2)Actually working to stop vote counting where they're ahead, while working to continue it where they're behind. Any"reasons" given are nothing but lies, we all know their only purpose here is "we will do ANYTHING to win. ANYTHING."

Words and truth have no meaning to these people. They are merely tools to be twisted and distorted in order to gain advantage towards their own goals.

They see the world in black and white. They believe that there are only winners and losers, and to them "winning" is taking what you want by any means necessary, "losing" is falling short of taking what you want and a fate worse than death.

We must be disabused of the idea that all people can be persueded towards altuism.

Borrowing a lyric....

I am just a worthless liar.
I am just an imbecile.
I will only complicate you.
Trust in me and fall as well.
I will find the center in you.
I will chew it up and leave.
I will work to elevate you.
Just so I can bring you down.
Trust me.
Trust me.

Nope. Never.

[gratuitous]

4. Just a little kick

Now that the tide has turned.