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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNo, Its Not You. This is Crazy.
No, Its Not You. This is Crazy.
October 26, 2017 / John Pavlovitz
snip//
I hear the nagging question you ask inside your head a few hundred times a day: Is it me, or has a huge portion of this country lost its mind?
It isnt you.
Youre quite fine, and this is of course both good and terrible newsbecause of what it says about you and about the place you find yourself.
The fact that you see how wrong this all is, means your faculties are intact, your mind is fully right, and your heart is working properly. Its all confirmation that you still have a soul doing what souls are supposed to do: keeping you deeply human in profoundly inhumane times.
snip//
This is a reminder that this is not at all normal and that you are right to feel this disorientation.
Youre okay.
Youre not alone and youre not crazy.
Youre also in good company.
Right now there is a massive army of similarly walking wounded sharing this place with you; fellow exhausted souls who realize that none of this makes any sensepeople concluding that for their health, they will need to create distance from people they once allowed close proximity.
There are millions of good people out here still looking to be the kind of people the world needs; those committed to doing no harm, burdened to bring something decent where it is missing.
There are many of us who see clearly:
He is not normal.
His behavior and his words and his demeanor are all unhinged, dangerous, and wholly unworthy of his lofty position.
We can see that this is a bastardization of humanity, a rebellion against goodness, a mutiny against sanity.
We can see that those sanctioning and defending and co-signing it are equally unwell, equally disconnected from anything benevolent, similarly propelled by fear and greed and bitterness.
And thats why we need to keep resisting it.
more...
https://johnpavlovitz.com/2017/10/26/no-not-crazy/.
Nay
(12,051 posts)Left-over
(234 posts)I no longer attend any of the local churches because it seems like they have all become like mind controlled zombies. They have been so sold on right wing garbage that they have forgotten the things taught by the namesake of their religion, Jesus Christ. It's like every day gets more surreal and I am having a hard time dealing with the craziness. My prayer, every day , is that the people of this nation awaken in time to correct what has been done.
Saviolo
(3,268 posts)In fact, it was only recently, within the last 60 years or so, that evangelicals began supporting conservatives:
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/09/08/voting-conservative-not-the-christian-thing-to-do.html
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,483 posts)(snip)
It was only when the twin issues of abortion and gay rights began to dominate the political agenda of the Christian right that the unnatural alliance of conservative and Christian began first to develop and then to dominate. Within a generation we had the jarring scene of followers of the social and economic revolutionary Jesus giving time and money to parties committed to military spending, immigration controls, reduction in help to the poor and harsh, often thoughtless words about their opponents.
(snip)
Cue the usual attacks because someone has dared to change his mind, as though evolution is a sin and ideological and spiritual stubbornness a virtue.
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From my era (50s and 60s) in the Christian church (Baptist), the members would have thrown these vile money changes out in the street. What you said was very true.
Let's hope these our overtly Republican-supporting churches either go broke or fade away due to lack of attendance. It has to start in the member's hearts.
TexasBushwhacker
(20,043 posts)to further their cause of building obscene wealth.
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,483 posts)Everything today is based on The New Revised Grand Old Party Bible.
Old sins out, new sins in, new 12-Commandments, etc., all per Bannon, Rand and Norquist, LOL.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)mountain grammy
(26,568 posts)Fatemah2774
(245 posts)And worthy of repeating until this administration is gone. I'm printing this and tacking it where I can see it every day to remind myself not to lose heart.
Initech
(99,909 posts)IronLionZion
(45,250 posts)The article above shares a lot about the completely insane division between rural and urban people that has gotten out of control in recent years.
A lot of people support Trump not because of anything he is or does, but because F those educated elitist assholes who look down on them, that's why.
You've never rooted for somebody like that? Someone powerful who gives your enemies the insults they deserve? Somebody with big fun appetites who screws up just enough to make them relatable? Like Dr. House or Walter White? Or any of the several million renegade cop characters who can break all the rules because they get shit done? Who only get shit done because they don't care about the rules?
People like Trump because he's such a piece of shit and those of us on the left hate him so much. They liked Bush for being so dumb and clueless. They loved Reagan for his Alzheimers and grandfatherly demeanor.
Tobin S.
(10,418 posts)It is a particularly difficult time for those of us who truly have had mental health issues in the past, and then gone on to recover. It looks like I'm going crazy again sometimes. But this time it's not me. It's definitely something that does not originate in me. I am still sane.
Mountain Mule
(1,002 posts)Yesterday I was chatting with my landlady's husband - a republican through and through. So, he completely surprised me when he told me that he felt the republican party had set him adrift with no direction to go. I imagine many thoughtful republicans feel that way today - and yes there's a few thoughtful ones left - many of this ilk did NOT vote for Trump. I have many conservative neighbors and acquaintances who loathe Trump these days.
GOOD!
I'm doing my best to keep the communication lines open with these folks. I think many old school republicans just might be open to voting for democrats. Meanwhile -
RESIST!
AllaN01Bear
(17,346 posts)i have felt that the usa had lost its mind since 2000 or earlier . i know a number of folk who are mindless zomibes. as for me i have been numb since the election . i have felt that the rug had been puld from out from under me ..great read.ever since this gentleman has been elected , my internal sirens are just going and going.
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,483 posts)(snip)
In times when truth and news are pliable, truth-tellers are worth more than gold. Loving resistance is a world-turner.
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I've bookmarked this article and will try to read it every few days, just for a healthy RESET.
We must resist this evil flood in any way practical, e.g.:
__ Boycott advertisers on right-wing talk radio and cable news.
__ Express our displeasure toward any corporation known to support right-wing politicians or causes.
__ Openly criticize any church that promotes right-wing dogma.
__ Engage with fellow citizens showing right-wing tendencies in subtle ways that might make them think.
__ Be active in community government and activities so our rational voice is heard.
BigmanPigman
(51,430 posts)KY_EnviroGuy
(14,483 posts)tRump's administration needs to experience constant, relentless pressure and we gotta keep poking that bear from every direction!
yuiyoshida
(41,759 posts)someone to head a department who HATES that Department. Its Nucking Futz... but they wanted a Government that was small enough to drown in a bathtub...
May they fall in and drown!!!
sandensea
(21,526 posts)Stonepounder
(4,033 posts)We will not recover. Our Congress is the Big Green Head in the Wizard of Oz. The news covers the distraction of the day and, like the moving finger, reports and having reported moves on. We haven't heard a word about Puerto Rico lately, or a word about Trump packing the Federal Appeal and Circuit Courts with far right 'originalists' who will control the courts for a generation. We hear 30 seconds about how Trump's Cabinet appointees are literally dismantling the Departments they are supposed to run. They are destroying the institutional memory of the State Dept, the EPA, FEMA, NOAA, and on and on. The so-called Secretary of Education wants to get rid of public schools. And on and on and on.
The Congress is 100% owned by its corporate masters who vote with $$$ which are way more important than votes. We are in the process of disenfranchising any who won't vote for the interests of the oligarchs who actually run the country. The FCC is selling off stations as rapidly as possible to Right-Wing media so that the lies of Trickle-Down economics, how our Tax dollars are better spent by the wage earners, even though to give the middle-class taxpayers an average of $60/yr tax reduction while the oligarchs get billions.
We have a mentally unfit buffoon as our Spokesperson to the world, and he just wants an excuse to play with his nukes and take the economy of the US so he can make more money.
We will not recover. At least no in my lifetime, and quite probably never. Some other country - like Russia or China - will take our place as the leader of the world. And our children and grandchildren will rightly blame us.