Can the DU Wet Blanket Brigade give it a brief respite for now?

[wnylib]

145. But not in reference to

"Anyone who questions how we're doing."

Questioning whether an action or stated policy is the right way to go is not doom and gloom. Disagreeing with a policy or action is not doom and gloom.

Doom and gloom, IMO, is claiming to know what it is not possible to know yet, stating it as fact, and then projecting, as fact, disastrous outcomes that cannot be prevented because all actions are futile.

I am just as aware as most DU posters, that the country is in a precarious situation due to Republican obstructionism, attacks on voting rights, politically biased Supreme Court, the J6 insurrection, and their continued, persistent and belligerent push to control government to represent the minority of hard right Americans. I know that democracy, or the "soul of America," as Biden puts it, is at stake.

But the doom and gloom posts that I am referring to (not necessarily yours specifically) are the ones that claim that the country is already lost, that we are "f'd" and cannot turn things around. And the claim, as absolute fact, that Garland is doing nothing and will do nothing in regard to the crimes of Trump, his former advisors, and his allies in Congress. And the claims that the J6 hearings are useless, that protests against gun violence are useless, that protests against overturning Roe are futile, etc.

Those are "doom and gloom" comments because they discourage activism and create an atmosphere of hopelessness. And that is exactly what our opponents would like us to feel - that all is lost so give up the fight now and accept authoritarian RW rule.

There is a huge difference between acknowledging that things are grim and therefore we must act and find solutions versus saying that things are grim and therefore hopeless. It is easy to complain. It is more challenging to seek and act on solutions.

In 2020, I feared that Republican harrassment of voters and of Democratic campaign workers (like running them off of roads) would suppress Dem votes. I feared that there would be violence at polls. I feared that, even if Biden won, he might have a Republican Senate with Massacre Mitch in control of it. But instead of assuming the worst because of those fears, I placed hope in and support of campaigns like the ones in Georgia that, against the odds, ended up giving us control of the Senate. Slim control, yes, but better than having Massacre Mitch as majority leader.

I feared also that Trump would reject losing, and call his supporters to violence. I posted that, as a possibility to prepare for, not as an assumption that he would actually succeed in overturning the election. So I am not opposed to acknowledging possible threats and facing them realistically. I am only opposed to giving in to assumptions that the worst will happen and that therefore we can do nothing about it.