Is anyone else reaching a breaking point?

[Monkeyleg]

During the period that AJDual, Strings, I and other cheeseheads were working on getting CCW in Wisconsin, I found myself more cynical about politics than I thought was possible.

The last few years have made me go from cynical to angry, and now to what I have to think is close to my breaking point.

We have elected officials using unconstitutional and illegal means to thwart the will of the public. Our language has been corrupted and even rendered useless, as words have no meaning or have been basterdized to mean almost the opposite. Our economic house is close to collapse, and DC just prints more money. We face serious threats from North Korea, Iran, Venezuela and other countries, but our leaders seem impotent in the face of the threats.

We can't complain without being shut down through smear campaigns, a co-opted media, or the simple damning word "racist".

The left's use of the Arizona shootings to demonize the right (and the middle) isn't new. They've been using these tactics since Nixon, but they've escalated the use to the point where the public should see the absurdity of the attacks, but a complicit media contextualizes the absurd to seem rational.

Every newspaper in the country has run the same AP story about Republican complaints that the Tucson memorial service was a thinly-disguised campaign rally, and then repeat the administrations denials as gospel. The story repeats the administration's absurd claim that the applause and cheering were part of the grieving process. My mother will be dying soon. Anyone at her service who applauds or cheers will be beaten to a pulp. I also don't expect to see 10,000 campaign t-shirts at her service.

I keep waiting for the public to say "enough", but it just doesn't seem to happen. Only 60% of the public believes that "harsh rhetoric" was not responsible for the shooting. That means that 40% of those polled either believe that the shooting was politically motivated, or they just don't know what to think after saturation propaganda.

I keep waiting for the Republicans to grow a pair and fight back, but they're too genteel to take off the gloves.

I really don't know how much more of this I can stomach. What's even more maddening is that there's no recourse, no place to escape from it, except to throw away the newspaper, turn off the TV, stay off the internet, and play oldies stations on the radio.




 

[TommyGunn]

I sympathize ..... I find I am getting very jaded and cynical, listening to the news.  The "ink-stained hyenas" of the press and the electronic media moguls manufacture false premises, offer ridiculous speculations, and twist facts, and it goes on and on.
I don't mind it when the author is clearly a editorialist or an analyst but even the "straight" news people are involved.  
I didn't see all of the memorial service Wednesday.  What I did see led me to believe that it wasn't Obama who turned the memorial into a "pep" rally, and he acted a bit chagrined at the atmosphere that prevailed -- though he did nothing to ameliorate it.  This was a college campus and it was the atmosphere of the newly anointed "inteligentsia" that prevailed -- in other words, whacky college kids.  
I don't know what to do about it.  For the most part I get my news from Fox, which has it's faults but seems better than most other cable channels, and certainly better than the major over-the-air networks.
I pretty much stay away from newpapers (except comics).  I try to keep myself abreast of the news because I don't like to be ignorant of what is going on in the world ... but I have to balance it against what gives me high blood pressure and migraines.  
A friend of mine who studied media in college (and works in the field) blames the modern media on "pro-active" reporting that, according to him, began in the 1960s.  Basically, it evolved when the media opened up to enthusiastic college grads who "wanted to change the world."  That isn't the job of a reporter, whose basic job is .... "reporting."   You know, "just the facts, Ma'am," as Jack Webb would have put it in DRAGNET.
I wouldn't throw in the towel.  I might try to limit exposure to media that drives up the blood pressure.

My standard  response to problems brought on by an evil, unfair, slanted world .... "buy more ammo."      Problem is, I can't seem to shoot it off fast enough.  It's collecting.    

[RoadKingLarry]

When they take the Superbowl off of TV, fail to produce and new season of Desperate Housewives, Survivor; moron island or America's got Talent, Then the general public might, MIGHT take notice.

[Tallpine]

The question is, what will you actually do when you break 

Except for poking my head out to earn a few shekels now and then, I am pretty much holed up in my "compound" with my wife and dogs and cats and horses and chickens - just waiting to see how civilization burns down around me 

I am screwed if I get caught while working temporary in another state 

[Perd Hapley]

Our language has been corrupted and even rendered useless, as words have no meaning or have been basterdized to mean almost the opposite.

We can't complain without being shut down through smear campaigns, a co-opted media, or the simple damning word "racist".

This. I don't know if it's a breaking point, but there is definitely something going on.

Also, the word is "bastardized." Sorry, but complaints about corruption of the language must be spelled properly.

[Monkeyleg]

The question is, what will you actually do when you break

I don't know, and that's the scary part. I'd like to see states secede, but I know that's a near impossibility.

I've just about had it with conservative commentators taking Palin to task for hitting back at those who accused her of complicity in the shooting. Every conservative should be hitting back. It's how you deal with bullies. What she said hit a nerve because it's true, which is why the ultra left had to go after the term "blood libel" to try to keep her on defense.

As for "basterdized", my eyes are sore from a long day on this machine. I'll try not to basturdize any more words.

[Battle Monkey of Zardoz]

Your not alone.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

I keep waiting for the public to say "enough", but it just doesn't seem to happen.

The public did say 'enough'.  We said a great big "No More!" last November.

Things are starting to get ugly precisely because the right is asserting itself once again.  The left, the powers that be, they don't like this one bit, and they're starting to get petulant about it.  They're starting to get scared. 

It's going to be pretty bumpy for a while.  Plan for it, expect it, be ready for it.

Be strong, persevere.  We ARE winning right now.  You wrote up a laundry list of advantages that the left has in politics these days, and they are formidable advantages indeed.  But remember that despite all that, we're still winning.

I don't know much about local politics up where you're from, but take it from one of your Hoosier neighbors down south a bit.  Politics does work.  It's slow, painful, frustrating, but it does work in the end.  And it is worth it.  I could recount our successes here in Indiana, but I think you know them already.  Take my word for it, politics does work.  Be patient, persevere, and keep at it.

Take a break if you need it.  Rest up.  Just don't give up.  We have a lot of heavy lifting ahead of us, and we're going to need good men like you.

[tyme]

Music and reading tend to work for me.

[Tallpine]

Your not alone.

Its "You're" 

[txgho1911]

Any of us can get ourselves wound up and high strung as we tune up our own sensitivities to how the political games are played.

Some times a break and time and distance is what you need before engaging with your reps and senators again. And that is if they are on your side.

[makattak]

Its "You're" 

It's "It's." 

[Monkeyleg]

...before engaging with your reps and senators again. And that is if they are on your side.

Oh, I'm fine down here, with Senators Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby, and Congressman Mo Brooks (a freshman). It's the dingleberries in congress and the boobs in the White House that worry me, not to mention those citizens who agree with them.

I can't even listen to talk radio for a few minutes before some head case calls to say that we need to dial down the rhetoric coming from Palin, Limbaugh, Hannity and others. (No mention of Obama, Howard Dean, Paul Krugman, Keith Olbermann, etc). One today called Michael Medved's show. When Medved asked him to cite an example of right wing hate speech, the guy started talking about Hitler.

Last I heard, Hitler was dead, he wasn't a US politician, and he was a socialist. But let's not get bogged down in facts.

[Perd Hapley]

It's the dingleberries in congress and the boobs in the White House that worry me.

Yeah, I don't want a female Pres. either. 

[Monkeyleg]

Yeah, I don't want a female Pres. either.

So it's true. You voted for Hillary.

[Perd Hapley]

So it's true. You voted for Hillary.

Well played.

[Waitone]

Monkeyleg, I'd like to point out the source of a lot of your agitation is media.  I won't drill down any further as I think all sides bear responsibility for the lack of civil discourse.  Keep in mind media monopolies of the past, as now, are slowly but surely being ground up.  The market place is a form of justice that grinds slowly but rest assuredly is grinds thoroughly.  For now the left side of the spectrum is suffering the most from market competition.  As time goes on we can expect outlets like FOX to swing leftish, as it has, and at some point it, too, will suffer the justice of the market.

[Tallpine]

It's "It's." 

Sew you caught that, huh? 

[Perd Hapley]

I won't drill down any further as I think all sides bear responsibility for the lack of civil discourse. 

This nation doesn't need civil discourse. It needs blunt honesty.

[French G.]

I've just hoped for some time that we reach the breaking point while I'm still alive and ambulatory. I'd hate to pass such a thing off on the kid or grandkid without being there to see them through it.

[BMacklem]

Thank you Fistful.
Honesty would be refreshing these days.
I have been saying a lot lately that what we need to do is get rid of political correctness, as it's the real cancer on society.
I feel that P.C. is the main cause for people not wanting to do or say what needs to be done or said.
Maybe if we weren't so PC then Lougner might have actually been incarcerated or hospitalised as he should have been.

[SADShooter]

I find myself really wanting to tune out politics. Part of that is my own situation, and part is cynical belief that things won't change, either through ignorance, apathy, or corrupt self-interest. The hyper-saturated political spin on the "Tragedy in Tucson" is sickening.

California re-electing Jerry Brown felt like a watershed, a return to the very mindset that created the current problems. I'm feeling a sense of impending, inevitable catastrophe, like a nightmare when you see the outcome and are powerless to stop it.

I'm doing a lot of reading. listening to music, and drinking.

[RoadKingLarry]

Maybe if we weren't so PC then Lougner might have actually been incarcerated or hospitalised as he should have been.

A pretty good bet that if Loughner's mommy didn't work for the county supervisors he would have been locked up long ago.
In that case PC stod for either politically connected and/or politically corrupted 

[roo_ster]

This nation doesn't need civil discourse. It needs blunt honesty.

Blunt

Honesty

[Monkeyleg]

The sheriff had received complaints that Loughner had made death threats to others. Last time I checked, that was reason to lock someone up.

Roo_ster, that's what I've been thinking, but I try not to go down that road. It sure would feel good, though.

Let me give an example of PC not related to the Arizona shooting.

The last time I was in my doctor's office in Milwaukee, I was at the check in counter, with my usual unlit wood-tipped cigar in my mouth. I've been chewing these wood tips for over three years. It's really helped me keep from going back to my 5 pack a day cigarette monkey.

The woman at the counter told me that the office was a tobacco-free zone. I told her that I didn't smoke it, just chewed on the wood tip. She said it didn't matter, that no tobacco of any kind was allowed.

"It's vegetation," I said, "Just like that plant over there."

Didn't matter.

I mentioned this on Facebook last night to my obnoxious SIL who works at a hospital, and is a rabid anti-smoking zealot. I wanted her to explain it. She said that, if they allowed one person to do it, somebody else might have a cigarette in his mouth and say that he didn't light them. Then maybe (just maybe, somewhere sometime) he'd light it.

It's zero tolerance, the same sort of insane policy that relieves anyone from making a decision when a school girl has a Mydol tablet in her purse, or a kid makes a pencil outline of a gun on a piece of paper.

The only way to escape all of this is to head to Montana as Tallpine has done, and then cut off all contact with the rest of the world.