this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2024
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It's a situation that I have been expecting for a while, but I wasn't fully ready to accept it. Specifically it's one of my LGBTQ friends who honestly believes in the democrats will protect them and their partner. I have tried to make the point that both parties are eroding any sort of civility towards all marginalized groups, but fear seems to drive them more than logical observations. They make the excuse that change doesn't happen over night and that the left continues to grow and will have meaningful affects down the road. I fundamentally just don't agree with that idea and vocalize it regularly. More and more it is ending up in a circular argument where I am painted as unrealistic and my rhetoric (leftist rhetoric) is doing more harm than good because it promotes distrust in the only system we have to work with. I try to tell them it's kind of the whole point. We gotta start somewhere if we want to see a better, more representative system, but they are so hung up on the immediate future while simultaneously saying that my idealistic feelings are shortsighted and I cant expect change in the immediate future... The double-talk is wild, I know.

I am trying my hardest to stop from engaging at this point because on the most basic level we agree on a lot of stuff, but they are just way to wrapped up in the fear mongering of the democratic party. They know that the two party system is broken, they know that something drastic needs to change, but they also think that they are powerless to do anything except choose the lesser evil. It pains me because I am watching them do the same shit past generations have done, where they give up on their ideals for the sake of preserving the current status quo that they benefit from. I am legitimately watching them imply "fuck you, got mine" under the guise of civic duty and I hate it. I want nothing more than to be able to finally say "I told you so" without being a smug asshole about it and ruining our friendship.

Thanks for reading my rant. It's probably a bit disjointed, but the frustration is boiling over and I needed to vent to the only group of people that seems to understand the hopelessness of being a disenfranchised leftist.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago

I recently heard 'genocide is a good option because it will promote long term peace'

[–] [email protected] 25 points 6 hours ago (3 children)

I know people say not to cut off the lib friends and I'm trying not to lose connections that have mattered to me, but it is hard to make myself bother with most of them anymore. I feel like they are just demonstrating they can't be relied upon.

What am I saying, their complete return to "normal" and pretending covid isn't dangerous is 100% demonstrating they can't be trusted

[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

people say not to cut off the lib friends

I think this is honestly just a big cope from people. I know how seriously they take their convictions when they say stuff like this because my militant masking and insistence on accomodations as an immunocompromised person since January 2020 has utterly destroyed my social life and I don't just get to turn the other cheek about that, lol. So yeah, I'm with you. Fuck em. Your world will become far smaller, but what world? A world of people who will abandon you for this? For genocide? For an evening at Applebees? Kill the liberalism in your soul that makes you want to poison yourself in the company of these people and you can begin to figure out how to live.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 hours ago

My social circle is much smaller now and it sucks. But not as much as long covid would. Not as much as playing nice with white supremacist assholes who excuse genocide when it's done against people with my skin color.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

their complete return to "normal" and pretending covid isn't dangerous

"Trust the science" liberals like when the "science" is skewed so it sounds like wine is a health and longevity supplement (it's not; those old studies were bullshit ignored the other material conditions of the healthy and long lived people) and that covid is "over." Basically, trust in the "science" that says more treats.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

It's maddening how many "trust the science" liberals -- many of them tech and science nerds and professionals! -- just ignore when I point out he science of airborne transmission, the science of long covid, the science that says the only way to be pretty safe is if we all mask the fuck up in respirators.

Because respirators somehow ruin the vibe and that's what mattera most, even though they didn't ruin the vibe earlier in the pandemic.

Most confusing of all are the ones who post about updated vaccines and free rapid tests being sent out -- they act like they don't know covid is worth caring about but then occasionally they say shit that demonstrates they know it's still around, and go right back to gathering without masking

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Covid has a peculiar connection to climate change for me: in both cases, the crisis didn't go anywhere, it's getting worse all the time, but "I fucking love science" bazingas in both cases want to look at hyped up "good news" then return to whatever they were already doing, trying to silence people for caring too much about either.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Yep. I should have realized covid wouldn't be solved because of how climate change denialism is hegemonic but silly me, I thought people might be able to learn

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

right there with you – I foolishly thought it might be a turning point that actually made us wake up about climate change 🤦

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

There were two good weeks or so where it looked like it was going to be possible. Major outlets were running articles with headlines like "It's weird how much of our lives was actually bullshit" and realizing that commuting to work is optional, etc. Then the reaction set in.

Are there any good books yet about the reactionary turn under Covid / after the George Floyd uprising?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

There were two good weeks or so where it looked like it was going to be possible. ... Then the reaction set in.

the whiplash from this wounded my heart and then my social circle. genuinely, truly, I had real hope again for a minute, and the way my own friends and family were so eager to just ignore the pandemic and get back to "Normal" shocked me and ruined my regard for those people.

I genuinely thought better of all of them, or I wouldn't have been their friend.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 40 minutes ago

This, this, one thousand times this. We learned that most jobs are inessential! And then we gave the "essential workers" a new honorific, but not sick days!

In my neighborhood someone had a sign that said "Instead of 'back to normal,' shouldn't we try for something better?" But then all the hogs brayed and insisted that things get worse. And so they did.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

That is a completely different, but totally valid topic that I wasn't even thinking about in this moment. Because I also find that I cant be honest about that either. All my liberal friends know my stance and many of them have accepted it by just not including me in their plans anymore. Which I'm fine with, I hate public gatherings anyway, but yeah, most of them just shrug and say, "it's endemic at this point". As if that is a form of fucking protection. UUUUUUUGH!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 hours ago

The Venn Diagram is nigh a circle because the same brainrot underlies both forms of denying material reality

[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 hours ago (3 children)

Honesty I’ve learned to just shut the fuck up about politics when talking to PoC or LGBTQ friends. For some reason a straight white guy saying “ACTUALLY YOU WILL LIKELY NEVER BE TRULY SAFE IN OUR LIFETIME” is not received well.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 hours ago

Yeah I genuinely feel bad talking about politics with people I know in the community, there's nothing positive to say really.

Like, you could point out that the Dems were appealing to pro-immigrant sentiments 4 years ago as their humane line, and in the space of a toddler's lifetime have decided to throw them under the bus. But what does it actually accomplish to make it plain that they're just kinda screwed, I dunno.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 hours ago

Yeah, I specifically avoid that sentiment because I cannot control the way things I say will be interpreted. I would much rather keep my mouth shut because I'm not in the business of unintentionally offending people I care about.

Instead I try to convey it through the lens of my own experience to talk about the fears I have that lead me to feel how I do. Like how concerned I am about what is the next evil thing we are okay with now that we as a society have effectively given a pass to genocide enablers again.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 hours ago (3 children)

The current sticking point with my wife is that it's about getting control of the Supreme Court back, given the assumption that Alito and Thomas will retire/die and (a) the Democrats won't appoint Alito's/Thomas's preferred successors in the name of unity, and (b) the Republicans won't hold open the vacancy to get concessions and/or wait until a Republican president comes into office as they successfully did with Garland. Refusing to budge because of Palestine is "making this about me" and failing to understand that Harris needs the Jewish vote in PA (I pointed out that she also needs the Muslim vote in Michigan, no response).

Nobody else, even fairly close friends, has opined on politics around me and I don't bring it up, so I'm not sure what everyone around me is thinking.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 hours ago

I just can't understand how people have seen in this last year alone how blatantly broken the Supreme Court is as a system and their response is "we just have to play this broken game even harder" so-true
especially when the odds of conservative judges dying and being replaced in the next 4 years are so slim in and of itself.
so much has happened this year alone that I thought would wake up libs even slightly....and it just hasn't at all.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

I'm trying to leave the US primarily because of Alito and Thomas.

Obgerfell will likely be overturned next session. It will be horrific.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Kinda feeling like I should've skipped town when I had the chance but instead I chose to build a life here under the assumption that things could be fixed.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 hours ago

I have to leave. I came out of the closet after being in for 20 years (Thanks Oklahoma and Texas) and I got baby reindeered so bad I had to get a protective order. I'd my family finds out I will spend a five figures amount on legal fees to get more protective orders in place.

I hate having to take a paycut, but this is survival

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 hours ago

Yeah, that is the major sticking point I have seen as well. Which I understand except for the other things you just laid out. I can't comfortably trust that anyone of these ghouls is going to do right by citizens.

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