I am literally losing sleep over the attack on Paul Pelosi

[Ohioboy]

I hate to admit it. I usually don't let things get to me this much, but it's 4 AM and I haven't slept well at all. I keep thinking of how f'd up things are in this country politically. Never before have I known so many people to be brainwashed to hate.

[Hugin]

1. Their own neighbors...

And Americans.

That’s what gets me.

[Emile]

2. I blame Trump and making everything political partisanship! Even a deadly virus!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Take this to heart: change what you can and let go of what you can't change

If you are not sure if you can change something, try being the change you want.

Doing things, doing what you can, helps your mind let go of things you can't change.

[tavernier]

4. I wish we could send Nancy roses

Like we’ve done for others in the past. She deserves a million bouquets.

[sop]

5. Fascists don't tell their followers who to kill, only who to hate.

Then they allow nature to take its course.

[augyboston]

6. Stress: the number one reason for insomnia

I'm sorry you're losing sleep, but is it any wonder with the insanity going on all around us?!?

None of this is remotely normal! An attempt to attack and kill the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and a cult masking as a political party is endorsing violence and accusing their opponents of all kinds of crazy shit, there is armed RW militia with flak jackets and assault weapons camping out next to voter lock boxes and a federal judge said they're exercising their first amendment rights (WTF) - Holy Shit. This is not business as usual in any form or fashion.

It's like the episode, "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" of the Twilight Zone and it just won't go away.

I too find it very difficult to sleep...

[True Blue American]

8. Yet Fox News keeps trying

To blame it on normal crime rates and it is far from that. They are also trying to make it into a privileged act.

But the operator said she could tell by Paul’s voice he was in serious trouble.

His social media and claiming how many guns he had is sick. The Congtpress has to act on these military style weapons. To hell wopith the good ole boys who need a gun to make them feel potent.

[MaryMagdaline]

10. 911 operator is a hero!

I am stressed to the max because of this election and the crazy, violent opposition. I take comfort with those Americans who do their jobs and hold the line - Capitol Police, 911 operators, nurses, teachers.

[True Blue American]

12. So am I!

That is what keeps me going.

I also. Know my many friends of all colors say they are sick of the division, that we should all just be people. That last really stuck in my mind from a friend.

[yardwork]

20. It's only one side that's driving division.

I disagree with the framing I see everywhere - in the media, on social media - that it's "both sides." It's not both sides. It's the Republicans.

Arguing that fascism is wrong is not equivalent to promoting fascism. Do I "hate" Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan? I sure do. That doesn't make me a hater.

[Meowmee]

7. They are not brainwashed imo

They are fascists and always were, the majority.

[True Blue American]

9. True!

[Scrivener7]

11. Yes. Not brainwashed. Emboldened.

But I don't think they are the majority. I can't let myself think that.

And only 22% of Americans voted for tfg. So there's that. But still, way too big a number.

[True Blue American]

13. I do not believe it either, although

The media spends most it it’s time on fear! Not even sure what we are supposed to fear. Fear is paralyzing. We can not let that happen!

[Meowmee]

15. I believe the majority who voted for a fascist not once but twice are fascists

Or they support fascism and are ok with it. There may be one or two brainwashed people here and there. People have been behaving exactly in accordance with what happens when fascism takes over- too scared to 1- call it out, 2- fight it, 3- enable it with the so called whaboutism and by allowing these people do this. They only do whatever you allow them to do.

The insane things that have been allowed to go down and to become the norm for many in the dump reign of terror have not happened before in modern times anyway. As bad as it has been through history here especially for minorities it has not been like what is now happening.

[Scrivener7]

17. Oh, I see what you are saying. I thought you meant the majority of

people in general are fascists.

But yes, wholeheartedly agree. The majority of MAGATs are fascists. I'd possibly go even farther than that. Fascism is what makes a MAGAT, so I'd say very few of them are NOT fascists.

Sorry about the misunderstanding.

[Meowmee]

19. It's ok 😀

I was responding to what the OP said that these people are brainwashed and I don’t believe the majority of these people are brainwashed by any means.

[JI7]

14. Agree that they are not brainwashed. But they are not a majority but a large percentage

and in our system which gives certain areas disproportionate power they have more influence than they should .

[Meowmee]

18. What I meant was the majority of people who voted for this are fascists.

[JI7]

21. Yes, I agree with that .

[yardwork]

16. Understandable. I've never seen it like this.

I was a kid during the 60s and I remember horrific events. Assassinations, national guard opening fire on students, anti-war protests that got heated.

Here's the thing - most people continued with their daily lives and got along fairly well. The media yapped about "the generation gap" but that was mostly because young people didn't want to be drafted into an unpopular war. People argued about politics and social issues, but there were a lot of shared beliefs and values.

I've never seen it like it is now, where half the country believes insane, irrational, crazy things. The meanness started during Reagan's presidency, ramped up quite a bit under W, but it is off the charts now. It's propaganda. Ruining our country.

[Hortensis]

22. :) Keep perspective. Don't let yourself be swamped by a telescopic view

focused on the current wave craziness, and forget it's just the *latest* mass acting out of fear against inexorable change. In our society people normally live long, peaceful lives far from death. And in spite of the rise in violence, 330,000,000 Americans are still living even longer lives than ever before in human history. And remember that, even with the current rise, violent crime rates are still significantly lower than they've been within the lifetimes of most here.

Sounds like you need to turn the "sky is falling" news off and leave it off. Go for a nice walk before you try to sleep again, wave at your neighbors.

Btw, I'm wired to optimism about events and people. But the styling that America "lost its innocence" in the 1963 -- less than 20 years after Allied soldiers liberated death camps in Europe! -- has always struck me as a dangerously dishonest way of describing losing unrealistic happy delusions. And replacing them with new, also unrealistic dystopian ones. Adults have a responsibility to handle the real world, good and bad, and know what real people and society can be capable of, good and bad.

The same for today's shocking "awakening" to the potential of evil in SOME of our neighbors. It's making us unhappy to very belatedly learn what we should have recognized and reacted against when it first started up *again*, but...oh well, here we are?

We'll get happy again once our new understanding enables us to act to restore control and with it reassuring stability and confidence to society -- including them.