@mintbbb
hey hey stranger!
i dont know why you second guess yourself in regards to how you are perceived based on peoples subjective and highly irrational understandings.

humans...a curious lot.

you are a total sweetie.you are just super sensitive and some people never really understood that about you.
your husband is an idealist.
thats not a bad thing,in fact that can be a very good thing.

we NEED people to be dreamers and your husband is a dreamer and sometimes that can be frustrating if you are in an argument with him (which i have been).

i didnt always agree with him but i always liked him.

some here on the sift have questioned my friendship with @chingalera.
they didnt understand.
i seemed to be so much more approachable and less acidic in my commentary.
so how could i align myself with such a trollish sifter?

the answer is simply because i get him.
we BOTH are idealists.
just like your husband.
the difference lies in that both ching and i battle,on a daily basis,the rising tide of cynicism.

a cynicism that was born out of being beaten,imprisoned,lied to,betrayed and many times by the very people and/or institutions that we once were idealistic about.

disillusion is a real motherfucker.

yet we still retain that idealism.
we both are humanists.
we care about people.

so everything we do or say is with that at its heart.
so when ching is berating somebody,they may perceive that as an attack.
and it is but it is NOT an attack on them,personally,but rather an attack on their media-induced mythology.
or maybe a person is suffering a severe case of myopia and needs to be shaken out of their apathetic dystopia.

but its always,and i mean ALWAYS to get someone to look at a situation with a different perspective or challenge a belief.
to get people to actually think.
to not just give in to authority but to realize ALL authority is illegitimate until proven otherwise.

i tend to use less shocking and confrontational vernacular than ching does.so that may explain peoples confusion why i consider him a friend.

but if you understood his intent,the words he uses would have less of an emotional impact.

note* by my commentary i am not excusing,condoning nor dismissing chings very real outbursts that actually did hurt some feelings.
but i also know that when people get their feelings hurt they sometimes lash out (and i also suspect that those outbursts were in conjunction with copious amounts of booze).

passionate people are just as sensitive as the next and can/will retaliate in kind when hurt.i know i have.

which brings me to the actual point at hand (sorry..i tend to rant).

why would we remove/negate anything from the archives?
the organic growth and procession of a community should be held intact.
warts and all.
to remove,edit or scrub clean serves nothing,except to maybe repeat past indiscretions.

we never use the ignore button.
nor the sarcasm or jokingly.
so why would we erase the communities past dealings?
be they enlightening or incredibly droll?
its who we were and gives us all a marker where we may be going.

just a thought.

and now I just spent way too much time watching every Captain Disillusion video on youtube.

If the LEFT would do it's fucking job properly, most of these anti government Tea Party people would be with the Left. A lot of them are completely disillusioned from the original goals of the Tea Part, and some need to be better informed.

They were taken over, and I sympathize with them of course. This is an Epic Fail of the pathetic Left in this country to not organize properly.

Oh, well here's an idea. If you are disillusioned with the choices available, then why not set up a party that represents what you stand for? I get sick of people, like Chomsky, who spend all their time decrying everything government are doing, yet, apart from talk, do nothing to change things. Put up, or shut up.

Oh yeah, and Oregon. Lived in Portland before the mainstream Hipster-hijack, back when pretentious hippy-douchebag was in the incubation stages (1991-2).

Yeah, a lotta good sushi to be had there and the primary reason?? Pretentious kids from all over the country flocked to the land of no sunshine to escape the repression of their upbringing brokered by their disillusioned hippie parents who drank the Babylonian Kool-Aid at University (incubator for ineffectual putties), to bask in the aroma of their own farts.

You'd fit right in there gwiz

And with that, I'm even more disillusioned. I didn't think that was even possible.

I don't think I'll be learning any lessons from some disillusioned creep who assumes being invited in = sex and gets his ideas from an imaginary bear.

The poem is one of 191 sonnets that make up Les Regrets, written while du Bellay was stuck in Italy, deeply disillusioned by what he found, and homesick. The chorus goes "but when will I see, alas, my own little village, with its smoking chimneys, and in what season?"

http://www.poemhunter.com/joachim-du-bellay/biography/

*politics
*controversy

I think those of us that are disillusioned with the 1%'s economic narrative need to understand how the conservative people see the occupy movement.

These conservative people really do think that poor people are people who haven't worked hard enough, or haven't gone to college or haven't pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps.

So we get conservatives that blame budget shortfalls on the 'extravagant' salaries of public school teachers.
We get conservatives who think that kids going into social work- should have $40,000 in student debt.
We get conservatives who believe that $7.25 an hour is just too much to pay for back-breaking work.

really, I can testify that liberals are guilty of group-think even more than conservatives are. so in the spirit of trying to absorb the tone of this conservative vomit...
*promote

As to the video itself, I think Penn may have poorly stated the part about the unification of Christians, but he's still on to something. The different sects used to be less cooperative than they are now. Just look at the mistrust of JFK during his election. Now, clearly it wasn't too strong or he'd have lost, but you don't see that sort of thing as much now. It's still there; just look at the statements about Mormons by other Christians during the last and current election cycles; but most of the churches stand more or less together now.

The thing I really disagree with in this video is the Hitchens quote; the part about this being the death throes of religion. If anything, I see a power surge in religion since 9/11. Yes, the critics are louder now than ever and they are growing in "power", if you will, but I think religion is growing in power just as much. The balance is not shifting, we just have lots of previously neutral people picking sides.

If anything, I feel we're well on our way to a new Crusade with a not-insignificant portion of US Christians calling for the extermination of Muslims and a small but not-insignificant portion of Muslims calling for the extermination of Americans.

Depending on how things pan out, I would not rule out a major religious war in the next 50-100 years. Depending on how that goes, it could destroy or embolden religion in the US. If it's a long, hard-fought war, I could see people becoming disillusioned. If, as I suspect, the United States of Christianity simply blot out the "heathen uprisings", then I could see this being taken as an affirmation of the faith.

For some reason people who were assholes and then go through a reformation make me happier than the nice people that don't do any racist things. I guess it's the idea that you could be disillusioned and wake up from your dumb bullshit propaganda so there's hope. Everyone loves a good comeback story.

If all of the Mitt Romney challengers implode like this, might the Republican party and mainstream media stop forgetting about RON PAUL, ffs?

I ask as a disillusioned registered Republican who wouldn't vote for any of them except Paul over Obama. I guess what I'm saying is, are all of our choices going to be Republicant's, or might we get a Republican?

The irony of Ron Paul is: I like the underlying idea VERY VERY much.
However I'd absolutely love to actually see him get down to details. HOW would he actually reduce the American military withdrawal as a World Police Force with doing as little additional damage as possible (You can't just stop the machines of the Military Compelx dead in their tracks- that would have absolutely horrible results- both economically and on a world-scape (Israel, Colombia, South Korea, Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan, Iraq...).
How does his ideology of ptotecting other's lives extend into the right of abortion (Something I remember him being kinda ...meh).



AND MOST IMPORTANTLY: How can he implement this without breaking a system which has by now become VERY MUCH accustomed to all the shady deals he so much despises and WITHOUT breaking the world economy and creating an ugly power vaccuum.
This guy unfortunately is not young enough anymore to become a pioneer. He seems more like someone we'd very much be disillusioned with once he runs into the actual political roadblocks that exist.

The irony of bush and the neoconservatives is that they aspired to achieve a situation like it is now happening in the middle east (albeit a very warped version of) something which IS ACTUALLY happening NOW (though probably without any causes lying in the US).
This will NEED the American military complex and extroverted American foreign policies to work.

Ron Paul would need at least 3 terms to push what he works for. It's just that difficult. And I can't see a second Ron Paul behind him who'd continue once he is worn down (if you know more than me please PM me)

What a sad world view. Life is more than climbing a corporate ladder. Career advancement is a hollow goal, especially in this current age, when even white collar labor is fungible.

There are so many people that had this exact philosophy, and worked hard in its pursuit, that are now laid off and highly disillusioned.

I'm a corporate climber, but I don't for a second fool myself into believing it's what you say it is. There are many things that are more intellectually challenging than getting into a corner office. Really.


>> ^chilaxe:

What they don't understand is that building an extraordinary career is our greatest intellectual challenge and the only reliable way to consistently grow via real, sink-or-swim personal challenges.
>> ^NetRunner:
>> ^chilaxe:
@NetRunner "Why should [economic efficiency] get such a powerful say in what sorts of intellectual pursuits I can engage in?"

You're free to follow whatever pursuits you wish, as long as YOU pay your own way.
My lazy liberal friends who majored in "feel-good" subjects and are doing nothing with their lives aren't living up to their human potential, so I think your philosophy of potential is backwards. I have an upcoming reunion, and I'm kind of dreading it because I know they all live unchanging lazy liberal lives, and I've been constantly personally and intellectually challenged through pursuing an ambitious career.

Again, you're not seeing my point. Economic success != living up to human potential in my book.
These young women are maximizing their economic potential by whoring themselves out. Are they maximizing their human potential by doing so? I don't think so.

>> ^RFlagg:

One would hope this deal would cause a backlash against the government, but it won't. The American people are too pacified to care and will continue to let the government and the rich that control it run them down. Too pacified by the fact that the upcoming episode of Hell's Kitchen (or whatever show) is going to be the most shocking ever! Too pacified by a new map pack for CoD that needs dominated. Too pacified by a religion that says the party that is most responsible for handing power over to the corporations and the rich are the moral choice because they are the ones who say they care for the unborn, and ignore the ass fuck you are receiving from the rich because who matters more? The unborn or your ass comfort? Too pacified by a right wing agenda media that lies and manipulates their public into ignoring logic and thinking this is a good deal. Too pacified by a so called "liberal media" that is in the end, corporate controlled and still presents the view that is best represents the immediate short term profit needs of the corporation. Too pacified by an education system that has failed them. Failed to teach even a basic understanding of science or just as if not more importantly, critical thinking...


I have to say I agree with almost all of what you're saying.

Where I disagree is that I think this will indeed cause a backlash against "the government", but will result in people stupidly voting for candidates who're making government suck but say "I think government sucks, elect me!" or result in people just getting disillusioned and not bothering to vote.

I also think a lot of American culture emphasizes individualism to a fault -- people who face hardship almost universally blame themselves for it. They've been told since they were a child that we're all equal, and that adult life is essentially meritocratic. If you're poor, it's because you aren't working hard enough, or made bad choices, and if you're well off it's because you're a hard working, entrepreneurial individual who did it all on your own.

We're encouraged to stay divided on lines of race, class, religion, ideology, sexual orientation, state, urbanization, school district, sports team, etc. to make sure we never build up large blocs of solidarity. The old sources of broad-based solidarity like churches, unions, and schools have been systematically corrupted or destroyed.

It's divide and conquer masquerading as "individualism".

It's not that people in America are content -- far from it! It's that we all feel isolated and powerless, and have no experience with using collective action to empower ourselves.

I don't know how we get the fire lit in people to join hands together and fight, but we're just gonna keep getting screwed as long as we refuse to work together against our oligarchs.