Insanity Has Become the New Normal

[Cyrano]

Stop for a moment and look at where we are. About 30% to 40% of the people in this country have gone bonkers. They’ve fallen off the deep end. They are listening to the ravings of an unbalanced man and they are buying it. They actually believe they’re hearing reality.

A year and a half ago, if any public figure had come forward and stated half of what Trump has spewed out, they would have been declared certifiably nuts and ignored or institutionalized. Yet, this ignorant, deranged, dangerous man is out there on the stump peddling paranoia, bigotry, racism, and hatred. He’s voicing ideas that have been discredited by all civilized societies. He’s shouting out lies and fantasies with every breath. Yet no one took him to task for more than a year. Now that we’re scrapping the bottom of the sewer, our main stream media has jumped in to “expose” him. Whoop de Doo. But better late than never, I suppose.

This new normal is anti-American and is being totally accepted by far too many who don’t recognize madness when they see and hear it. This man named Trump will lose the election. But, to a degree, he’s won his “revolution.” When he finally gets off the stage, many of his followers will still be around. And some of them may actually resort to “Second Amendment Solutions.” Hopefully not, but that remains to be seen.

And I repeat the headline: Insanity Has Become the New Normal. That's unacceptable. Somehow, someway, we liberals/progressives/sane people have got to roll this back. We’ve got to reclaim our politics from the minority of crazies who have seized the spotlight. Not to mention the masses of willfully ignorant people they’ve conned into being “true believers” and Trump voters. This sickness must be opposed.

And we must make sure we never again get this close the edge.

[tonyt53]

1. They didn't "go" bonkers, they already were. Blame them and their parents for it.

Their parents never made them concentrate on school studies. Many of the guys dropped out of school at 16. farted around for a couple of years, then went to work where the males in their family worked. The females dropped out of school at 16, farted around a couple of years, then married one of those guys that dropped out at 16. Now they are afraid of everything and everybody because they don't understand it or them. They cling to their guns because that makes them feel safe.

[Cyrano]

5. Yes, that's many of them

The ones who are really scary are those who know better, yet joined in Trump's crusade against decency. There's only one way to describe them: Pure evil. They see something to gain by Trump's revolution and they are there to clean up on it and screw everyone else. I know people who are like that.

[Hortensis]

2. We will, the wheel always turns. And we'd sure better.

One thing about getting too close to the edge is that people almost always finally notice and jump back before going over. Awful as this has been, it will have been an educational experience for those capable of understanding the lesson. And that's...at least a majority of us.

[unblock]

3. republicans have long had *remarkable* party loyalty, which trumps -- well -- trump.

i know plenty of republicans who agree that trump is nuts and bigoted and horrible in many respects, but hey, they're republicans, they want tax cuts for the rich, and they figure that congress would keep him in check in other respects.

obviously i disagree strongly, but there's no talking them out of it. point it, they don't agree with the crazy aspects, they've just been trained to think that party matters and the individual doesn't.


i suppose they might work hard in the primaries next time....

[smirkymonkey]

4. K&R

[lapfog_1]

6. Do you want the short explanation or the long one?

The middle class is disappearing... high school educated whites are no longer middle class... and they know it. They want someone to blame... and the right wing echo chamber is telling them its the upper middle class Democrats with college educations and immigrants and world trade and regulations and taxes (not THEIR taxes, but taxes on the wealthy that make the wealthy take money out of the US).

And, to be honest, there is always a grain of truth to these lies... otherwise nobody would believe them.

They are getting older and ready to retire and they are NOT doing as well as their parents (WWII generation) did. Historically, every generation does better than the previous one (or so the saying goes... until this one and the next one and perhaps the ones after that).

And people are pissed off about it.

[Cyrano]

7. So their answer is to blow up the system?

I understand their position. But these are people who, for the most part, have voted for Republicans their whole lives. In effect, they've screwed themselves by buying into GOP propaganda and horseshit.

A government completely controlled by Democrats could have fixed the system long ago: universal healthcare; universal education; no privitization of government functions; etc. The Republicans have been blocking this agenda for many decades.

If blowing up the system is the only answer this "disappearing middle class" has, then they must be fought and stopped. Anarchy solves nothing and will make this country unlivable. I for one don't want to dwell in "Mad Maxville."

[lapfog_1]

8. Actually no

most of them are part of former union (strong Democratic voters) households of the 1960s.

But that was the previous generation. They started going Republican because of the dual "southern strategy" and law and order republicans. Even though they are children of the sixties, they were not the Hippies or drop outs... they were the high school grads who wanted to go to work in the same union factory jobs their fathers had. They wanted to marry their high school sweetheart, have 2.3 kids, get the Vista Cruiser and travel the US on summer vacations.

They thought they would do better than the parents did in the 1960s and 1970s... but they were wrong.

[DustyJoe]

9. ^probably the best reason

They wanted the same high paying union jobs Dad and Grandpa had, but all those got shipped south of the border with crappy trade agreements or companies uprooting or outsourcing to Asia. So they got stuck in the service sector non-union low paying swamp. The only real jobs that paid well was to go be a govt. employee, the last union bastion and taxpayer, not customer or consumer based paycheck security.

[Cyrano]

10. Can't disagree with much of what you're saying

Last edited Tue Oct 25, 2016, 03:58 PM - Edit history (1)

and I emphasize with them. Yet, if they are voting to destroy "the system" they are anarchists. What do they propose to replace it with? They really don't know. They haven't thought it out beyond the "destruction" part.

So I'm left with this bottom line. They are buying into everything that defies decency. They really don't give a damn what happens to our society, as long as they come out "winners." They don't understand that they can't "win" under a demagogue like Trump. And by taking the position they've taken, they have become the enemies of a civilized nation.

Hopefully, some of them will "wake up" once Trump retreats to his sanctuary of insanity in his Trump Tower. But concerning those who want to continue the battle, what are we supposed to do? Ignore them? Well, if possible, we should ignore them. But by ignoring them, are we allowing them to do their best to hamper a progressive, decent, humane, sane agenda? That's unacceptable.

[lapfog_1]

11. I wish someone would be honest with them

those high paying (relatively) factory jobs are never coming back... even if we repeal every free trade agreement and pull out of the WTO.

Those factories may come back, but not the jobs.

The truth is that most (if not all) manufacturing jobs are going to be done by robots in the not too distant future.

Most trucking and taxi and uber jobs will be done by robots.

To survive the next 50 or 60 years, you will need creative jobs... and not just jobs, but entire careers. you will probably change careers at least 3 to 4 times.

[uponit7771]

12. I still believe there's a practical and implementable solution in tracked retraining in something...

... people want to do ... and ... and relocation to where those jobs are.

There will be a portion of the population who can't retrain or relocate for whatever reason but they should be the outliar

Not wanting to retrain or relocate should be the outliar too... those jobs that we work for 30 - 40 years and retire are only half of what they were even 30 years ago.

[Skittles]

13. OK

I can very much understand that people are PISSEd - but WHERE is the leap of logic that makes them believe DONALD FUCKING TRUMP is the ANSWER?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

14. Exactly

Especially considering that people like Trump are actually part of the problem.

[Skittles]

15. a HUGE part of the problem

[Coyotl]

16. Plenty of people have been institutionalized for saying less batshit crazy stuff than Trump says

in just one speech.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

17. Sean Hannity now, insanity later.

[Awsi Dooger]

18. My father warned about this 30 years ago

He was a psychology/sociology professor who earlier taught political science. Dad said the middle class was in decline and once it got much worse it would lead to emotion and irrational thought, particularly among males. During summer trips to the midwest and northeast he would go out of his way to show me the closed factories, or declining factories. It always shocked me that he knew so much about each area, more than the locals.

Dad's theme was that his generation was extremely fortunate, with middle class jobs and pensions and cost of living. He blamed Reagan on the beginnings of taking it all away. But dad actually took it too far in regard to how much my generation had comparatively suffered. I detoured to Las Vegas shortly after college and got involved in sports betting. It was strictly by choice. I had a fascination with sports, probability, and math, so that focus combined all three. I did just well enough to hang in there and survive the inevitable downturns, and then I handicapped extremely well by focusing everything on Apple Computer in terms of investing, beginning in the late '90s after Jobs returned. That's the reason I've had this avatar here for a dozen years or more. There were genius naysayers on this site who I still remember by name, dismissing my faith in Apple stock and mocking the company as nothing but overpriced hardware, blah blah blah.

Anyway, once Apple exploded I was set. But mom and dad argued frequently on the course of events, before their deaths a few years ago. Mom understood that I detoured by choice, and it happened to work out. Dad insisted that I was held back by economic realities and opportunities, the decline compared to his era. He could not have been more wrong. It was always curious to me. Normally dad was sharper than mom but in some areas, and specifically this one, her instincts and sense of the playing field were far superior.

In that Las Vegas sports betting scene I spent decades with the type of guys who are feverish in support of Trump. Virtually none had college degrees, a plurality were from the South, and once they got frustrated with job opportunities at home they took a swing in Las Vegas. I couldn't believe how paranoid they were, seriously fretting a door to door government takeover if a Democrat were in office. That was a persistent theme. It took all my willpower to avoid insulting them at the absurdity. I've mentioned previously on this site that I knew several guys who headed straight to the local gun stores to stock up the day after Clinton ousted Bush in 1992.

Some of those guys are still in Las Vegas. Others have returned home. I keep in touch with many. All for Trump, and not in small portions. They can't believe Hillary is a free woman, let alone supposedly ahead. There's only one guy who returned home to Tennessee and found a much better job/career than he ever dared imagine who has mellowed somewhat. I can actually discuss the race with him. That would have been unthinkable 15 years ago.

That Las Vegas experience combined with my dad's astute vision led me to understand the "insanity" numbers were far higher than estimates. But from 2011 forth with Birther lunacy and now Trump's percentages I have been shocked at how far it reaches. I assumed Trump would be routinely denied in the GOP primaries, after a brief sideshow.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

19. Until the 2012 Republican primaries I would have told you I heard peak crazy in 1986

I was out with my dad, it was the Memorial Day long weekend, we were at a garage in Tustin. He was getting his tires changed and there was a preacher or host on the radio. He was going on about how the purpose of the space program was to seduce young men first into atheism and then into homosexuality. It would take 25 years for me to hear something as crazy but that now seems merely eccentric and quaint.

[n2doc]

20. No, a year and a half ago they could have been in Congress or a VP candidate

Does Michelle Bachman ring a bell? Or Louie Goehmert? Or Sarah Palin? The insanity has been with us for a while. The fact that we had 30% of the population thinking W was a good president in 2008, after all he had fucked up, was a clue.

The madness has been with us for a long time. The difference this year is that they have a cheerleader as the Republican Nominee.

[Mc Mike]

21. BUT, the hardcore nazis don't have their 10%. rec, nt.