Final Posting

1) Calling everyone who disagrees with you a liar is not "dialogue."

2) Miller can still enjoy all the other benefits of LVA membership, including access to the newsletter and the coupon book.

3) Continually screaming that Trump won the election and insulting anyone who disagrees is not a "righteous stance."

Very well said.  Thank you.

Since David is no longer able to fulfill his duties, as first runner-up, I will be stepping into his place.

From now on I will be Kevin's stalker.

Thanks, I was wondering what I'd do without one!

Kevin I was not implying that David's stance was righteous.  The point trying to be made, was any person who has confidence in their beliefs that they are right.

 I'm polar opposite of David's politics.  Yes he did refute my posts by calling my posts bullshit and labeling them as lies.  That is his opinion and he is welcome to have those opinions.

One of the guiding lights in my life is the book by, Don Miguel Ruiz, "The 4 Agreements".  One of the agreements is. "Don't take anything Personally".  If the worse thing that happens to me is someone calling me a liar, I'm getting off pretty easy. 

The 4 agreements is something Donald Trump should read and apply these tools to his life.

1.  Be impeccable with your words.

2.  Don't take anything personally.

3.  Don't make assumptions.

4.  Do your best.

1. I doubt very much that Miller actually believes the crap he spews. It's been too much in absolute lockstep with whatever conservative talking heads/Trump/random idiots have been saying at any given time. I think he's just been amusing himself, as no rational person could make the claims he does.

2. I suppose it would be noble to not take it personally when someone says, "You are a liar," but I'm not there yet. 

3. As I've attempted to explain now and then, neither David nor anyone else is entitled to label the opinions of others "lies," as the word implies that the speaker knows he/she is stating something that is factually incorrect and is doing so in an attempt to deceive. But just to be clear--"Trump won the election" is indeed a lie, because anyone saying that--including Trump himself--knows it to be incorrect and is only saying it to delude and/or pressure others. It's not an opinion, any more than "The moon is made of tofu" is an opinion.

4. Donald Trump's guiding light is "The Power of Positive Thinking," by Norman Vincent Peale. The book asserts that one can change reality and achieve a desired outcome simply by thinking about it. His constant references to passages from the book indicates that he really believes this on a fundamental level. It explains his penchant for making demonstrably untrue statements. He seems to truly believe that "wishing will make it so," and the Presidency has been his pair of ruby slippers.

cjen, I agree everybody is entitled to their own opinion.  However, people aren't entitled to their own facts. If I am in Vegas in August and look at the thermometer and see that it is 103 degrees, it is rendering a fact not an opinion. Say my opinion tells me it is minus 20 degrees.  Before I step outside I check the weather channel and the weather app on my phone and they both say it is 103 degrees.

Dismissing these sources of fact and relying instead on the confidence in my belief, I dress in thermal underwear, a parka, a winter hat and heavy gloves.  Then I walk out onto Freemont street. Even though I can feel the heat on my face, my belief tells me it is still minus 20. Medically speaking I am suffering from a delusion that has become harmful.  After I recover from my heatstroke, I find myself in the mental ward of the hospital.  Can I demand to be let out because I am entitled to my belief?

It is the same thing with these folks that sacked the capital. There was a mass of delusional people that believed despite all evidence (60+ court cases) that Donald Trump won the election and they acted on this delusion causing harm to others and harm to themselves.  At the very least, they should be locked up in mental institutions until they learn how to separate their opinion from fact and are no longer a harm to themselves or others. 

Instead, we coddle these mentally ill people. It is a grave mistake.  Our system of government is in danger of collapse if we continue to allow people to think they aren't just entitled to their opinion but they are also entitled to their own reality. Imagine the next time it isn't a couple of thousand people storming the capital but 200,000 storming the capital. Where will we find ourselves then? 

We can continue to collectively stick our heads in the sand or start doing something to punish those that spread and encourage this mental illness. Clamping down on the instigators' social media accounts was a good first step but a lot more needs to be done. 

Mark, I think that the legitimizing of conspiracy theories and "alternative facts" will eventually prove fatal for our country. Look at how many people voted for Trump despite (or perhaps because of!!) his constant lies, treason, incompetence, and general assholery. It means that 74 million people were able to construct an alternate reality wherein Donald Trump is a stable genius and the bigliest bestest most glorious leader ever. And when they did that? No one called them out on their fantasy. On the contrary--people clapped and cheered (and smeared shit all over the Capitol building).

In short, we have a national cult whose central tenet is: if you don't like things as they are, then pretend they're otherwise. That would have been called delusional in a prior time. Now, it's just "alternative facts."

But let's say that can be gradually cured somehow. That still wouldn't solve the basic problem, which is that 74 million Americans are evil, repulsive assholes. What other kind of person votes for Trump--TWICE? We can't live with these people any more than we can share our homes with crocodiles and poisonous snakes.

I am thinking of a nightmare scenario wherein 200,000 Murderous MAGA Moron Marchers descend on Washington on the day of Biden's inauguration. Will the cops shoot to kill, as they should? 

I am not sure that high of a percentage of people are evil. The truly evil people are the people that know better but promote conspricy theories and unrest because they gain some benefit from it. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz fall in that camp. Both are intelligent, have good educations and are trained lawyers. They know Trump lost the election and lost big in the context of modern elections. They know Trump lost 60+ court cases and was unable to produce any evidence of fraud. Yet they jump on the bandwagon and promote the idea the election was stolen.  Josh Hawley pumped up the crowd of terrorists right before they sacked the capital. Fox News and other right-wing commentators fall under the evil category.  These people at the very least ought to have their social media accounts taken away for inciting insurrection. 

Then there are the rubes hopped up on conspiracy theories that think they are patriots saving the nation from a cabal of satanist pedophiles that have stolen the election from Trump. These people aren't truly evil. They just lack intelligence and are suffering from mental illness induced by their consumption of conspiracy theories.

A lot of these folks just discovered the internet within the last 5-10 years. They have yet to learn the lesson that early adopters did.  Mainly most things posted on the Internet by regular people are untrue and anytime you come across someone claiming something fantastical you should start with the assumption that it is untrue. 

As I posted earlier the social media companies taking the megaphone away from those that promote these conspricy theories is a good start. Facebook is still very problematic because of its nature. The conspiracy theorists can set-up private groups on that platform and Facebook doesn't seem to discover them until it is too late. There also needs to be laws passed that govern how social media uses their algorithms to show people more and more extreme and inflammatory things to keep them engaged. It needs to be outlawed. 

My 78-year-old mom showed me her Facebook feed two nights ago. Even after the terror attack on the capital, these people were going on and on about how the election was stolen from Trump, how Hugo Chavez rigged the voting machines and how mail-in ballots were printed, filled out and shipped in from Italy. The people making these posts were 60 -90-year-olds in the community I lived in growing up.  I played with a lot of their kids growing up. Back then they were rational middle-class folks that expressed no or very little interest in politics. Social Media and the conservative commentary media have radicalized them to the point that every one of them is a potential terrorist that wants to overthrow the government.

Excellent post, Mark. A couple of days after the election I was texting with one of my adult sons. It was starting to look like Biden would win after all. I was truly worried that this Republic - with all its flaws -  might not survive another 4 years of Trump. He asked if I was feeling better about things, and I told him it still bothered me that 74 million of my fellow citizens (some of whom I know to be kind, generous people) could vote for a narcissistic sociopath. He said, "Trump is really good at creating fear". 

This really made me feel better. I realize a lot of Trump's base really are deplorable; white nationalists, assorted greedheads, and neo-nazis. But, as you say above, a lot of them are confused and misinformed. Maybe we can't turn the dead-enders. But I choose to believe that there's hope for at least some of the rest.