Getting sick and tired of the New Dark Ages everywhere I turn.

[True Blue Door]

Everywhere I go, it's more prudent to be silent than potentially inflame some maniac's sensibilities.

It's thought more civil and sensible to not speak than to say something that might be taken wrong.

Considered the mark of thoughtfulness to have no ideas than to have controversial ones.

More responsible to do nothing at all than to invoke the attention of misanthropic nihilists.

It's not even enough to think before you represent yourself, because the possible ways to piss someone off are now so vast and complex you can't possibly imagine all of them in advance.

You have to fucking hide like a rat to not be targeted.

You have to shut your mouth to not be shouted down.

You have to not be seen at all for your very existence to not be resented and snarled at.

In every little nook and cranny is some rule being violated by the fact that you breathe.

Under every branch is an agenda no one bothers to tell you about, but will be shoved down your throat if you run afoul of it.

If you make a habit of having and expressing ideas, you will be constantly blind-sided by crazed factions attacking you out of nowhere, for reasons you can't comprehend, and they treat your puzzlement as proof of guilt.

Byzantine mobs driven to bigoted frenzy by the controversies existing only in their heads.

The difference of a vowel divides the Holy and the Heretical.

And the most hated treason of all is common sense and common humanity.

How does one deal with unconscious degenerates without just sinking into their noise?

[Rex]

1. I have to agree with some of that, sometimes being civil sucks.

Continuously being civil to someone that is uncivil is very hard at times.

[AverageJoe90]

70. I can attest to that.

There are a couple of other sites that I go to, where I have actually been openly harassed by a few other people for holding different views, even on trivial stuff like how one views a literary piece, for fucks' sakes.

[Rex]

72. Some people that like to argue, all the time 24/7.

They also share another similar trait, they are never factually wrong on any subject or topic. I won't get into a conversation with someone like that anymore...been there done that on DU1 and DU2. Huge waste of time.

Sometimes you just have to walk away. It can be hard.

[ProfessorGAC]

97. I Do Not! You Do!

Just kidding! It seemed all teed up and i had to swing.

I think some people confuse discussion with argument.

[Rex]

98. Or some people would rather argue than have a discussion.

You do too!

[AnalystInParadise]

2. What on earth are you talking about?

Not being nasty, seriously what are you talking about. I feel no need to hide myself from anyone about anything. And I am a Hispanic male living in a mostly white town in Arizona. I have never felt threatened or the need to keep quiet.

[True Blue Door]

3. Congratulations.

[AnalystInParadise]

7. Soooo.....

are you going to elaborate or just keep talking in generalities?

[True Blue Door]

12. What exactly do you not understand?

What I'm saying seems pretty straightforward: I'm tired of having people make up infinite numbers of unstated rules and unreasoning beliefs and then demand that I defend myself when I trip over them.

[AnalystInParadise]

13. No you really aren't being straight foward

you posted a lot of stuff without context and the reader is supposed to infer what the heck you are talking about.

[True Blue Door]

42. Again, congratulations on not knowing what I'm talking about.

But it's happened almost a dozen times in three years that I've said something on a website that, by nth-degree pseudo-logic or fringe association, resulted in a mob of shrieking lunatics demanding my head.

I've expressed a dissenting opinion on a policy I don't even remember, but because the person who I was arguing with turned out to be dying of cancer, I was equated with Hitler and accused of being a eugenicist - and the claim swayed enough people that I was nearly thrown out of the site I was posting on. It came completely out of nowhere, and some of the people insinuated that my not knowing this detail about the other person's life was evidence of my evil.

That was one of the more rational incidents out of dozens over the past few years, and I know I'm not alone because I've brought shit on myself by defending others facing similar witch-hunts that pop up out of the fucking blue.

If you haven't seen that kind of thing as often as I have, then I'll go with the charitable assumption that you're lucky.

[Louisiana1976]

56. What happened to you was sad especially the episode with the person you didn't know was

dying of cancer. I've been on a couple of boards I no longer visit because of problems there.

[agent46]

17. You may be in a cult

...and don't know it yet.

[True Blue Door]

45. I may be an extraterrestrial and not know it yet.

But absent any specific reason to think so, it's probably best to assume otherwise.

[whistler162]

6. Looks like ARP syndrome.

[AnalystInParadise]

10. I wish

I knew what that was..........

[whistler162]

89. Alcohol Related Posting syndrome

[grahamhgreen]

4. In a word: PATIENCE.

[True Blue Door]

47. Good advice, of course. Patience really is its own reward.

I have enough experience to say that's true.

[CJCRANE]

5. We need to go back to our traditional

Enlightenment ideas of Reason and Equality.

[True Blue Door]

15. Agreed.

So much of "our" politics gets hollowed out, turned into lazy cargo cults based on false analogies.

Not that it's a new problem, obviously. We've lost our way many times over the centuries, turned reason and enlightenment into self-immolating jokes.

But I was speaking more generally, about how everything is so prickly and sticky, and nobody wants to let you have a say unless you can buy or force their attention.

[randome]

35. The price we all pay for merging the Eastern World with the Western World.

The price we pay for bringing civil rights to gays and other minorities. Overall, it's becoming a better world. And a more complicated one. That's unavoidable.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Precision and concision. That's the game.[/center][/font][hr]

[True Blue Door]

57. Maybe.

I suppose shallow, mindless people who could feel safe in other times by everyone looking the same in their community now have to try to make everyone think and talk the same to get the same sense of security.

[Louisiana1976]

59. Right on! Inevitably when we bring civil rights to gays and other minorities, it can lead to

confrontation with those opposed to their having such rights.

[randome]

65. Sounds like you may be dissing me. Are you dissing me?

I'm just yanking your chain. But you're right. The Troglodytes among the citizenry will make much more noise and try to make things more difficult for all of us. We have to ignore the noise as best as possible and lead even them into the light or let them fall by the wayside.

The only alternative is this:

And that hurts!
[hr][font color="blue"][center]All things in moderation, including moderation.[/center][/font][hr]

[freshwest]

18. The GOP has spoken directly against both. As a precursor of Communism.

The Enlightenment came out of centuries of bloodshed and it was framing a way out of the feudal system. And was born on a planet with more resources than we have now.

It's been attacked by a culture that creates cults from mainstream and alternative media which does lead to Reason or Equality, but Tribalism, which has no need of it. At its base is fear, and is not wholly unfounded, considering what's going on in the natural world.

Those holding the ideals of the Enlightenment are called weak, spineless, not fit to lead in a harsh new reality, that did not have to be - we hope. At first thought, this is very depressing, but another organizing force will take its place.

I don't expect Reason or the Enlightenment to be respected, not anymore, unless everyone benefits. Inequality unaddressed is the cause of the failure. As James Baldwin warned William Buckley:

“...It is a terrible thing for an entire people to surrender to the notion that one-ninth of its population is beneath them. Until the moment comes when we, the Americans, are able to accept the fact that my ancestors are both black and white, that on that continent we are trying to forge a new identity, that we need each other, that I am not a ward of America, I am not an object of missionary charity, I am one of the people who built the country—until this moment comes there is scarcely any hope for the American dream. If the people are denied participation in it, by their very presence they will wreck it. And if that happens it is a very grave moment for the West.”

http://bacanisays.tumblr.com/

[True Blue Door]

61. Great quote.

It's an understanding that actually can be applied to any paradigm. Equality is the source of all prosperity, and its absence the source of all destruction. The welfare and common cause of the Athenian soldiers who fought the Persian War is generally acknowledged as the political basis of the emergence of democracy. The intransigence of the Roman Patricians amid drastic inequality led to the success of Julius Caesar in overthrowing the Republic. Christianity spread in the ancient world mainly through its charitable activity, while the inherited pagan religions mostly ignored social problems and faded. Communist systems in the 20th century prospered only to the extent they improved the lot of the average person; once the Commissars and their children started ruling as a hereditary aristocracy, they started falling apart.

Whether the future is free or tyrannical depends on who moves quickest and most enthusiastically to deal with inequality. But either way, someone will address it, and that someone will gain power. It's really our choice whether we get a demagogue or a uniter. There is no choice to continue ignoring the problem. It's a physical certainty that the needs of the people will be addressed, one way or another.

[pinboy3niner]

8. Is this about your hidden posts?

[True Blue Door]

16. Not exclusively.

But every annoyance adds to the general feeling of shit-itude about the course of society.

[edgineered]

9. These are all good things

The worst case scenario is where everyone acts and thinks alike. Try this: Look at someone you know, someone who is convinced he is going to heaven. Now image how that might be more like hell for you?

[True Blue Door]

19. Good is when people challenge and examine each other's ideas.

Not when they make every subject into a minefield of hidden meanings, explosive sensitivities, and potential grounds for social and other retaliation.

If you were to look at a public square in the Dark Age Roman Empire, you might think it was a place of active and learned debate. That is, until you listened to what they were saying, and realized they were arguing over how many letters to spell a Christian trinity theological term, and that any discussion more substantive had been annihilated by the sword and fire.

I'm tired of people making up excuses to not listen when they disagree with the most superficial millimeter of an idea they hear.

[edgineered]

32. In making a statement to describe

thoughts resulting from a simple idea gets tricky. Any thing that brings about a lot of thought can cover a big range of feelings. Usually the dog hears the worst of it, and he's pretty forgetful or forgiving. What exactly has you pissed off?

[True Blue Door]

54. One too many instances of arbitrary social authoritarianism.

Not really worth mentioning in itself, but part of a pattern I'm losing patience with.

Facebook censors comments posted through its plugins, which are ubiquitous.

If you're accustomed to expressing yourself, you end up having to run from one petty local tyranny to the other like a dissident monk in the Middle Ages.

There's no actual "public square" where people can just be who the fuck they are without watching every syllable for signs of Heresy that will be used against them years, maybe decades later.

Meanwhile everything is flooded by tyrannical propaganda machines run by oppressive political states and corporations, filling the information spectrum with lies and false histories, and people who challenge it don't have the discipline to stick to reality rather than indulging in the stupidest fucking conspiracy theories imaginable.

That's why I'm seeing the Dark Ages in this state of affairs - people not able to understand or manage any state other than chaos or tyranny, religious gibberish or absolute nihilism. Websites are either spambot cesspools or brutally censored with such a suffocating web of rules and official ideologies that you can barely say "Hi, my name is" before you're having to defend yourself.

People either think Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11 or Dick Cheney was - no room for reality in this diarrhea-balloon of an internet.

But if you're curious, the exact thing that brought me here, was that something I wrote about rockets in a website about rockets got hidden by a mod for no apparent reason. Again, totally random, totally not relevant to anything, just one too many examples of that happening.

[edgineered]

60. Well see? There's the problem.

You look at and understand that it can be different. Certainly everyone is smart enough to see it for what it is, but does nothing to improve things. Its okay for now, for me, it doesn't affect me, or whatever attitude is fine. I see things relative to the dark ages as they exist today. Maybe not what you're saying, but like this.

We all live in a world that looks at the world as compared to ourselves. We've got it pretty easy as far as being able to spread ideas, to voice an opinion, or incite action. Physically easy that is. Like you suggested it is very risky both in the long and short terms. Back in the dark ages where it took a month to get an answer from one city to another people had to rely on the largest organizations to keep up with the rest of the world. It mostly the churches that had the ability to send out a uniform message, whether it was the latest technology, medicine, political standings, or religious propaganda. Today it is TV that does most of the work. What people see and hear they believe.

If the ptb decide that the time has come to take away our toys, our computers, cellphones, tvs, etc then we are back in the dark ages physically. With all the censoring, data collection, review of activities, etc we are still in the dark ages today, except nobody sees it. Well, maybe you do.

[True Blue Door]

76. Yep. The vulnerabilities of communications are painfully evident now.

A lot of economic and structural changes will be needed before the illusory freedom of the current internet is made into a durable reality.

All of its current functions will have to be localized, including energy, which would be the reverse of the current "cloud" trend.

[edgineered]

80. Been keeping up you on this thread

and appreciate your going through all the effort, its reassuring to know there is still a little time before we become the food source for replicants. Two good movies.

[woo me with science]

11. We live in a propaganda state now. An interactive propaganda state.

Tremendous resources are being poured into propaganda and message control on the internet, to harass those who criticize corporate policy and politicians and to create the illusion that Americans support what is being done to us. Propaganda is always used to try to normalize the corporate/authoritarian takeover of nations. It's interactive, and it's relentless.

Obama taps "cognitive infiltrator" Cass Sunstein for Committee to create "trust" in NSA:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023512796

Salon: Obama confidant’s spine-chilling proposal: Cass Sunstein wants the government to "cognitively infiltrate" anti-government groups
http://www.salon.com/2010/01/15/sunstein_2/

The US government's online campaigns of disinformation, manipulation, and smear.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024560097

Snowden: ‘Training Guide’ for GCHQ, NSA Agents Infiltrating and Disrupting Alternative Media Online
http://21stcenturywire.com/2014/02/25/snowden-training-guide-for-gchq-nsa-agents-infiltrating-and-disrupting-alternative-media-online/

The influx of corporate propaganda-spouting posters is blatant and unnatural.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3189367

U.S. Repeals Propaganda Ban, Spreads Government-Made News To Americans
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023262111

The goal of the propaganda assaults across the internet is not to convince anyone of anything.*
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023359801

The government figured out sockpuppet management but not "persona management."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023358242

The Gentleman's Guide To Forum Spies (spooks, feds, etc.)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4159454

Seventeen techniques for truth suppression.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4249741

Just do some Googling on astroturfing - big organizations have some sophisticated tools.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=1208351

[navarth]

14. [phone]

[True Blue Door]

22. Government propaganda is a sexier topic, but I'm more concerned with the cultural aspects.

And as far as I'm concerned, we've been inundated with state propaganda since the advent of Fox News. The "state" in question simply being the rich, corporate power structure that (accurately) perceives itself as superseding the official laws.

But all of that would crumble pretty easily if people just bothered to think for themselves and reason from first principles rather than making endless series of corruptible moral analogies.

Back during the start of the Iraq War, I had to constantly ask Republicans, "Why would you encourage behavior on the part of the United States that you would never tolerate another country doing to us?" They just couldn't conceive of there being one world in which the US was a part with other countries.

Anyway, most of what I'm complaining about is just the microcosmic kind of authoritarianism - the petty idiots who mirror that state of affairs in the way they conduct themselves. Who make rules to be used as excuses for acting out personal agendas rather than enabling society, etc. etc.

It's a cacophanous, dystopian kind of culture where people deliberately make up an infinite number of reasons to fight others.

[freshwest]

20. I've noticed this. It's a terrible thing. Thanks for expressing it so well.

[Warpy]

21. It's my turn to be an old woman

and the wonderful thing about being an old woman is that you no longer give a shit what anyone else in the world thinks about you. So you let fly.

Even nihilistic, misanthropic maniacs seem to put up with it because in some way, it goes along with our invisibility.

Four younger folks, the rule is no sex, religion or politics in ordinary society. You can discuss those things with close friends and family, but never among acquaintances.

But yes, the country is moving backward because too many people are ignernt and proud uvvit.

[True Blue Door]

28. Thing is, you can't avoid pissing some people off. They look for excuses.

Avoid talking about politics, and they'll just inject politics into whatever it is that you do talk about.

If you're not actively spouting their propaganda, you're against them. Because the possible ways to piss them off are infinite.

And the logic that a lot of these people engage is is just staggeringly insane. I've been called a "warmonger" for disputing the right of Vladimir Putin to invade whoever he feels like conquering; a "racist" for making fun of Cliven Bundy's racist rants; etc. etc., and internet "authorities" on websites are so keen to avoid disruptions that on balance they prefer to shut normal people up to appease the maniacs who might otherwise go after them and hack their servers.

Hollywood can't even show the Chinese government in a negative light at all, let alone as bad as it actually is, because of the potential financial consequences of doing so.

We're forced to tolerate intolerance, and to punish intolerance of intolerance as intolerance. It's fucking insane.

[Louisiana1976]

63. People sure picked ridiculous reasons to call you a "warmonger" and a "racist." The expectation

that one must tolerate the intolerant is silly.

[True Blue Door]

67. It's what happens when people reason by analogy rather than core logic.

They're against something, and as a result claim to be in favor of the thing they associate as its opposite or antagonist - even when it's objectively provable that their position is opposed to what they claim to favor.

It's the sort of asshole who claims corporate dictatorship is a "free" market simply because it doesn't call itself a government, that capitalism is freedom, etc., and similarly-minded people on the other side of things from the left. They live in a world made up entirely of words and bigoted caricatures.

You can't reason with them - everything is an air-tight web of arbitrary definitions with their perfect selves right at the center.

[awoke_in_2003]

40. "the rule is no sex"

you know, it never hit me before- the whole "abstinence only" programs that they push in school today seem to be reminiscent of Junior Anti-Sex leagues in 1984. From the newspeakdictionary website:

Junior Anti-sex league - Organization promoting celibacy, and the eradication of the orgasm, because these things cause feelings of ownlife

ownlife - Individualism and eccentricity. A desire to do something for your own benefit. (i.e. hobbies, ownership of property, love, or any other Thoughtcrime)

[Le Taz Hot]

50. Warpy,

you won the internetz today with that first sentence. I have to laugh when people say they dread getting old. Yeah, the physical stuff sucks but the rest of it is damned liberating. You're right. You just don't give a shit.

[Shankapotomus]

23. When information is your enemy

Don't give anyone information. Don't offer to share what you think. Don't ask for anyone's acceptance. Listen and observe.

When people's sensibilities are on edge and hot to the touch (whether out of truth or falsehood), don't involve yourself in their drama, if you find the interaction hurts the quality of your life.

In that case, there's no loss in being left alone, in not being heard. It's a gain because you're not part of the drama. If you haven't interacted, you can't do anything wrong and if you can't do anything wrong, you can't be accused.

Sometimes people are not open to listening to us. The great thing about that is the pressure is off you to offer a solution. You're free to turn away and enjoy your life and make the most of what you have.

[riderinthestorm]

25. + 1000. The drama is very tiring and I've decided to stop. Good post. Nt

[True Blue Door]

29. But that's surrender to the Dark Ages.

Plenty of people lived happy, peaceful lives in the Dark Ages. They just didn't have the courage to share it and defend their ability to share it.

[Shankapotomus]

36. How do you know it was courage they were lacking?

Maybe it was opportunity they were lacking.

Maybe they were facing discrimination.

It's no ones obligation to take risks to provide answers that aren't going to be welcomed.

That is for a special few under the right circumstances.

No one is obligated to be a Gandhi.

[True Blue Door]

78. Staying silent doesn't exempt you from the Victim Lottery.

And trying to avoid controversy doesn't appear to stop psychos from finding excuses to fuck with you.

It comes out of the blue. You could be talking about what kind of trees you like and suddenly a dozen people are calling you names, implying you're part of some conspiracy, and talking like you're not even there.

You start to question the general state of reading comprehension, or the remarkable net privileges that criminal psychiatric wards are giving their patients.

[Shankapotomus]

93. I like birch trees

Anyone here have any objections?

Sure, there's lots of crazy people out there spoiling for a fight and who like to take things said out of context. It's happened to me so I certainly understand your complaint. But it doesn't come out of the blue. We know it's here when we join and we know it happens occasionally when we enter into a group of people.

People represent variables in our personal happiness equation. The more people there are, the more complex the equation and the more likely the chance for errors. That's because everyone is different, with different experiences and needs.

So just as a suggestion, if you want to lower your frustration level, simplify your happiness equation. Take out the variable that requires a large number of people to respond to you positively for you to be content.

Because that's a lot of responsibility and power over your contentment you're granting to a large number of people.

Or just remove the variable that says you have to supply a large group of strangers your opinion in order to feel fulfilled. Limit people's access to you.

If sharing your opinion doesn't work for you (and for some, it won't), there's no need to subject yourself to punishment.

We all want to feel liked and our ideas welcomed but there's other ways to go about enjoying life than banking on the approval of strangers.

[magical thyme]

33. +1,000,000 nt

[pablo_marmol]

44. Best Yahoo answer. NT

[riderinthestorm]

24. Reflected in large part by the interactions at DU as well

Its the reason I've dropped out of most conversations lately and rarely participate.

There's not a lot of discussion or a dialogue, instead much of its verbal warfare.

[Feral Child]

30. Got to agree, rider.

Most days I don't post at all, unless to REC an OP. It just gets tiresome.

[pleinair]

31. sad but true

DU definitely has its pissing matches and incivility

[Blue_In_AK]

46. Indeed.

I've kept my mouth shut about a lot of stuff here since sometime in 2008. It's not worth it to me to get into some big dispute with someone and possibly get kicked off the board. I enjoy the Photo Group too much to allow that to happen.

[Warren DeMontague]

26. Fuck 'Em.

Seriously. Dont give any shitty, lower-valence thinkers rent-free space in your own head.

Easy peasy.

[valerief]

27. Bourbon. nt

[99Forever]

34. I hear you and agree.

Just today on this forum I had someone stick their nose into a conversation I was having with another person and commenced to give me a ration over something I have yet to figure out. Oh well, my ignore list still has plenty of room.

[hootinholler]

37. So many words

Saying so little.

Should you wish to establish a more specific context I'm happy to reconsider.

[CJCRANE]

52. Yes. On second read it reminds me of Glenn Beck

in that it sounds portentous but you can't really pin down where it's coming from.

[True Blue Door]

64. So instead of asking, you just go right ahead and compare me with a certifiable madman.

Your comment is not at all exactly, perfectly what I'm talking about.

[randome]

71. Time-out! Foul! Offsides! Do over! Fingernails!

Glenn Beck has never been certified.

I know because if he had, he would frame the certificate and hang it on the wall.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]"If you're bored then you're boring." -Harvey Danger[/center][/font][hr]

[pinboy3niner]

74. Fox didn't let Beck hang things on the walls when he was there

He was lucky they let him have chalk.

[randome]

75. Chalk? You'll shoot your eye out with that, kid.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]"If you're bored then you're boring." -Harvey Danger[/center][/font][hr]

[True Blue Door]

88. True. Glenn Beck couldn't organize his thoughts enough to pass a prostate exam.

[Progressive dog]

38. Is that intended to be a complaint about

something specific?

[randome]

49. If you take the 3rd letter of every 4th word, transpose them...

...then drop any consonants that start the name of a month in Nordic, then your question will be answered.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Precision and concision. That's the game.[/center][/font][hr]

[edgineered]

39. A: How does one deal with unconscious degenerates without just sinking into their noise?

turn up the music!

[pablo_marmol]

41. "And the most hated treason of all is common sense and common humanity."

The problem I have with this sentence is that so much 'common sense' is nonsense.

There are certain positions that people take based on faith rather than empirical evidence and sound reasoning based on that evidence. Subjects which deserve study don't receive it - because the facts are "self-evident".

And w/regard to 'common humanity'.........? Too vague to even respond to IMO. Some peoples' "humanity" is really quite inhumane due to the blowback caused by well-intentioned but misguided legislation they support.

[True Blue Door]

51. Common sense is never shoved in people's faces.

That's how you know it's both common and sense. You don't have to badger people with the blueness of the sky, the wetness of water, and the "fourness" of 2 + 2 - but fanatics and ideologues who want these things to be other than they are, have to bully and harangue and drive people mad. It drives them mad that reality doesn't respond to the force of their fury, so instead they just unleash that fury on something that can be beaten into submission - other people.

And common humanity is not some bizarre, abstract concept in need of esoteric justification. I don't know why you would think it is. Rejecting narcissism and hypocrisy is not rocket science. You can split verbal hairs ad infinitum if you have an interest in obfuscation, but putting equal moral weight on others as you do on yourself is a pretty straightforward idea.

[pablo_marmol]

94. Your definition of "common sense" is quite odd.

You don't have to badger people with the blueness of the sky, the wetness of water, and the "fourness" of 2 + 2.

What you describe here are facts -- NOT common sense.

And common humanity is not some bizarre, abstract concept in need of esoteric justification. I don't know why you would think it is.

As I don't know why you would think you know what I think. I'm hardly the only one who feels your communication is less than clear on this thread.

[ffr]

43. vote. Vote. VOTE!!! And get others to vote!

I don't give two sh*ts what RWNJs have to say about anything. They're lost causes. But if we can't get voters to the booth in November, we'll be hearing more and more noise like you've mentioned.

We're all sick of it too! The only proper thing to do is to drown them out by representation. Get involved. Get people registered. Get them to the polls. Get them excited about going to the polls. It starts with us.

[randome]

48. Oh, yeah.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Precision and concision. That's the game.[/center][/font][hr]

[CJCRANE]

53. Are you sure this isn't a Glenn Beck rant?

I was initially impressed but there is something about the portentous rhetoric and hyperbole that seems familiar: a righteous high-sounding populist rant but without a specific message.

[True Blue Door]

66. "Hyperbole"...as opposed to comparing someone with a lunatic demagogue

based on nothing but a shallow interpretation of rhetorical form? Perhaps you also see some resemblance between my post and Mein Kampf?

What you're saying isn't a rebuttal to my points. It's an example of them.

[ballyhoo]

55. That was a superlative post. You should try

and get this published although by your own words there may not be any avenues for it. I shall look for your posts, TBD. Excellent.

[True Blue Door]

68. I don't know who would want to publish it.

I barely wanted to write it myself. The experiences behind it are so damn sickening.

[ballyhoo]

77. I understand. Twain said much the same.

[beam me up scottie]

58. If this is about the 'Why Texans Dress Like Cowboys' thread

maybe you should let it go.

Or not.

[True Blue Door]

81. No, that was actually fun.

[beam me up scottie]

82. Okay.

Feel better.

[PeoViejo]

62. Some people just need to have a talk with their Physican.

IMHO

[AverageJoe90]

69. I can feel you.

Though I'd add that not every case is just someone being an asshole; it's more nuanced than that. A lot of times, in my own experience, people sometimes just get angry and snap. I've been guilty of this myself on occasion, and have found myself either having to backtrack, or apologize, or both.

[True Blue Door]

83. When it's just individuals, sure.

But not when it seems like an entire contingent of a community comes unglued for no apparent reason. And when authorities side with lunatics in the name of order, you understand a lot about history in those moments.

[airplaneman]

73. In some ways I kind of see where you are coming from.

When facebook first came along I started talking to some relatives. Then I was blacklisted by two relatives. I wan never on facebook more than maybe 3 times a month and did not spend a lot of time there. I did take it personally you know if someone really doest want to have anything to do with me I kind of want to return the favor. I have two friends that are libertarians. They could care less and become hostile if I talk about my beliefs which I don't for the most part as it is not worth it. I have come to the conclusion the larger the crowd the more likely someone is not going to be happy. I believe find yourself a couple of good friends and call yourself lucky. I see more hostility everywhere these days. At work, on the road, in any group of people I may happen to be around. It is bad enough that I make a point to be as inconspicuous as possible so as not to draw attention to myself. I'm kind of turned off to social media because like even here the response you get to a post is often puzzling. Someone doesn't have a clue, or is hostile, or makes some derogatory remark or even no one seems interested or cares. I guess 90 percent of my time even here will be lurking. I doubt if I will ever become a 25,000 poster type.
-Airplane

[True Blue Door]

84. Call it the Law of Conservation of Thought.

The less mental energy you put into each thing you say, the more time you have to say it to as many people as possible.

I think maybe some groups defined by shallow thinking interpret it as aggression if you interact with them deeply, like you're doing something fiendish and underhanded by both out-thinking and out-talking them. Like it's unfair or something.

[daredtowork]

79. Real Problems Just Become Part of the Noise

Nothing has changed since Malcolm Gladwell's Small Change:

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/04/small-change-3

The problem is that in real offline communities, real power hierarchies and reputation/dignity/shame systems come into effect - the anonymity and leveling effects of the the Internet offered weaker people a way to deal with that. Stronger people (Gladwell included) might scoff at that as "low risk", but it has always been the privilege of the strong to scoff when the weak try to dodge from the place of danger.

The bottom line is that we as citizens need ways to get problems in our everyday lives solved: ways that don't involve going to lawyers, newspapers, government agencies, or even raising a fuss on social media. The noise is directly proportional to the inability of people to get basic stuff done in their lives: complete their education, get work, maintain their homes, maintain the infrastructure of their communities, address health problems, resolve minor conflicts with people, deal when some bureaucratic hassle is inflicted upon them. Just basics of life.

The "New Dark Ages" is tribalism: everyone trying to identify as the super-majority so their party will be empowered to put in some system to solve *their* problems. States' Rights hyper-competitiveness is also a symptom of this: each State trying to empower itself at the expensive others, while offloading the poor and the burdensome.

Reducing the noise begins at home, by making sure the people in your community have a way to solve the basic problems of life and don't have to go appealing to some super-majority tribe as their only hope.

[True Blue Door]

85. Interesting article. Social media enables "long tail" activism.

Low activation energy, low risk tolerance. Works by reducing response friction, so people are both more likely to participate and more likely to stop participating.

That might be why I've never liked social media. It's two-dimensional, and the full reality is that it's rigidly controlled and exploited by its corporate ownership.

It's also based on the false belief that the internet is public domain, when it's constantly censored and its history rewritten - if not for any sinister reason, then simply because nobody bothers to continue hosting ancient information that's never accessed anyway.

Volumes of human thought and experience that in the past would be recorded in letters, journals, and documents just evaporate into thin air.

[edgineered]

90. Exactly. Having read

what daredtowork linked to doesn't tell the whole story. His interpretations and thoughts go with the presentation, but come short of the invisible two-dimensional, rigidly controlled community and its vanishing histories that we see today. and yes invisible and seen.

[daredtowork]

91. I read somewhere recently that people are less likely to say what they think online

Instead they are more likely to express what they think everyone else is saying, thus in the process of trying to "fit in", they add to the sense there is a uniformity of opinion. Meanwhile marginal voices become invisible and dissenting voices get swamped.

The Internet is a realm of self-censorship, easily dominated by waves of social puritanism as people surveille each other for who belongs, who is "savvy", and who is "out".

I'm sure I'll regret all I've posted here in recent weeks and may have to go back and delete a lot of my posts. But I'm largely home-bound again, too stressed and sick to do anything productive, and this has somehow become the thing I do to keep myself distracted until things either magically work out or they don't.

[edgineered]

87. Reading now, it is so different now

than it was in the 60's and it is not because of the will or the feelings of the people. Hopefully the article touches on both the seen and unseen activities by those in control. As with what tbd is saying, we are no longer as strong as we were 50 years ago. We have been well trained and well conditioned to respond to his masters voice.

[Brigid]

86. Have you been reading my mind?

[Throd]

92. Sounds like the overwrought self-congratulatory martyrdom of Squidward Tentacles.

Or just about everyone I knew in art school (myself included) who had a shitty day job.

[WhiteAndNerdy]

95. Very well said.

I agree with your observations.

[barbtries]

96. rants like this.

DU. we carry on. hope.
but yeah, hell in a handbasket. hell in a handbasket.