It feels different than it did in 2016. I feel existential weariness. You don’t bring back a guy like that unless your country has a collective death wish. It’s like inviting the xenomorph back onto the Nostromo.
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Yeah, anyone who thinks this is because Harris didn't say the right things about Gaza, Liz Cheney, the border, or any other damn thing are deluding themselves.
In 2016 it was obvious who he was to people who followed closely, but low information voters could be forgiven for buying the "great businessman" bullshit that had been sold to them for decades. In 2024 he's a known quantity, and that's what people want.
I said it’s like a judge ordering you to go back and live with your abusive, narcissistic ex. I guess in the case of some they invited him back in vs those of us who will have him forced upon us.
Well, most if not all his voters are religious fanatics who, basically by definition, have some kind of death cult or dead wish, or "is better on the other life" kind of approach to life.
And mainly because people couldn’t bother to look up how the economy is doing fine + tariffs and inflation work. They voted for the guy who wants to bleed them dry and said so out loud. There are not my people and they never will be.
I feel unsurprised and angry, but I also feel more prepared than I was in 2016. No weariness yet; like I’ve fought before and I’m ready to fight again.
It does feel different. If someone that voted for Trump complains about the direction of the country I would just shrug. I don't think good things will result from this. I expect bad things to happen and I'm numb.
Not to Um, Actually, but 1. They technically did because Weyland Yutani was...a prescient example of corporate greed, and 2. The Nostromo was blown up and unable to invite anything back.
They had to Nuke the Site From Orbit. Which, ah, someone with a nuke might do.
Which is funny considering that the very nostalgic alien Romulus released this year. Proving that it seems that our fetish for retroness is truly our death kneel.
I get that. At the same time the overwhelming majority of what I'm seeing on this site at least is people determined to keep fighting and stay alive. I feel like unlike 2016 we've mentally had more time to prepare for the possibility. It still feels worse, but the rebound might be better.
"Really, it's gonna be different this time. The xenomorph has promised no more beheadings and we've put out a special spread of dehydrated food and those few pieces leftover from Kane to snack on..."
They don’t even know he’s the xenomorph, though. It’s like everyone but Ripley sees it as just a funny little guy who wants what’s best for the Nostromo. They literally see and hear a friend and ally, while Ripley watches the monster eviscerate them.
It feels like a cancer diagnosis for the whole country. All the checks and balances we had last time are gone. We are going to lose a lot, and the cultural shift we're seeing doesn't give me much hope.
Remember around the time of White when some decided Bret Easton Ellis was a Nazi because he said that whether the liberals liked it or not, tens of millions of Americans voted for Trump and they not only had to deal with it but have a really good look at why that might be? He was right.
Cos you can put one election win down as an aberration combined with some populist savvy; but to elect him AGAIN after last time, and everything he's said and done since? There's something rotten in Denmark.
It feels -- right now -- like my fight has left me. I don't know if that'll last... But all the warnings of the existential threat he posed have really gotten into me, and I believe them in my gut, and ... yeah.
I thought there were hidden Harris voters. It was the opposite.
"Frank, do you know what a hero is? Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, he's somebody who's tired enough and cold enough and hungry enough not to give a damn. I don't give a damn." - Hawkeye Pierce, M.A.S.H.
It's worse than that, because now we know she won't sob "I didn't think the leopards would eat MY face!!". We know that, even as the leopard is chewing off her nose, she'll believe her face is being eaten by gorillas. X said so.
There's no way to break the hermetically sealed echo chambers.
Swear to god, the collective delusion that the economy is bad has been driving me up the wall for years - and the idea that it's the Democrats "fault".
Well, to be fair, I think the perception “the economy is bad” is accurate” in the sense that people really can’t afford rent a matter where they live and things like that
And they need to blame somebody in particular rather than systemic forces that require complete reform
This is what really gets me. One of the ways the economy actually was bad was housing prices and Harris made that a fairly big part of the campaign. Meanwhile trump had nothing so legacy media like NPR decided mass deportation was his housing policy and said the both had plans.
Your answer is true, and also not what voters want to hear.
Dems can’t ever just say “the economy is good.” We have to qualify it w (accurate) asides & throat-clearing re housing costs, price of eggs, insurance rates, and more.
Repubs just sell it, hard, until you (or enough voters) believes it.
I don't know what more the party and campaign could have done. You can't force the news to cover you the way you would like, and no matter how specific Harris got, she received very little coverage. The fact that they worked so obviously hard and this is the result, just exhausting.
My go to analogy was: 3/10 people are telling us to stay in the burning room. Now, I learn it’s closer to 6, all smiling at me while they block the exits.
Yes. It’s been nine years of non-stop Trump, in the Media, all the time. Even with the largely kid glove treatment he gets, if you didn’t know who he was by now then you were deliberately looking away. This was a collective decision, and now we will pay a collective price.
Appreciate the sentiment. But I'm looking at a fucking country that overwhelmingly CHOSE the pain that's coming. I just don't feel like I belong here anymore, and it is going to become very unsafe for members of my family.
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Some folks voted Trump in 2016, because they really wanted change.
This time? Everyone knows who Trump is, and millions of folks chose that.
Get them right, and your vote counts.
I still often feel Roger's loss and you are really one of the spirits that fills that void
The GOP is always ready to move when they get the opportunity.
Democrats plod along, trying to convince Republicans to support them for some reason.
But then Xenomorph is promising to explode more xeno’s from the chests of half the crew! That means I might be captain or 1st mate!
They had to Nuke the Site From Orbit. Which, ah, someone with a nuke might do.
Cults are notorious for ending peacefully and nobody dying/nothing burning to the ground, right?
Take the millions in donations and start newspapers and television stations instead of :30 ads.
It's violent, bloody, screaming into the world anew.
It's America
I thought there were hidden Harris voters. It was the opposite.
People who should not have voted for him, voted for him
It’s that “leopard face eating party” joke
There's no way to break the hermetically sealed echo chambers.
And they need to blame somebody in particular rather than systemic forces that require complete reform
FNC channel for the older folks and long form podcasting for the younger folks has also been the primary whisper in many's ears for years now
If huge numbers of people cannot afford food...bad shit happens.
(I read this in a book.)
Dems can’t ever just say “the economy is good.” We have to qualify it w (accurate) asides & throat-clearing re housing costs, price of eggs, insurance rates, and more.
Repubs just sell it, hard, until you (or enough voters) believes it.
Time will tell if I'm able to do anything about that.