When exactly did DU become DDU?

[trotsky]

As in Debbie Downer Underground?


Seriously, not ONE ITEM of good news (esp. regarding the oil spill) can be posted without someone shitting all over the thread. "New Dutch skimmer ships are arriving!" -> "They should have been here from the beginning!" / "BP has to set up a $20bil escrow!" -> "They'll never pay a dime into it."

I mean, I know us mean old Skeptics have been accused of being negative nellies because we don't immediately get excited about a cancer cure that's only worked in a Petri dish. But these are real, concrete, good things that are happening and people still just have to bring it down.

[TZ]

1. For awhile, maybe since I started here in 2007

At least we haven't heard from everyone is gonna be in soup lines and homeless Depression crews for awhile since it seems the economy is slooooowly getting better. But I remember all the paranoids who thought that the Bush admin was gonna stage a coup/disaster/takeover so that the last election didn't happen.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

2. Earlier than that...at least since 2004 when I arrived

Geez after Kerry lost? Forget it. The place was despair itself.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

3. Let me add that I dont blame anyone for that despair

That time was ass.

[Orrex]

4. For some reason, I saw the double-D in your subject line and thought of vaccine-induced autism.

[laconicsax]

5. January 20, 2001

I can only speak to it from around November of 2001 when I started lurking.

But seriously, the only thing that's changed as far as the negativity is that it's been slowly getting louder since time immemorial. Such is the way of progressivism. Every victory is simultaneously a defeat somewhere else.

[lazarus]

6. yep

been here from almost the beginning, and I can attest to this.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

7. Same here

I lurked for a while, and posted under a different username, but I've been around since late '01, and the despair has always been a part of DU.

It's weird that the negativity seems to be worse under a Dem controlled House, Senate, and Presidency.

[trotsky]

8. Yes! That's what bugs me!

It's weird that the negativity seems to be worse under a Dem controlled House, Senate, and Presidency.

I mean, WTF? Seems like a lot of people are MORE angry than when the Repukes controlled everything.

[FiveGoodMen]

17. "Seems like a lot of people are MORE angry than when the Repukes controlled everything"

When the pukes mess things up, we can hope to drive them out of office and replace them with people who will do the right thing.

When our side is in charge and they don't do the right things, then what hope is there?

[TZ]

18. Some of us disagree on what the right things are.

Like actually passing Health Care Reform, a huge deal for someone with chronic illness. I'm tired of its not exactly what I think it should be the legislation is evil attitude on DU.

[trotsky]

19. Yes, somehow failure to enact the PERFECT plan...

("perfect", of course, being a totally vague and undefined thing - kind of like an "I know it when I see it" deal) is worse than the status quo.

[FiveGoodMen]

20. The perfect is the enemy of the totally unacceptable

[EvolveOrConvolve]

22. I'm not sure what that means

But incremental changes are better than no changes or the wrong changes.

[FiveGoodMen]

24. It's just my response to the 'perfect is the enemy of the good' sentiment

which is so often used to talk people into eating shit.

Agreed that incremental changes are better than no changes or the wrong changes.

Much of the time, though, the wrong changes are disguised as incremental changes.

Things like toothless 'reform' that works in favor of the corporations rather than the people.

[TZ]

25. It helps people

LIKE ME. Of course since I'm stupid my knowledge of my own Health Care plan and coverage and health is nil right? I mean just cause I 've had extensive knowledge of pre-existing conditions rule having dealing with it means I'm not a person. The claim that HCR won't help people is complete bullshit! Btw- I know alot of Federal Workers who are happy that they can soon put their 22-26 uninsured children on their plan this year. But hey, insuring more people is so evil isn't it? Save me from no- nothings.:eyes::

[FiveGoodMen]

26. Well, I was certainly being a rude SOB when I called you stupid.

But...

I was trying to argue a serious point against a tag team wielding attitude and magic words (conspiracy :o!)

And while I don't have any magic words of my own, I'm quite capable of returning attitude for attitude.

---------

Regarding HC"R" ...

1) At a time of crisis, we were given much less than we asked for, much less than other industrialized countries have, a bad mandate that suggests that insurance companies were the real constituency of our elected reps rather than ... you know ... us

2) No I don't think anyone is going to go back and fix it for quite a while

3) I think there's a very real chance that when the new law goes into effect and all the fine print comes to light, we'll see that it doesn't really help anyone.

So I hope you're right about it being some help, but I wouldn't bet $5 on that.

[TZ]

27. Not all insurance is bad btw

My coverage which I had to fight tooth and claw to get them to give as promised..IS good. Now that they are legally bound to follow their own rules...My last visit to Mayo Clinic..I paid 35 dollars OUT OF POCKET for all my testing. There are people who only want to have access to this kind of coverage. And HCR will give them that. And thats what I've been trying to tell people.

[HuckleB]

10. Spot on!

[PVnRT]

16. Pretty much

There are plenty of liberals who aren't happy if there isn't something to bitch about.

[HuckleB]

9. It could be worse.

I love visiting Spain, but I'm very happy that I'm not there today.

[trotsky]

14. Viva Switzerland, eh? n/t

[HuckleB]

15. Indeed.

But it seems to be Spain's role to underwhelm at the World Cup.

[realisticphish]

11. I think that groups are to blame

I love my groups, and wouldn't go back to the old forum structure. But now you get little sounding chambers, whipping people up into a frenzy, then releasing them into GD and elsewhere. Even the Lounge, sadly; the Lounge used to be a lot nicer (haha nostalgia strikes again...)

The way it used to be, there were enough reasonable people around to be sure that wild threads would be tempered. Now reasonable people tend to flee back to their groups :shrug:

[mr blur]

12. Exactly.

I certainly tend to take refuge here with the rational, reasonable folks.

[Silent3]

13. No matter how bad it is right now...

...it will only get worse.

I blame Obama.

;)

[EvolveOrConvolve]

23. LOL - well then you must be a right-wing toadie or a corporate whore

At least from what I've read in other forums at DU.

;) back atcha.

[LeftishBrit]

21. I think we all tend to post when we're upset or anxious about something...

We tend not to comment so much about things that are going well.

So some of this is only natural. Especially with all the mess that's been going on with the economy, and not knowing what's going to happen there, and everyone fearing for their jobs, etc.

I find it harder to understand all the negativity toward Obama; but of course I'm not on the spot in America.

I have to say that since dealing with our election and post-election roller-coaster, and with painfully narrow defeats for my hopes both nationally and locally, and at the same time an awareness that we also narrowly dodged an even worse bullet nationally - I do have a new understanding of how people in America were affected by Florida and 2000, and Ohio and 2004! Our situation isn't one-tenth as bad as yours with Bush; and there wasn't obvious fraud, just an intrinsically unrepresentative electoral system - and yet I still get the jitters every now and then. I suspect that some of the 'Debbie Downer' stuff stems from all that. However, whatever people may think of Obama, he is NOT Bush!