The Trump Presidency

[Opaque]

I'd rather be viewed as mediocre than a victim.

Most people are never in a position to be a hero or change the world, but we all have a choice on whether to actually do the best we can for ourselves and those who depend on us, or to just fucking cry about how bad we have it on the internet. I genuinely like my life, my job (when not laid off), my family, hobbies and think I live in a Country which gives me access to lots of different entertainment and culture. I choose to look at the positives of my life while always working to improve the things I can in ways that actually matters.

I don't need a pitty party on TNL to make me feel better about my life and choices. Some you do, though. My value doesn't come from how different or similar I am to other people. Some of yours does, though.

[Satsuki]

Honestly dude, I know you just rediscovered TNL but the rest of us have been living our lives for the past 4 years or however long it’s been since you were last here. You’re coming at us like we all sit around circlejerking each other like it’s 2004 and this is our only social outlet. This is a relatively slow board that only picked up a little bit bc a few people wandered back here out of boredom since they got laid off.

Honestly, I know the quarantine got everyone’s headassery in overdrive, but seriously....stop reading the room like it’s the early 00s. Josh was right regardless - you’re on some different level than most of us and you sound really upset about it. Maybe this just isn’t your place anymore, idk.

[Opaque]

I never left. For even a month I never left. For the last 17 years.

I've watched all of this the entire time.

[bbobb]

This thread is the fucking worst.

[Opaque]

Also to be clear, and you can believe me or not I guess, I'm not upset or mad about anything anyone has said in this thread. I'll respond with my thoughts and kind of just blurt it all out the way I feel, but that's what forums are for. I don't post politics, religion, memes, anything on social media. I post pictures of my kids for family and friends that want them and that's it. It's only on TNL; where conflict and being willing to go at with anyone over anything that you feel like is the norm, that I'm going to call people out for their shit.

I don't think what you or Josh want the world to be like is wrong. I don't think you're wrong about shortcomings in our society, economy and government.

I do think that there is a difference between believing that only people who LIVE LIKE YOU could want a good world or to live a good life, is narrow minded and childish. I do think that measuring yourself against others to either build yourself up or tear yourself down is insecure. I do think that if how "cool" or "mediocre" someone else is, has any impact on the ideals they hold in your mind, that you're nothing special yourself. I think if you haven't noticed someone consistently posting on a message board for 17 straight years, and think they just came back from a hiatus, MAYBE you don't know them as well as you think you do.

[Fe 26]

Apparently. Josh talks about "peers" but the way you two talk it's like you're still in High School and the grown ups don't understand that it's not a phase, it's who you really are!

I learned how to differentiate between real discrimination, oppression and hate a while ago. The people waving Nazi flags at State Capitals are evil. The anti-vaxers pushing for an end to social distancing or refusing to wear face masks at Costco are dangerous. People that think this won't happen again if we don't change the way we handle health care, universal income and most importantly pandemic preparedness are delusional.

But you guys are like "Opaque doesn't think I have the hardest life on the planet, he's an asshole and I can't even understand him". Like your job, healthcare, economic status, and life are even, I don't know, bottom half in the world? 3 Billlion people on Earth live on less than $2.5 a day with no healthcare to speak of. Like a billion people in each China and India instantly have worse lives than you in almost every measurable metric of economic viability, health care and civil liberty. Most of Africa and South America you'd hate. Russia? North Korea? You have smart phones, vaccines, indoor plumbing, netflix, grubhub, the internet. We're able to argue right now about how we can be better as a society, we're not cowering in fear the the murder squads might come down our streets and wipe us out. You've never, and likely will never, even experience a domestic war. There's hasn't been on on US soil since 1865 for fucks sake. Almost every country in Europe has experienced war on their land in the last 100 years. Many countries have on going on RIGHT NOW. Bombings that can blow up your neighborhood. Fleeing your country not because you'd like another one better, but because you'll die if you stay.

Most people on the Planet have a worse life than you. Everyone who lived 100 years ago or earlier had WAY worse lives than you. America has SO MUCH ROOM to be better, but to act like you don't have it better than most currently living humans and 99% of all humanity that came before you is just childish bullshit.

You live in some magical world where you and Anne Frank are just going through the same shit and anyone who doesn't think exactly like you must be racist, sexist, xenophobic or something evil. There's no way bad things that happen to you are just bad things, they must be the WORST of things and you must have it as bad or worse than anyone else going through life. You got offended on behalf of domestic violence victims when NO ONE was even talking about them. You got offended for M ->F transgender men not being allowed to dominate women in sports. But if I, a dude who just doesn't think you are the victim of a genocide right now, voices that opinion I live on a different planet from you.

Well good. The planet you live on is clearly fucking bonkers.

I don't think anyone is comparing the holocaust to corona. But what would you call trump and co willfully making decisions that will kill millions of people? He makes a choice and it kills half a retirement home, what is that? Then he finds out and still makes choices that kill more people in retirement homes. What do you call it?

Like what do you call the trail of tears? If it wasnt genocide at first, was it genocide later? At what point did they figure out the germ filled blankets were killing the Indians?

And this is such a useless hair to split. Ok, let's say you're right. What does it matter that he doesnt have his own mein kampf? He's still making decisions that are going to kill 16% of the elderly.

"He helped kill 10% of this group" "well at least he didnt use a book to do it"

[Opaque]

I think there is a difference between incompetent leadership and it's response to an outside force and the systematic oppression and murder of others. Yes, I don't think this is a genocide just because Trump did all the wrong things.

People living through Covid-19 are living through dark times that totally suck, most of us in the US are dealing with the aftermath of poor planning and slow response by our executive branch and the loss of jobs and more importantly lives can be laid directly at the feet of Trump for disbanding the pandemic teams on China and DC a few years ago and then blowing this off as a hoax when intelligence communities were giving him information months before the first US case.

To compare what actual victims of genocide go through with what Satsuki is going through is incredibly disingenuous.

[Satsuki]

Also to be clear, and you can believe me or not I guess, I'm not upset or mad about anything anyone has said in this thread. I'll respond with my thoughts and kind of just blurt it all out the way I feel, but that's what forums are for. I don't post politics, religion, memes, anything on social media. I post pictures of my kids for family and friends that want them and that's it. It's only on TNL; where conflict and being willing to go at with anyone over anything that you feel like is the norm, that I'm going to call people out for their shit.

I don't think what you or Josh want the world to be like is wrong. I don't think you're wrong about shortcomings in our society, economy and government.

I do think that there is a difference between believing that only people who LIVE LIKE YOU could want a good world or to live a good life, is narrow minded and childish. I do think that measuring yourself against others to either build yourself up or tear yourself down is insecure. I do think that if how "cool" or "mediocre" someone else is, has any impact on the ideals they hold in your mind, that you're nothing special yourself. I think if you haven't noticed someone consistently posting on a message board for 17 straight years, and think they just came back from a hiatus, MAYBE you don't know them as well as you think you do.

That’s what I’m saying!!! That’s what Josh was saying! Neither of us know each other that well? Some words on a screen about politics once every few years is truly not a stellar way to know someone’s complexities.

There’s like a handful of people here I talk to on the phone who I know a little better than others but like, I don’t know your life and I don’t really think about you at all? I’m glad you feel familial toward me but I think you may be projecting a bit?

[Opaque]

That’s what I’m saying!!! That’s what Josh was saying! Neither of us know each other that well? Some words on a screen about politics once every few years is truly not a stellar way to know someone’s complexities.

Then how you possibly believe we "don't live on the same planet"?

Like do you see what I'm saying? We could hypothetically be 99% alike in all of our morals, world views, everything, and I could just disagree with you on a few things currently on topic, and your stance is "we don't live on the same planet". You must understand what I am saying here, right? By your own account you barely know me, so how could you possibly now how different you are from me? You fucking don't.

I think our mindset towards how we approach our current circumstance is clearly different, but my wife has a different emotional response to the pandemic than me and we're like 100% on the same page about all politics, religion, diet, family everything. Sometimes people who want the exact same things, feel different about how to get there. Some people who want the same things, want them for different reasons. You're over here like "yeah Josh, tell Opaque he's a piece of shit because he has kids and also Opaque you live on some other crazy world than me" followed immediately by "actually Opaque don't you understand we don't know very much about each other?"

Like that wasn't me point at the very fucking beginning.

You don't fucking know me. Don't act like you do.

You don't even Facebook know me.

[Josh]