I Want to Give Up

Don't forget they are going to intentionally force us back to coal and oil, and stifle all transitions to cleaner energy. So really how bad could it be

Oh yeah, the world is pretty fucked here. We're at a tipping point for climate disaster.
- Honestly, maybe this is what the cure is for humanity.
  
  The Oxygen Catastrophe wasn't a one-time poisoning. It was a series of oxygenation waves, killing themselves off only to rebuild and kill themselves off again. We were never cured of the oxygen polluters.
It’s going to be interesting when climate refugees start overwhelming the habitable regions (like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and Wisconsin), driving housing costs even higher. People who think housing prices are high now will rudely awaken when the influx of people from the coastal regions – who have not only been displaced by climate disasters but have also lost their savings, and insurance will not bail them out – are competing for already limited affordable housing and local jobs.
But of course more drilling will totally fix that, right?
- Well see they fixed that by taking the cheaper labor sources for fixing coastal roofs after storms and actively paying to have them removed from the country, while no longer accepting their taxes. : )
  Everyone knows when you increase labor shortages, and prices for construction material, construction costs and insurance go down! ...wait
- Easter Islanders cut down all the their trees, so they couldn't even escape the collapse their behavior brought on. We're going to see that world wide now.

Maybe a lot of Democrats also dislike women in power and black people. Maybe the American people, regardless of the party they say they support, are still very conservative. This is not an unpopular opinion outside the USA.

Yes. That is the ultimate conclusion for me as well. The American people voted for racism and sexism, because they are racist and sexist. America can’t do better because this is the best we have. Trump represents conservatives. It’s really confusing because his actions aren’t conservative… but here we are.
- This is the best we have
  The best America can do is fucking awful. It's been this way for years. We elected Bush II twice. We elected Reagan twice. We elected Nixon twice. It's always been a shitty country filled with terrible people.
  I'd like to say I'm glad other people are starting to realize something I've known for years, but people are going to get hurt because "patriotic liberals" didn't have the courage to admit we're the shithole country.
- I don't think it's that simple, but it's understandable to think like this just the next morning after such a defeat.
- This is insane. This was a failure of the Democratic party.
  
  It was a failure of the voter. No campaign Harris could've ran would've won. Biden needed to pick a different veep, that's why this is happening. Had it been a white guy, we'd be fine. Race and sex do matter
  
  Democrats had a mulligan. Instead of finding a candidate that gave them the best chance, they pick the person next in line. Would have been difficult to pick someone else? Yes. Would it have been worth it? I think so.
  
  We cant really test that theory now
  
  But we can hold the decision makers accountable.
  
  Oh believe you me, the voters will be
  
  Obviously, the people who need to be held to account is the Democratic party. I'm sure they'll fuck that up too.
  But how exactly are you going to hold the voters accountable?
  
  by being annoying on the internet
  
  Im saying thrh voters will be held accountable by their government. Let the wilm of the people bite the people in the ass
Nah. Trump got fewer votes (when you account for the ~4% population growth since the 2020 election) than last time, while Dems lost a fuckton of votes, compared to 2020.
Trump won, both the election, and the popular vote, not because he got Dems to vote for him, but because a dozen million Dems decided not to vote at all.
- You are saying, in other words, that a black woman with indian ancestry and an exemplary career in the government was not enough incentive to go vote for self-perceived progressive people? That was actually my point.
  
  Exemplary? Lol
  
  Exemplary. Not saying she excelled at everything, but she had several responsibilities in different levels of government and never was impeached or tried for anything related to her work. Lol.
  
  Honestly, yeah. She's been in government positions for decades and hasn't had any real scandals. The worst thing I heard was that when she was a DA, her department worked with the local police, and the police department had a lab tech that was stealing cocaine and was testing the product at work several times. And a judge scolded the police department and DA office for not doing a better job handling that issue.
  She had a pretty decent record of good morals and making effective, positive changes. Unless there's someone I haven't heard
- a dozen million Dems decided not to vote at all.
  Maybe. Some things just don't add up. Historic number of bullet ballots and Democrats winning in down-ballot races where Kamala lost, not to mention the rampant voter disenfranchisement and vote challenges that threw thousands of ballots out. Don't forget Musk buying votes in Pennsylvania and spending a quarter of a billion dollars on the election.
Honestly, yeah, there would have to be a decent amount of them with almost 20 million voters who didn't show up to vote.

Americans didn’t even bother to show up and now we have a Republicans in control of all three branches again.>

Absolutely. Trump did not have a significant bump in votes, 10 million voters did not turn out, or so early figures show. Of them, it's largely white suburban males. Apathy leads to populism. Dr. King had something to say about white liberals...

Sure but at the same time Blacks and Latinos made significant bumps to the Trump vote here too. I would have to imagine that Dr. Kind would have some choice words for them too.
When the plague of face-eating leopards arrives, I will be interested in the responses of the people who never thought their faces would get eaten

I'm sorry that part of my immigrant family is this stupid. Thankfully, they can't vote fwiw. 🤷‍♂️

Don't feel bad man, your family isn't you and you can't control when your family does something stupid. Heck my immigrant family that can vote was going on about not voting this year because of both sides bullshit and I had to talk them that yeah, you need to vote regardless. Not that it mattered because native born Americans are such a lost cause at this point.
- My parents didn’t vote either. They’re also upset that they don’t have many choices because they’re independents. To them it doesn’t matter who the president is, to them it is inconsequential.
  
  Then encourage them on reforms to get rid of First-past-the-post and they may get someone who is capable of thinking and breathing to vote for.
  
  They (and the rest of us) are going to find out it is consequential
  
  They think.

Today is a dark day. But, I will say this...

When the world gets dark, new lights often appear. It's a funny thing, but good people tend to be quiet and reserved. It's the anger of the patient person, and the good people pushed too far, that often can incite the most change. As Mr. Rogers' mother famously told him - look for the helpers when you see scary things unfold.

It's time for the helpers.

I hope everyone reading this understands what this means. We must help now. Don't look for the helpers, because we aren't children, as Fred Roger's once was...

Protect the people around you, especially the vulnerable and those at the most risk. Do it at the cost of your safety and well-being.

Cruelty has won a great battle today, but it can't win the war without a fight.

- Alright, give me some hope we can still prevent like >3°C global warming, cause I ain't having any hope left.
  
  We can't prevent that.
Tough times make tough people
Tough people make easy times.
Easy times make weak people.
Weak people make tough times. <--------We are here.
Tough times make Tough people <------ Your light of hope.
- Tough times make Tough people <------ Your light of hope.
  No, the tough times were 2020-2024 when the fallout of Trump policies raised the cost of living, helped erode women's rights to their own bodies, and encouraged corporate enshittification to go even more out of control.
  It's now "tough times make bigoted people who scapegoat minorities," apparently.
  
  Nobody said the tough times would end after just four years. I think it's going to get worse before it gets better. The night has just begun, and it's time for the lantern bearers to find their lights.
  I'm American. They can't have my country without a fight. I'll fight every ounce of their cruelty with kindness, and displace their xenophobia and racism with acceptance and support.
  There are millions of us.
  
  Damn straight. That's the same thing I tell people when I was asked if I was going to try to leave the US.
  I may be disabled, but I swore to defend the Constitution from foreign and domestic threats. It's not just the racist and homophobic people who have firearms. When the time comes, the quiet people will show up to help.
  
  The quiet people peck, scratch, and bite when they need to protect the people they care about. And Mr. Roger's taught my generation to care about everyone.
  
  Agreed. Also, we all have to keep in mind the election only showed us what roughly 42% of Americans think (based on 142,687,398 votes, out of US population of 337,382,131). That means there's still plenty people who have yet to join the fight. There's always hope!

I volunteered at county Dem HQ and was tasked with texting Dem voters who hadn't shown up at the polls by noon. Each page had maybe 50 names on it. And only 3 or 4 voters typically voted. It was a disaster.

Maybe now the party will learn that guilting and harassing people doesn't work. If I get an unsolicited text from a campaign, it makes me significantly less likely to vote for that candidate. I'm not going to reward that sort of tactic.
- So… what do you propose to do instead with respect to organizing?
  
  Encouraging the DNC to hold primaries and take their thumb off the scale would be a good start. Don't call me. Call them.

In addition to what you said, I wonder how Biden and then Harris deciddd to become the nominee. What the methodology was. The dems could have hired a psychologist who could have guided them on the kind of candidate that would have won the American people over. They could have hired a pr team to help manage their campaign. The dems essentially took a bigger risk than it did in 2016 and it backfired on them again… except this time less people voted.

Yeah I have zero fucks left. I am done with this bullshit. I canvassed for the first and last time this election as it's quite clear it did jack shit. I'm withdrawing from being a concerned citizen. The idiots voting for this shit can have it. I'm going full libertarian in my lifestyle. My family matters and nothing else. I am truly sorry for those who didn't vote for this and will suffer greatly. I just can't do it anymore.

....it could be that America isn't racist and you've been fed a big lie.

- Yes, all those Jewish, Black, and Arab Nazis, they all showed up and unified. ಠ_ಠ
  And if you're talking about the Puerto Rico joke, you know that it's based on the very real issue of overflowing landfill trash they have over there, right? Are you aware of the attention it brought to that issue? Why do you think PR flipped red?
  
  Do you think that Puerto Rico gets to vote in the presidential election??? Also show me where Puerto Rico flipped red.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_States_presidential_straw_poll_in_Puerto_Rico
  But no worries there bud, you can calm down there, America is on your racist side.
I know enough history to know you're full of shit
- You're imagining a future that had a far better chance of happening under the dem ticket. We escaped pure tyranny last night. I couldn't be more relieved
  
  So you’re not just full of shit you’re also spreading it around.
  
  Big claims with nothing to back it up.

Yeah it's never the fault of the party, it's all those stupid people exercizing their right to choose. Maybe if dems didn't put all their worth in being "the least worst option" and actually tried to be a good party this wouldn't have happened.

End of the day, Americans voted for a proven rapist, a convicted felon, and a white supremacist to the oval office over someone who isn't so yeah, stupid people exercising their right to vote are to blame. Enjoy your tariffs.
- "My" tariffs? You think i am happy for this? You are part of those stupid americans maybe, incapable of understanding that not everyone that does not think like you is your enemy
  
  I don't think you're the enemy, I simply think you're not very bright.
  
  I don't know why you are considering them not bright here. Empirically, being the least worst option has barely worked with record turn out during an active pandemic. Aside from that, not being a convicted rapist is simple not enough to motivate people to the voting booths, so maybe the tactics need to change? I can argue what ought to be, but the simple reality is very clear, "Not Trump" isn't a winning strategy and we should try something else.
  
  I don't know why your getting downvoted, evidence shows your right
  
  My guess is that it's a bit reality shattering to contend with the fact that lying and cheating is plenty good enough to not only win, but win in a landslide. Harsh truths and all.
  
  Lieing isnt agains the rules anywhere, except in court. Then its only illegal if you get caught or cant pay more lawyers.
  
  Correct. My point was democrats are upset that we are not in the world we ought be in, where lying would make voters turn against you.
I’ll continue to deny claims that Kamala was “least worst”. She seemed like a pretty good option to me, and the only criticisms I’ve heard of her were that she was not quite perfect on every issue they cared about.
- The highest she ever polled in the 2020 primaries was 15%, very briefly, reaching a low of 3% before she dropped out of that race.
  She was always a bizarre choice to thrust into that position all of a sudden. Biden should have bowed out much earlier, and Dems should have selected the replacement with a primary.
  They set themselves up to fail, to the tune of millions of blue voters who didn't vote red, they just weren't motivated enough to vote at all.
  
  IMO, she was a bad choice of VP in 2020 during the Black Lives Matter protests over George Floyd's murder. The optics of picking someone who was dubbed "California's top cop" felt like a slap in the face. Whether that moniker was deserved or not, perception often matters more than facts when dealing with what is effectively a popularity contest.
  
  So is no one here in comments calling her a bad candidate? Are you just citing external favorability? The label of "least worst option" came from a commenter, not a nameless poll statistic. I'd question whether that's really an external reference, and not a personal attack on her character.
  To me it wasn't even close because there was nothing outwardly negative about Kamala. So, I'm looking to identify specific thoughts that lead to that unfavorability.
  And, be warned, in the lack of anything else, the thoughts "She's a woman" and "She's black" come up as the reason for it; indicating that the derived stance of the person above is "The democratic party should never run with minorities."
Considering voter turnout for the Democrats was abysmal compared to 2020, yes: it is the fault of those stupid people choosing to abstain from voting because good enough wasn't good enough.
- If a campaign's job is to get people to turn out then the campaign failed.
  
  the voters must do everything they can to prevent democrats from shooting themselves in the foot.