Drlee wrote:It turns out that Hindsites boogeyman, Antifa, is actually a bunch of white supremacists pretending to be ANTIFA.
Don't worry though. Trump supporters are not smart enough to consider the evidence (which comes from Trump's justice department.)
@Verv I'll tell you what is happening to you Verve. You used to be a really moderate person. Then, for some reason, you made a hard right turn and starting arguing against your own previously held positions. I have been through this. I am a lifelong conservative as you know. You find yourself looking for some way into this situation that leaves your right(ish) positions intact. You have some considerable personal angst invested in them because they represent a change in you that you already had to work through.
Tell you what. There is no space for you in the right today. There is no "in". There is no way to parse the completely understandable rage in the black community in a way that fits your adopted worldview. You know they are right. And if it takes some disobedience, even rioting, to get this problem fixed then it may well be worth the price.
Remember the original Tea Party? Threw what would today be millions of dollars worth of tea into the bay. Was that a riot? Was that looting? Of course it was. And it was a seminal moment in US history.
Then Verve, you are seeing a president who is truly unhinged. Using the military to attack US citizens in the nation's very capital so that he can take a picture of himself holding a bible? You know there is nowhere for you to go with this. And then he is accompanied by the Chief of Staff and Secretary of Defense. And what did the SecDef say today about why he accompanied Trump on this childish escapade? He said he did not know where they were going or what they were going to do. Really? He and the Chief of Staff if the Army, during riots in the capital, decided to go for a walk with the president and they "did not know where they were going"? Verve, you are just too smart to buy this shit and more importantly to allow yourself to be influenced by the yahoos. I've known you here for, what...15 years or so. I get you were playing in the fields of your mind but you just can't reconcile your own personal integrity with this batch of rogues. And more importantly they are shining a light on the wreckage that has become conservatism.
Get to know Goldwater and Buckley. They will reset your conservative clock.
That was a very sweet post -- I am flattered by the kind words that you have shared and I have to take your words seriously on this.
I just wrote like 500 words on this but it was too long and I felt it was not succinct or going anywhere, and I guess I have found that the topic is just too big. Really, a lot has happened over the 15 years since I began posting here...
Literally, since starting posting here, my best friend died of cancer, a middle aged and an elderly family member died, my brother got married & divorced, I've gotten engaged, I've played in three different bands, I got two University degrees, left the military, etc. I've literally read hundreds of books and listened to thousands of hours of lectures since then...
I feel like you guys changed, too. I also oddly sometimes feel like I haven't changed, but I objectively know this is also false.
Maybe the best thing to know about this is... I am not as inflexible or serious as anyone thinks, and maybe you should also know that I am inclined to take unpopular positions & emphasize those positions which I have that are unpopular because I think it is more important to push in the direction that nobody pushes in, because even if I am wrong, it is of no benefit to the person I am talking to if I simply agree with them.
There needs to be an alternative voice for there to even be a conversation.