Southeastguy
Newbie
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2019
- Messages
- 2
Hello all
So, I have lurked on this forum for years and enjoy reading you all’s posts. I agree with many of the posters here and think it’s awesome that there are those who aren’t blind to the current ‘state of things.’
In short, thanks for the great posts from so many disparate world views. Even when I don’t agree with a poster, I appreciate their point of view and like to hear+read them and see from their point of view. Many knowledgeable individuals post here.
Now... I graduated in 2009, which is around the time I started realizing that things aren’t always as they seem when it comes to politics, entertainment, and academia. Nerd here with a love for biology. When VC went online, I started following on at least a weekly basis... reading articles and such. What brought me on was lady Gaga. I was a super massive ‘little monster’ as ‘the fame’ was the soundtrack to my senior year. But the symbolism in her music is/was/still is overt. I still enjoy some of her music and will confess ‘a star is born’ blew me away. However, with one eye open as it were.
A few years after school, I began working for a Supreme Court judge in my state. It was absolutely amazing, she is an absolute trailblazer and set so many firsts for women in the state. She would come home when she was on the court of appeals and bring these massive spiral bound cases home to review. We would be having coffee and she would slide one across the table and tell me to skim throug and tell her what my opinion was... she taught me soooo much about politics and I wound up campaigning for her election and all kinds of things... which was an illuminating and often thrilling nightmare. While she is an absolutely amazing and uspstanding judge who is completely devoted to the law and fair rule, I met many politicians who were the epitome of all that’s wrong in politics. Badically, she taught me how to read through the bullish!!. One of her favorite saying was ‘follow the money.’
So, this sparked a love for politics, and throughout the Obama presidency and the last election I was hardcore into politics. Enjoyed it. I would say I leaned more conservative and to the right (okay, so I’ll get this out of the way-I’m gay. But. I don’t buy into most of the lgbtq agenda, and I do NOT appreciate one group of a few people speaking for me and millions of others. There’s high strangeness going on involving all things lgbtq. Not that I don’t appreciate the fact that under the law no one can discriminate against me. I simply do NOT believe that because I’m gay I should have more rights than others or special rights. This is America. Everyone should be on level equal ground, with no special interest groups eclipsing other groups) but the last few years has made it apparent neither party speaks for the average American. They’re both twisted in their own ways... controlled opplosition. Which founding father stated something along the lines of ‘once we get to a two party system, it’s over?’
Let me apologize for the rambling; I promise I’m moving toward a cohesive thought.
I come from a southern Christian tradition, and if I had to identify religiously, I would say I’m Christian. Yes, this conflicts with my sexuality and no I haven’t got that part figured out. Stating this because I know the arguments and wish to illustrate I’m fully aware of both sides of the debate.
I’m saying all this to give a glimpse of my headspace. The last few years has been insane culturally and politically. Looking back I can see the natural progresion of a lot of this over the last decade. It just seems that it hit a point of exponential increase and absolutely exploded. I am fully aware that aging has much to do with it. However, it can’t all be chalked up to that.
I absolutely loathe politics now. It’s become... something else I guess I would say. I used to be a hardcore that it was up to us to vote our values and be active in politics... but today if you present beliefs or convictions that go against the norm, you’re shouted down with an emotional argument vs logical... and one can’t win an emotional argument with logic. Emotion trumps ever time. Gone are the days of valuing others different opinions and respecting one another. In are the days of shouting down the opposition without ever listening to them. The squeaky wheel gets the grease and whoever can shout the loudest and all that.
I look at pop culture (I’ve always love music. Pop,edm, and many others.) and wonder what’s going on. These younger artists... all I’ll say is WOW everything is so blatant now. Like a massive rise in intensity even over lg.
I wrestle with how much I’m simply imagining vs not falling into the normality bias.
My question;
How much more of a progression can there be? Is there a point of exponential increase in all the madness, a point of no return, and if so have we crossed it? Am I imagining all this? I would LOVE to hear you guys thoughts!
Ps; I didn’t know where to post this so I posted it here. Sorry if it’s the wrong place.
So, I have lurked on this forum for years and enjoy reading you all’s posts. I agree with many of the posters here and think it’s awesome that there are those who aren’t blind to the current ‘state of things.’
In short, thanks for the great posts from so many disparate world views. Even when I don’t agree with a poster, I appreciate their point of view and like to hear+read them and see from their point of view. Many knowledgeable individuals post here.
Now... I graduated in 2009, which is around the time I started realizing that things aren’t always as they seem when it comes to politics, entertainment, and academia. Nerd here with a love for biology. When VC went online, I started following on at least a weekly basis... reading articles and such. What brought me on was lady Gaga. I was a super massive ‘little monster’ as ‘the fame’ was the soundtrack to my senior year. But the symbolism in her music is/was/still is overt. I still enjoy some of her music and will confess ‘a star is born’ blew me away. However, with one eye open as it were.
A few years after school, I began working for a Supreme Court judge in my state. It was absolutely amazing, she is an absolute trailblazer and set so many firsts for women in the state. She would come home when she was on the court of appeals and bring these massive spiral bound cases home to review. We would be having coffee and she would slide one across the table and tell me to skim throug and tell her what my opinion was... she taught me soooo much about politics and I wound up campaigning for her election and all kinds of things... which was an illuminating and often thrilling nightmare. While she is an absolutely amazing and uspstanding judge who is completely devoted to the law and fair rule, I met many politicians who were the epitome of all that’s wrong in politics. Badically, she taught me how to read through the bullish!!. One of her favorite saying was ‘follow the money.’
So, this sparked a love for politics, and throughout the Obama presidency and the last election I was hardcore into politics. Enjoyed it. I would say I leaned more conservative and to the right (okay, so I’ll get this out of the way-I’m gay. But. I don’t buy into most of the lgbtq agenda, and I do NOT appreciate one group of a few people speaking for me and millions of others. There’s high strangeness going on involving all things lgbtq. Not that I don’t appreciate the fact that under the law no one can discriminate against me. I simply do NOT believe that because I’m gay I should have more rights than others or special rights. This is America. Everyone should be on level equal ground, with no special interest groups eclipsing other groups) but the last few years has made it apparent neither party speaks for the average American. They’re both twisted in their own ways... controlled opplosition. Which founding father stated something along the lines of ‘once we get to a two party system, it’s over?’
Let me apologize for the rambling; I promise I’m moving toward a cohesive thought.
I come from a southern Christian tradition, and if I had to identify religiously, I would say I’m Christian. Yes, this conflicts with my sexuality and no I haven’t got that part figured out. Stating this because I know the arguments and wish to illustrate I’m fully aware of both sides of the debate.
I’m saying all this to give a glimpse of my headspace. The last few years has been insane culturally and politically. Looking back I can see the natural progresion of a lot of this over the last decade. It just seems that it hit a point of exponential increase and absolutely exploded. I am fully aware that aging has much to do with it. However, it can’t all be chalked up to that.
I absolutely loathe politics now. It’s become... something else I guess I would say. I used to be a hardcore that it was up to us to vote our values and be active in politics... but today if you present beliefs or convictions that go against the norm, you’re shouted down with an emotional argument vs logical... and one can’t win an emotional argument with logic. Emotion trumps ever time. Gone are the days of valuing others different opinions and respecting one another. In are the days of shouting down the opposition without ever listening to them. The squeaky wheel gets the grease and whoever can shout the loudest and all that.
I look at pop culture (I’ve always love music. Pop,edm, and many others.) and wonder what’s going on. These younger artists... all I’ll say is WOW everything is so blatant now. Like a massive rise in intensity even over lg.
I wrestle with how much I’m simply imagining vs not falling into the normality bias.
My question;
How much more of a progression can there be? Is there a point of exponential increase in all the madness, a point of no return, and if so have we crossed it? Am I imagining all this? I would LOVE to hear you guys thoughts!
Ps; I didn’t know where to post this so I posted it here. Sorry if it’s the wrong place.
