You can't go home again.

[Cyrano]

I was recently up north at a get-together of my extended family and it was as though I had stepped into a time machine to the past. Although they are 90% Democrats, none of them are political junkies and they have no idea what's happened to our country.

Anytime I mentioned one of the insanities of BushWorld, no one had the slightest clue of what I was talking about. And although some of them are online, it's obvious they are not looking at any political websites.

Most are getting all their news from TV and those who read newspapers are either looking at the sports section, or clipping coupons. The rabbit hole is getting deeper every day, but somehow, they don't seem to be missing their missing freedoms.

After a while, I just shut up. There was no way I was going to enlighten anyone in the short time I was there, but my astonishment at their blindness will be with me for a long time.

The average German didn't grasp what was happening to them in the mid to late 1930s, and most Americans don't see it today. It's that, more than anything, that so frustrates us on DU.

None of my family realizes that they are among the millions of frogs in this country who are sitting in a pot of water that's being brought slowly to a boil.

("You Can't Go Home Again" is a novel by Thomas Wolfe.)

[H2O Man]

1. On "going home" .....

Is that kind of like a journey to Ixtlan?

[acmejack]

2. On line to most means

using email and getting those neat chain emails... Oh, can't forget Ebay

[LibDemAlways]

3. When I try to bring up some Bush Crime

Family atrocity that the corporate whores are ignoring, people I know tell me it couldn't possibly be true because "It's not on the news." Huge Catch 22. People are conditioned to think that unless they hear something "on the news" it's not valid. Since the corporate whores don't cover what's really going on, people remain ignorant.

PNAC is a perfect example. I know a guy - registered Dem but leans right - who works for a television production company that develops programming for cable networks - including the History Channel. I suggested to him that he ought to research PNAC and put together a documentary as a public service. Of course he had never heard of PNAC. When I gave him the short course, he freaked out and said that even if such a thing existed, his bosses would never go for it. He also expressly told me not to even send him a link to the PNAC site and that I ought to stay away from "left wing wack-o" sites and stick to "legitimate news sources like CNN."

[CornField]

4. About "the news"

When someone says this, ask which news outlet is watched. What shows? What channel?

It seems the only "news" my fanatical family in Oklahoma was watching was the 700 Club, et al. They were not reading newspapers, they were only online for ebay and email and they could have cared less for what any legitimate news outlet had to say.

[Cyrano]

5. "...stay away from left wing wack-o sites..."

Hearing that from your friend had to be infuriating. We're the sane ones, yet the lunatics have been super successful at marginalizing us.

[LibDemAlways]

8. I get that a lot. This particular guy is

very bright, makes big bucks, has access to media honchos. Yet, he (maddeningly) has blinders on when it comes to the criminal cabal in power. He once actually said with a straight face: "OK, so you don't personally like Bush, but don't you have to admit you were glad he was in power on 9/11?" I almost choked. He's so immersed in the corporate whore culture, he doesn't recognize the harm it's doing.

As for the "left wing wack-o" comments, my sister-in-law pulled the same thing on me. I told her she ought to visit some of the sites I go to. She might learn something. Response: big shoulder shrug.

[trof]

6. It is very frustrating.

Most of my friends have the attitude of "A pox on both their houses. All politicians are crooked anyway."
And they go about their daily lives not understanding that what goes on in Washington D.C. has anything at all to do with them.

Miz t.'s late parents were good people, "salt of the earth" types, who never registered to vote.
"It doesn't make any difference."

Her mom, especially, was a dear sweet lady who lived with us for the last year of her life.
She accepted anything that was "in the TV" as gospel.
To her the images were "in" that little box, not "on" it.
I couldn't argue with that.

"How do you know that, mom?"
"Why I saw it in the TV."

Sometimes I despair.
:-(

[Atman]

7. This is why it is so important for DUers to TAKE TIME AWAY FROM DU

I'm totally serious. We have created our own echo chamber, and we immerse ourselves in politics, and we tend to think therefore the rest of the world knows what's going on, too.

We bitch about the lies we hear on cable news, as if everyone will know they're lies. But take a week off from DU, stay away from the computer. Read only as much as the average American -- like, almost nothing, just scan the newspaper headlines but don't go past page 2, or the Irish Sports Page. Then, at dinner time, turn on the evening news in the background while you prepare a meal for the family.

What you'll find if you do this is that things are really going quite well in the world. Very few stories about Iran or Iraq. The economy is SOARING. Some blonde girl is still missing. Democrats hate Bush, still. *YAWN* Basically everything is just peachy in America.

That is what the rest of the country sees while we're immersed in it up to our eyeballs, and that is why we go so nuts when others don't get it. In fact, after the last conversation I had with my mom, she said "I always enjoy talking to you...I learn so much. But I don't sleep for a week afterwards!" She's a rabid-Bush hater, but even she doesn't really have a clue what is really happening.

In short, we all owe it to ourselves to "get in touch with the people." You'll also get feel for how/why politicians become so insulated within THEIR own world.