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Another Democrat Reaches Enlightenment


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2021 Dec 9, 2:03pm   41,332 views  265 comments

by Patrick   ➕follow (61)   💰tip   ignore  

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/the-turn-liel-leibovitz?source=patrick.net


The Turn

When I saw the left give up everything I believe in, I changed politically. You can, too.

For many years—most of my politically cognizant life, in fact—I felt secure in my politics. Truth and justice, I believed, leaned leftward. If you were some version of a decent human being, you cared about those less fortunate than you, which meant that you supported a whole host of measures designed to even the playing field a little. Sometimes, these measures had unintended consequences (see under: Stalin, Josef), but that wasn’t reason enough to despair of the long march to equality. Besides, there was hardly an alternative: On the other end of the political transom lurked despicable creeps, right-wing orcs who either cared for nothing but their own petty financial interests or, worse, pined for benighted isms that preached prejudice and hate. We were on the right side of history. We were the people. We were the ones giving peace a chance. And, no matter the present, we were always the future.

This belief carried me through high school, and a brief stint in a socialist youth movement. It accelerated me in college, sending me anywhere from joint marches with Palestinians to a two-week hunger strike in Jerusalem trying (and failing) to lower tuition for underprivileged students. It pulled me to New York, to Columbia University, to more left-wing politics and activism and raging against Republicans whose agenda, especially in the 2000s, seemed like nothing more than greed and war.

And it wasn’t just an ideology, some abstract set of convictions that were accessible only through cracking open dusty old books. It was the animating spirit of life itself: The dinner parties I attended on the Upper West Side required dismissive comments on President Bush just as much as they did a bit of wine to make the evening bright, and there was no faster or surer way to signal to a new acquaintance that you were a kindred spirit than praising the latest Times editorial. It wasn’t performative, exactly. At least, it felt real enough, the reverent rites of a good group of people protecting itself against the bad guys.

I embraced my people, and my people embraced me. They gave me everything I had always imagined I wanted: a Ph.D. from an Ivy League university; a professorship at NYU, complete with a roomy office overlooking Washington Square Park; book deals; columns in smart little publications; invitations to the sort of soirees where you could find yourself seated next to Salman Rushdie or Susan Sontag or any number of the men and women you grew up reading and admiring. The list goes on. Life was good. I was grateful.

And then came The Turn. If you’ve lived through it yourself, you know that The Turn doesn’t happen overnight, that it isn’t easily distilled into one dramatic breakdown moment, that it happens hazily and over time—first a twitch, then a few more, stretching into a gnawing discomfort and then, eventually, a sense of panic.

You may be among the increasing numbers of people going through The Turn right now. Having lived through the turmoil of the last half decade—through the years of MAGA and antifa and rampant identity politics and, most dramatically, the global turmoil caused by COVID-19—more and more of us feel absolutely and irreparably politically homeless. Instinctively, we looked to the Democratic Party, the only home we and our parents and their parents before them had ever known or seriously considered. But what we saw there—and in the newspapers we used to read, and in the schools whose admission letters once made us so proud—was terrifying. However we tried to explain what was happening on “the left,” it was hard to convince ourselves that it was right, or that it was something we still truly believed in. That is what The Turn is about.

You might be living through The Turn if you ever found yourself feeling like free speech should stay free even if it offended some group or individual but now can’t admit it at dinner with friends because you are afraid of being thought a bigot. You are living through The Turn if you have questions about public health policies—including the effects of lockdowns and school closures on the poor and most vulnerable in our society—but can’t ask them out loud because you know you’ll be labeled an anti-vaxxer. You are living through The Turn if you think that burning down towns and looting stores isn’t the best way to promote social justice, but feel you can’t say so because you know you’ll be called a white supremacist. You are living through The Turn if you seethed watching a terrorist organization attack the world’s only Jewish state, but seethed silently because your colleagues were all on Twitter and Facebook sharing celebrity memes about ending Israeli apartheid while having little interest in American kids dying on the streets because of failed policies. If you’ve felt yourself unable to speak your mind, if you have a queasy feeling that your friends might disown you if you shared your most intimately held concerns, if you are feeling a bit breathless and a bit hopeless and entirely unsure what on earth is going on, I am sorry to inform you that The Turn is upon you.

The Turn hit me just a beat before it did you, so I know just how awful it feels. It’s been years now, but I still remember the time a dear friend and mentor took me to lunch and warned me, sternly and without any of the warmth you’d extend to someone you truly loved, to watch what I said about Israel. I still remember how confusing and painful it felt to know that my beliefs—beliefs, mind you, that, until very recently, were so obvious and banal and widely held on the left that they were hardly considered beliefs at all—now labeled me an outcast. The Turn brings with it the sort of pain most of us don’t feel as adults; you’d have to go all the way back to junior high, maybe, to recall a stabbing sensation quite as deep and confounding as watching your friends all turn on you and decide that you’re not worthy of their affection any more. It’s the kind of primal rejection that is devastating precisely because it forces you to rethink everything, not only your convictions about the world but also your idea of yourself, your values, and your priorities. We all want to be embraced. We all want the men and women we consider most swell to approve of us and confirm that we, too, are good and great. We all want the love and the laurels; The Turn takes both away.

But, having been there before, I have one important thing to tell you: If the left is going to make it “right wing” to simply be decent, then it’s OK to be right.

Why? Because, after 225 long and fruitful years of this terminology, “right” and “left” are now empty categories, meaning little more than “the blue team” and “the green team” in your summer camp’s color war. You don’t get to be “against the rich” if the richest people in the country fund your party in order to preserve their government-sponsored monopolies. You are not “a supporter of free speech” if you oppose free speech for people who disagree with you. You are not “for the people” if you pit most of them against each other based on the color of their skin, or force them out of their jobs because of personal choices related to their bodies. You are not “serious about economic inequality” when you happily order from Amazon without caring much for the devastating impact your purchases have on the small businesses that increasingly are either subjugated by Jeff Bezos’ behemoth or crushed by it altogether. You are not “for science” if you refuse to consider hypotheses that don’t conform to your political convictions and then try to ban critical thought and inquiry from the internet. You are not an “anti-racist” if you label—and sort!—people by race. You are not “against conformism” when you scare people out of voicing dissenting opinions.

When “the left” becomes the party of wealthy elites and state security agencies who preach racial division, state censorship, contempt for ordinary citizens and for the U.S. Constitution, and telling people what to do and think at every turn, then that’s the side you are on, if you are “on the left”—those are the policies and beliefs you stand for and have to defend. It doesn’t matter what good people “on the left” believed and did 60 or 70 years ago. Those people are dead now, mostly. They don’t define “the left” anymore than Abraham Lincoln defines the modern-day Republican Party or Jimi Hendrix defines Nickelback.

So look at the list of things supported by the left and ask yourself: Is that me? If the answer is yes, great. You’ve found a home. If the answer is no, don’t let yourself be defined by an empty word. Get out. And once you’re out, don’t let anyone else define you, either. Not being a left-wing racist or police state fan doesn’t make you a white supremacist or a Trump worshipper, either. Only small children, machines, and religious fanatics think in binaries.

Which isn’t to diminish the anger, hurt, and confusion you’re feeling just now. But it’s worth understanding that your story has a happy ending. The freedom you feel on the other side is so real it’s physical, like emerging from a long stretch underwater and taking that first deep breath in the cool afternoon air. None of it makes the lost friends or the lost career opportunities any less painful; but there’s no more potent source of renewable energy than liberty, and your capacity to reinvent—yourself, your group, your life—is greater than you realize.

So welcome to the right side, friend, and join us in laughing at all the idiotic name-calling that is applied, with increasing hysteria, to try and stop more and more normal Americans from joining our ranks. Fascists? Conspiracy theorists? Anti-science racist TERFs? Whatever. We have a better word to describe ourselves: free.


Comments 1 - 40 of 265       Last »     Search these comments

1   GNL   2021 Dec 9, 5:34pm  

Give it time, you'll get disillusioned with the right soon enough, butterfly.
2   Patrick   2021 Dec 9, 5:36pm  

The center is now called "the right".
3   EBGuy   2021 Dec 9, 6:17pm  

From Colin Wright (swipewright on twitter). Merch. link https://t.co/VEgZP7bOU8?source=patrick.net


4   Tenpoundbass   2021 Dec 9, 6:57pm  

We've got to be real careful, there are a spate of Woke Liberals, pretending to be Conservatives now. They know the Democrat party is doomed, and the only way to get elected and help the Democrats finish OBiden's fundamental transformation, is to now pretend to be America First candidates on the republican ticket.
5   PeopleUnited   2021 Dec 9, 7:47pm  

Tenpoundbass says
We've got to be real careful, there are a spate of Woke Liberals, pretending to be Conservatives now. They know the Democrat party is doomed, and the only way to get elected and help the Democrats finish OBiden's fundamental transformation, is to now pretend to be America First candidates on the republican ticket.


Any politician who stood idly by as the fake election was legitimized, is part of the woke and worthless hoard of corporate whores.
6   Tenpoundbass   2021 Dec 10, 8:22am  

PeopleUnited says
Any politician who stood idly by as the fake election was legitimized, is part of the woke and worthless hoard of corporate whores.


Well that too, but I'm talking about actual Socialist Liberals that aren't elected to anything yet. That are being sent around the country, to do what I've been imploring Conservatives to do for the last year now. They are moving to districts that are ripe for the picking, and posing as Conservative candidates, and have been polling high to win.
Several have been exposed the last few days, Project Veritas exposed one in Texas.

This primary season, don't fall for any Candidate that Walked Away, or hasn't been a Republican at least since 2016 Primary so they could vote for Trump.
Especially if they were Democrats before. Scratch that, don't vote for anyone that has ever registered as a Democrat. Look for NPA and Independents that flipped to Republican.

I hope Project Veritas, and other vigil analyst will scrutinize every candidate and expose them before we end up with more rinos or jack asses in an elephant uniform.
7   Patrick   2021 Dec 11, 7:34pm  

https://stevekirsch.substack.com/p/the-tide-is-turning-former-pro-vax?source=patrick.net


The tide is turning: former pro-vax PhDs are now refusing the booster
Want to know what changed their minds?

People are starting to wake up.

Recently, I received news that top researchers at multiple highly respected institutions (including Harvard) who had earlier been publicly promoting the vaccine have now changed their minds and are privately refusing to get the booster.

How is that possible? Did we finally convince them with the data? Most of my truthteller friends have been censored and/or deplatformed. So what is causing these people to shift their views so quickly?

The credit for the attitude shift goes our best convincer: the vaccine itself.

These researchers are seeing first hand how dangerous the vaccine is because they are involved in studies in hospitalized and/or outpatients and they see the numbers first hand.

Of course, they can’t say anything officially since they would be fired or have their funding taken away.

I just wanted you to know that people are finally waking up to what is really going on here.
8   Patrick   2021 Dec 16, 8:33pm  

https://patriotpost.us/articles/84937?utm_medium=patrick.net&utm_source=patrick.net&utm_campaign=patrick.net&utm_content=body


Hispanics to Democrat Party: Adios, Amigos!
Democrats’ open borders and “woke” politics are driving many Latinos to favor Republicans.
9   Patrick   2021 Dec 22, 5:12pm  

https://stevekirsch.substack.com/p/ok-i-admit-i-was-wrong-about-the?source=patrick.net


OK, I admit I was wrong about the Democratic party
Over the years, I've given $20M to help Democrats win. But they don't share any of my core values at all anymore. Is it time to jump ship or try to fix it?

Here are the things I believe in:

Freedom to speak the truth without censorship

Science

Facts

Medical freedom/choice

The Nuremberg Code / informed consent

Allowing the public to hold people accountable

Open discourse and debate to settle differences

Caring for those who the government has injured

The Democrats believe (written from the perspective of the Democratic party):

The truth should be censored if it conflicts with the narrative. It’s totally fine with us if you get deplatformed and/or censored on social media for telling the truth if the truth doesn’t agree with our point of view. It is well established that censorship of the truth is necessary for us to maintain mass formation. Watch this excellent 20 minute After Skool video if you haven’t seen it already. That is why no Democrat has spoken out against the Disinformation Dozen censorship list. RFK Jr. is #2 on that list. Therefore, it follows that censoring people like RFK Jr. should be a national priority and his book never should have been published. We should try to confiscate and destroy all copies of it. Book burning is back. It should be illegal to protest. And you should be thrown in jail if you speak out against the narrative. So sure, you can speak. We’ll put you in jail for 30 years after your speech.

It’s not about science; it is about expert opinion from the authority we are paid to trust. The NIH, FDA, and CDC are the authorities. Democrats support the agencies without question, not what the science or the data says. So for mask wearing, for example, even though there are just 2 randomized trials, both showing masks don’t work, that is not what matters. The CDC will find lower quality studies that support their narrative and that is what we should pay attention to, not the higher quality studies.

Facts don’t matter if they don’t fit the narrative. The fact is that there are hundreds of thousands of people that are vaccine injured in America today. But Facebook removed those groups, so they don’t exist anymore in the mind of Democrats. The Democrats believe what remains (no victims) are what matters. No vaccine injured means no need to meet with them. They don’t exist.

The government gets to determine what you get injected with. If we think it is good for society and want to make you part of an experimental clinical trial, you can say no, but we’ll make it impossible for you to earn a living anywhere. Do what we say. You don’t get to decide what goes into your body. We know best. And we don’t have to produce a cost-benefit analysis showing a net societal benefit. Nobody has seen that because we’ve never produced it. We have the entire population total captured and their ability to think critically has been disabled.

The Nuremberg Code / informed consent is obsolete. We don’t need informed consent to inject you with a deadly vaccine. That’s so old-fashioned. People should trust the government. The government never makes mistakes. We’d never inject you if it wasn’t good for the drug companies. And despite the liability waiver, we actually don’t want to kill you. That would cut our revenue stream.

Accountability isn’t necessary or desired. Why would you need accountability? If citizens have legitimate issues with government decisions, who cares? They are not in charge. Want to meet with your Representative? Not going to happen. Congressional aids have been instructed not to look at any non-government materials that don’t align with the narrative. The will only trust what the government institutions tell you, nothing else. We tell citizens to pound sand if they don’t like it. Sure, everyone knows that any Democratic chairman could have requested Fauci’s unredacted emails with just a letter to the NIH. Will we ever do that? Are you kidding me? NFW. We do not believe in holding people accountable. We trust Fauci. He’s the expert. After all, he is the creator of the coronavirus. What better authority to be in charge of it? And as for Maddie de Garay the 12-year-old disabled for life in the Pfizer clinical trial? Sure, we know she’s vaccine injured, but to admit that now would destroy the credibility of the FDA. We’ve made sure the press doesn’t cover it. So there is never going to be an investigation of this at the FDA and there is no Democrat who will ever push for an investigation into this clinical trial fraud. We’ve made sure that parents are never going to find out how deadly the vaccines are because they trust us and they are not smart enough to access VAERS.

Open discourse and debate is forbidden. It would expose the corruption of the government institutions. This is why nobody in Congress, the Agencies, or their committees is going to engage in a debate on vaccine safety. Nobody wants the party to end.

We don’t care about vaccine injured because that would blow the narrative. Look, if we admitted the obvious, that there are hundreds of thousands of vaccine injured people, that would be an admission that the vaccines are not safe. So we have to pretend all these injuries are just coincidences. And there cannot be any payouts to victims because doing that would show America that the government acknowledges the vaccines aren’t safe. This is also why no Democrat is ever going to meet with anyone who is vaccine injured: doing so would be a tacit admission that the vaccine injures people. Can’t have that. This is also why no Democrat will meet with the parents of kids and other family members who were killed by the vaccine. Can’t have that.

Am I being too cynical or did I get that right?

The next question I face is whether to try to fix it or simply throw in the towel and admit I made a mistake.

Andrew Yang did this recently. He is now an independent.


I do admit that I really like what I see so far about the Forward Party. I reached out to them to try to make a major donation, but nobody got back to me. I guess that they must have so many people willing to write big checks that I have to get in line. They will have to add a few things like Medical Freedom (no forced vaccine mandates) and Protection of Truthful Speech to get my support. I would love to vote for Andrew Yang for President. If there is ever a time for a third party candidate, this is it. But a lot of people think a third party won’t work.

So for now, first I’ll assess whether I have any chance to fix the party.

Retirement sure is a lot busier than I ever imagined.
11   Patrick   2022 Jan 28, 7:56pm  

I have a lot of relatives who need to read this article.
12   clambo   2022 Jan 29, 8:15am  

I have been “conservative” ever since I learned at 21 that my mother was poor because she paid so much property tax and had to find odd jobs. She didn’t complain however; I learned it by asking her questions.

Interesting that my siblings are still liberals at heart, and think of me as the black sheep.

Make no mistake; politics is about money.

Biden, Obama, the Clintons are rich because of politics. In the real world they were not going to be rich. They talk about “helping the poor” as a means to get elected, they and everyone else don’t care; do you?

Liberals are truly idiots because they actually vote for people like Biden, Obama and the Clintons.
Losers are less stupid than the liberals; they are voting for the free money that they are promised.

Wuhan virus was a great opportunity for bureaucrats to enjoy pushing us around with absurd rules.
They don’t want it to ever end.

A pox on all of them.
13   Onvacation   2022 Jan 29, 9:37am  

Patrick says
I have a lot of relatives who need to read this article.

But they probably won't.

I was expecting the omicron wave and the admission that masks don't work would be a wakeup call to the Covidians, but they are not yet ready to give up the cult.

Jim Jones was an amateur.
14   Shaman   2022 Jan 29, 10:47am  

clambo says
Interesting that my siblings are still liberals at heart, and think of me as the black sheep.



15   Patrick   2022 Jan 31, 7:10pm  

https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/last-year-i-was-a-bryn-mawr-girl?source=patrick.net


I quickly discovered that almost every school that was operating even remotely normally was overtly religious. That was really hard for me to wrap my brain around given I had a somewhat fixed view of conservatives being rigid and intolerant. Yet, here I was, confronted with the fact that these religious institutions were, in practice, far more aligned with my values like individual liberty, critical inquiry, and diversity of thought than the place that explicitly claimed to be those things.

In my admissions interview for Hillsdale, a small school of less than 1,500 students, founded by Baptists in Michigan, I praised Christopher Hitchens—a staunch and unapologetic atheist—as one of my intellectual heroes. I disclosed that I was not religious. I debated with my interviewer about whether math was invented or discovered.

And they wanted me anyway. When I received that acceptance letter in November for the Spring 2022 semester, I cried.

I’ve been at Hillsdale for three weeks, and life here is blissfully normal. I have sorority sisters. We get together and study and play board games. The student union and dining hall are packed. No one asks anyone else’s vaccine status. There are no mask mandates, and no mandatory Covid testing. You'll see an occasional student in a mask but no one thinks anything of it.

Students and staff I’ve encountered disagree on the utility of masks and the danger of Covid, but it’s rarely the focus of conversation and certainly not the organizing principle of anyone's life. It feels like someone finally turned off the fire alarm that had been blaring for nearly two years.
16   Patrick   2022 Feb 20, 3:35pm  

https://amgreatness.com/2022/02/19/america-is-not-divided-its-being-hijacked/?source=patrick.net

Most people have more common sense than you would think from reading the corporate media.
17   mell   2022 Feb 20, 6:14pm  

Patrick says
https://amgreatness.com/2022/02/19/america-is-not-divided-its-being-hijacked/?source=patrick.net

Most people have more common sense than you would think from reading the corporate media.

True. I talked to a small anti mandate protest in wine country the other day, interestingly every other car driving by honked in support. People are intimidated, silenced, too busy, but many if not most do not want the jab mandates.
18   gabbar   2022 Feb 21, 2:23am  

This stupid wokeness is costing Democrats. Topple statues of Frederick Douglas and Abraham Lincoln. Rename schools named after them. People see this. Some of these people need to go to woke detox. They are using language that people don't use. - James Carville, Liberal Activist, November 4, 2021
19   Patrick   2022 Feb 21, 1:54pm  

Maybe the insanity of wokeness is ultimately good for all sane people, as it so thoroughly discredits the left in the eyes of the public.

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
20   richwicks   2022 Apr 29, 2:26pm  

Patrick says
Maybe the insanity of wokeness is ultimately good for all sane people, as it so thoroughly discredits the left in the eyes of the public.

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."


No, I'd disagree.

I had a discussion years ago about Trump's election with my friend, and both of us were worried that Trump MIGHT be a secret fascist.

ENTIRELY discredit the left, and we can go extremely far right. What we are told is "the left" today is media driven, just as what we were told was "the right" is media driven. I think a lot of NPCs go along with the narrative too on both sides.
21   AmericanKulak   2022 Apr 29, 3:39pm  

Patrick says
https://amgreatness.com/2022/02/19/america-is-not-divided-its-being-hijacked/?source=patrick.net

Most people have more common sense than you would think from reading the corporate media.


The entire point of Social Media Censorship, Bots, mandatory DIE trainings, and Doxing/Shame Campaigns is to create the ILLUSION that the Wokies are larger and more influential than they are.

Patrick says
Maybe the insanity of wokeness is ultimately good for all sane people, as it so thoroughly discredits the left in the eyes of the public.


This. The Left was good at taking a mile when offered an inch (ie "Stay out of our bedrooms" became "We're taking over your kid's classroom" within a few years of Gay Marriage legalized). So much is being openly seen and proposed now, there's no more gaslighting.

Libs in 2030 won't be able to plausibly claim "We NEVER wanted LGBTQ+Gender Bending in K-3, that's a born again right wing lie." so long as we keep pushing. You bet their ass they will try to outright lie/gaslight with that, however.

A lot of Dooming is mistaking "We failed to stop" for "We never really pushed back". Yes, we failed to stop the crazy clown car, but we never seriously tried to grab the wheel and change direction. Now we are.

The key role of RINOs and the capital L Libertarians was always to claim the clown car's destination wasn't what the right claimed it was, and just focus on tax cuts and legal weed instead of "Culture Wars". Now there's no denying it, the end goal is Having the Trans Purple Haired Bureaucrats running the village, a key component of which is indoctrinating youth.
22   AmericanKulak   2022 Apr 29, 3:42pm  

In 1973, the Federal Government did two things:

* It protected Sea Turtle Unborn Eggs with massive fines and penalties and funding.
* It removed all protections on Human Fetuses.
23   Patrick   2022 Apr 29, 3:53pm  

That's actually astonishing.

Unborn sea turtles are being valued above unborn humans.
24   richwicks   2022 Apr 29, 4:00pm  

Patrick says
That's actually astonishing.

Unborn sea turtles are being valued above unborn humans.


From the point of view of the future of this planet, not really, if sea turtles we really facing extinction. IF they were.
25   EBGuy   2022 Apr 29, 4:32pm  

Everyone trying to discredit my political cartoon is denying my lived experience.

— Colin Wright (@SwipeWright) April 29, 2022


He's auctioning it off as an NFT (or buy the mug!)
29   Patrick   2022 May 19, 11:40am  

DooDahMan says
Comment #30 fits people on both sides of the political aisle as well as those active in religion, race and most anything else.


I agree. One needs to frequently take a step back and consider positions in terms of principles instead of merely in terms of belonging to a side.

DooDahMan says
The strongest teams are families united to nurture their offspring. Parents and to a lesser degree grandparents, aunts and uncles are willing to sacrifice much for the benefit of the next generation.


I agree there too. This is one reason I've been doing a lot of genealogy lately and making an effort to reconnect with cousins. There is a lot of meaning and happiness in belonging to a big family.
30   Patrick   2022 May 19, 12:09pm  

We moved away from Chicago when I was nine, and only later did I miss having lots of relatives nearby, many within walking distance.
31   richwicks   2022 May 19, 12:15pm  

Patrick says

We moved away from Chicago when I was nine, and only later did I miss having lots of relatives nearby, many within walking distance.


You're viewing it through nostalgia. It seemed like a simple happy life, but was it?

I told you I grew up in a small town, I sometimes miss it, but I remember how stifling it was. Where I grew up no longer exists, it might be bearable today but even thinking about the realities of it, I would never return to it. Maybe as a dictator, but certainly not as a subject.
32   Patrick   2022 May 19, 12:20pm  

richwicks says
You're viewing it through nostalgia. It seemed like a simple happy life, but was it?


Sure, as a kid it was pretty good.

It might be a little confining as an adult.
33   richwicks   2022 May 19, 12:40pm  

Patrick says

richwicks says
You're viewing it through nostalgia. It seemed like a simple happy life, but was it?


Sure, as a kid it was pretty good.

It might be a little confining as an adult.


For me it's the opposite, It was extremely confining as a kid, I could better tolerate it as an adult.

When my father was in his 20's he rode a snowmobile for 20 miles through the woods to another town. The snowmobile broke down at the destination and he had to abandon it to to return with friends and come back to repair it after driving there. Once the family dog got incredibly ill, so he packed the dog up with my (at that time 4 year old) brother in a truck to drive 30 miles to the vet. The dog threw up on the car seat, my dad freaked out and was cleaning out the vomit the best he could and brushed his puke covered finger over my sleeping brother's face which made him immediately vomit.

There's crazy adventures in the outback, but they are nightmares at the time. As a child in the area, it was the lack of information as we technologically evolved - now that it's stagnating, perhaps I can tolerate it and retreat back to something like it.
34   Patrick   2022 May 19, 10:00pm  

At one time I would have thought this an exaggeration, but no more.



https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/there-is-nothing-new-under-the-sun
35   Patrick   2022 May 23, 10:04pm  

https://carolinedooner.substack.com/p/welcome-let-me-tell-you-whats-up


And now that I’m losing my (“liberal”) religion, I get wayyyyy worse DMs from leftists (who used to “love” me) saying… horrrrrrible things. I’m dangerous, I’m harmful, I’m killing people by being anti-mandate… in fact, the mildest label they give me is “problematic.”

I am still socially liberal in most ways, I’ve just developed an allergy to the group-think. And once you’re not allowed to say or think something… we sometimes have to wonder… why.
37   Hircus   2022 Jun 12, 1:23pm  

Patrick says
I am still socially liberal in most ways, I’ve just developed an allergy to the group-think.


Watch her in a few years when she realizes most of the social liberal crap is also formed from groupthink.

[insert pic of a woman with laser red led eyes knocking on the conservative's door]
38   Patrick   2022 Jun 16, 12:16pm  

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_app/deprogramming-from-the-woke-cult-former-social-justice-warrior-overcomes-fear-to-speak-up_4525434.html?utm_source=share-btn-copylink


Deprogramming From the ‘Woke’ Cult: Former Social Justice Warrior Overcomes Fear to Speak Up

For Keri Smith, deprogramming from what she calls the cult of “wokism” didn’t happen overnight.

But the behavior of her former friends within the social-justice world during the 2016 presidential election, with their support of violence, censorship, and gaslighting, certainly sped up the process, setting off a parade of red flags.

Social-justice warriors (SJW) were advocating for acts of aggression against supporters of former President Donald Trump, contradicting what she said she understood the essential nature of liberalism to be.

“It was the first indication that I might not really understand what was going on in the world,” Smith told The Epoch Times. ...

“It wasn’t a fast process,” she said. “It was just as slow as it was getting into a cult. That’s how slow it is getting out of a cult.”

She found herself going down a rabbit hole on YouTube watching videos of Trump supporters being attacked by people on the left.

“There was one video where this mob surrounded this woman, a Trump supporter, and threw eggs at her,” she said. “There was another where they were chasing these guys down the street and throwing bricks at them. They bloodied this guy’s head. This was jarring to me.” ...

She wrote an essay titled “On Leaving the SJW Cult and Finding Myself,” which she publicly shared, leading to what she called The Great Unfriending.

https://kerismith.medium.com/on-leaving-the-sjw-cult-and-finding-myself-1a6769b2f1ff
39   Patrick   2022 Jul 3, 2:50pm  

https://slaynews.com/news/jeff-bezos-humiliates-joe-biden-its-either-straight-ahead-misdirection-or-a-deep-misunderstanding-of-basic-market-dynamics/


Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has humiliated Joe Biden by mocking the Democrat president’s “deep misunderstanding of market dynamics.”

Bezos was responding to a post on social media about inflation from Biden’s official account.

In response, Bezos said Biden either doesn’t understand inflation or his comments are “straight-ahead misdirection.”

Biden said:

My message to the companies running gas stations and setting prices at the pump is simple: this is a time of war and global peril.
Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you’re paying for the product.
And do it now.


Enter Jeff Bezos who said:

Ouch.
Inflation is far too important a problem for the White House to keep making statements like this.
It’s either straight ahead misdirection or a deep misunderstanding of basic market dynamics.


This is not the first time Bezos mocked Biden.

He said earlier of Biden and the White House:

Look, a squirrel!
This is the White House’s statement about my recent tweets.
They understandably want to muddy the topic.
They know inflation hurts the neediest the most.
But unions aren’t causing inflation and neither are wealthy people.
Remember the Administration tried their best to add another $3.5 TRILLION to federal spending.
They failed, but if they had succeeded, inflation would be even higher than it is today, and inflation today is at a 40-year high.
In fact, the administration tried hard to inject even more stimulus into an already over-heated, inflationary economy and only Manchin saved them from themselves.
Inflation is a regressive tax that most hurts the least affluent.
Misdirection doesn’t help the country.




Could Bezos be on his way to enlightenment about the true nature of the Democratic Party?

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