What made you think today?

[D'Snowth]

Let me fill you in on a little secret. The world can be a pretty nasty place sometimes. You might even be the target of racial, religious , ethnic, or sexual slurs. That doesn't make it right, and I certainly don't condone any hate speech. But you have to get a little thick skinned for your own protection.

There was a college out in Michigan. One area of campus was prone to being covered in graffiti. A lot of scrawlings for Hillary. But someone wrote "Trump For President", and several students needed counseling. Just because the thought of Trump as president, which might be a reality as unpleasant as it might seem, just the mere thought... HURT SOMEBODY'S FEELINGS.

Here's the thing though: Trump (and many people on the right) actually does condone the very thing that you just said you don't condone, so if you're going to scribble "Trump for President" at some diverse university, you might as well write "Heil Hilter" on the wall of a synagogue.

 

[scooterfan360]

I'm thinking, are voice actors Jim Cummings and Brian Cummings, related ?

 

[MikaelaMuppet]

I'm thinking, are voice actors Jim Cummings and Brian Cummings, related ?

No. They are not related.

 

[Drtooth]

I'm still amazed how long Survivor has been on the air. Once upon a time they had competitions between generations. First it was the Baby Boomers vs. those upstarts Generation X. Now Gen X are the old farts being swept aside by Millenials.

Time progresses and death is inevitable. No one likes to be reminded of that. I'm well into my 30's, but all my dreams are of me being a kid or doing childish things. And I freaking still get kid's meals to collect the prizes, and complain when the prizes aren't something I really like, something kids should be watching regardless of my thoughts that they're often the best written thing on television today. Granted, it's more that I'm a failed cartoonist and everything and I still like to see what those who made it come up with. Still, I can't take age. That's part of why younger generations hate older generations. The fact that some day they're not going to be young anymore and just like their parents. Maybe we need the words of Abe Simpson:

On the other hand, I do agree with one thing. Age doesn't necessarily beget wisdom. We must learn from our history, and hope the next generation doesn't make the same mistakes we did. Of course, that's if you think ideally. Instead, we get older generations fearing and hating on the youngsters because they're somehow going to destroy the old ways. And some of them double down on their mistakes, refusing to say "boy, what I thought back then is pretty awful. I'm right to be irrelevant." The younger generations should hopefully be a little more tolerant than the previous one. Otherwise, we'd never have left the caves. Society progresses, and we don't have to like it, but we can't just call anyone under us stupid because of it.

Having said that...

There was a college out in Michigan. One area of campus was prone to being covered in graffiti. A lot of scrawlings for Hillary. But someone wrote "Trump For President", and several students needed counseling. Just because the thought of Trump as president, which might be a reality as unpleasant as it might seem, just the mere thought... HURT SOMEBODY'S FEELINGS. Now they want to find the perpetrator and have him expelled, because Trump graffiti HURT SOMEBODY'S FEELINGS.

Well, the mere thought of it sent the market crashing, so it's pretty normal to be afraid of him and his worst followers. But who wants to be the kids that wanted counseling and cried all over this aren't voting or going for Gary Johnson or Jill Stein? It's one thing to be offended for everything he stands for, and frankly we all should be offended by what he stands for. But its another to say this guy is bad news and his followers are at least partially dangerous and or terrible people, we cannot reward this behavior. Which, yeah, is part of the reason I'm crazy over this. At the very least, if his sexual assault allegations are true (and they totally are), he should at least be on a sex offender list (but so shouldn't Bill Cosby and Anthony Weiner). I tread the line between the overly offended culture and the culture that's offended by the offense. I think both the "P.C." and "Political correctness gone MAAAAAAAAAD" (Spitting Image reference) types get overly offended by things they have no control over and that don't in the matter in the end. I blame the internet and click-bait for that. Though, I think the truth lands somewhere in between.

Every people at some point were persecuted by a bigger, more politically powerful people. Slavery has always been around and it's always been wrong, racial or not racial. The world has a history of horrible people doing horrible things, and the reason we learn history is that we don't make the same mistakes again. Mistakes are inevitable, everyone makes them, but if we can walk away from them, we should learn a message. And we should learn things from other mistakes where things went horribly wrong because no one wants anything to go horribly wrong. And this ties back into my original message. The younger generations shouldn't hate on older generations for their screw ups, we need to be reminded that they did screw up. And it works both ways, as the older generations need to realize a lot of what they did were mistakes and that they weren't perfect. Nostalgia goggles tend to blind you from reality. The Younger and Older generations need to learn from each other and understand each other. Otherwise we'll have a society of self absorbed, entitled babies doubling down on their hubris and leading to more Drumph for President movements in the future. If we could all understand each other and work together, we wouldn't be in the garbage situation we are in now. Heads must get out off butts.

 

[fuzzygobo]

There's something else that's been drifting around colleges in the last year. When someone with Conservative views has been invited to speak at campuses (not necessarily Trump supporters, but right-ish politicians), their lectures have been shut down, boycotted, interrupted by students that don't agree with the message.

The students that interrupt the messages justify their actions by saying they're exercising their freedom of speech. But doesn't the other side have the same right?

Let's break it down to fundamentals. I support candidate X. You support candidate Y. I might not agree with you, you might not agree with me, but shouldn't we at least have a mutual respect for the other's opinion? College campuses have traditionally been a haven for the free and open exchange of ideas. Even if someone disagrees with me, we can at least agree to disagree, right? Can't we even have that much of an equal footing?
Not all Trump supporters are racist, sexist xenophobes, and not all Hillary supporters are crooked liars. No matter who wins the election, those people who might hold different views than you, you still have to work with them, go to school with them, live with rhem , exist with them. A little respect for others, (sometimes called tolerance) in spite of their differences goes further than just digging in one's heels.

 

[fuzzygobo]

No matter who gets elected, half the country will not like it. There will still be division in this country. If anyone expects any President to fix all the problems, they will always fall short. But there is a higher authority, for anyone who seeks Him.

Daniel 2:21 He changes times and seasons. He deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.

 

[D'Snowth]

I don't expect the president alone to fix all of the problems, mainly because these past eight years have seen Obama failing to make a number of improvements because the right has had control of the House all along. . . .

I fully expect there's going to be outcry no matter who wins, but I'm more concerned about the future of the country in general: if Drumph wins, our country is doomed; if Hillary wins, our country is . . . less doomed.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I just want you all to know that no matter WHO wins today...I won't be celebrating.

 

[Drtooth]

I'd rather be lightly annoyed at politics as usual than fear for my life under a dictatorship, especially a self inflicted one. What has always got me about this election is that no one's paying attention to what's at stake.

Any other Righty vs Lefty election would be nothing spectacular and I'd even agree with the apathy and disinterest. The thing is, we have a strong, vocal minority and we've forgotten to pay attention to how dangerous their mindset and political actions have been.

Like, remember when Gabrielle Gifford got shot, and for a brief moment someone said "hey, anyone think the rhetoric is getting a little too, I dunno, mean spirited?" And then all these right wing commentators pounced on it defensively and said "No! And here's an obscure thing that happened in the 1800's to back it up." First off... yeah. The 1800's, you'd expect that we'd have at least 150 years to learn to behave better, so the point you made basically hurts your point. Secondly, Oh, brother. If it had been some lefty psychopath that shot McConnell, you know they'd say "Yeah! The rhetoric is too dangerous! We need to yank everyone with a left leaning opinion off the air at ONCE!" However, while the left had the moral advantage to say "Your crazy, government hating radio and TV personalities are spreading stories of victimization and fear monger, and that's going to affect people," they just slank down and said "yeah, we're idiots" to avoid confrontation.

That was a warning.

When the Tea Party movement attracted angry, hateful types that called Obama Hitler (oh, the irony is just thick enough to cut through with a saw) and believed the birth certificate thing that was spread as an unfunny, passive aggressive joke by humorless Conservatives on a message board somewhere, The Tea Party heads (groomed and not crazy looking) went on television to say "oh no. Those racist types aren't us." YET, didn't think for a second to kick out the more violent members. And any time the media actually showed the worst of the movement, they'd say "oooh, it's those liars at the Librull medya again!"

That was a warning.

When Drumph first got involved in the Birther movement via his usual "everything is everyone's fault but mine" thin skinned "everyone needs to kiss my ring" antics to also boost the ratings of his sh***y TV show.

You better believe that was a warning.

All this time, the past 8 years we had multiple warnings that a dangerous vocal minority existed and had way too much power. We chose to ignore it in the 2010 Mid-terms, and Congress and the senate were filled with Tea Party elected originalists of which their job was to screw up Democracy, ruin a country, and blame it on the President because...let's face it. We're not a smart country. We don't know about the three branches of Government and automatically blame the President for everything they do. That's what their goal was, spoiling the country and sitting back while they get all the Lobbyist goodies possible while not getting elected out of office.

Anyway, the Republicans both used and feared the Tea Party. They could use their votes to get what their party wants, all the while fearing that they'd form a third party to split their votes. So they enabled and nurtured the movement, even when it backfired on them royally. I shouldn't feel sorry for John Boener, but yeah. Much as he was also trying to sabotage Obama on party lines, even he had to deal with the idiots that wanted the government to shut down. Something no one benefited from.

That's the mindset that made Drumph a candidate. Stubbornness, having a vastly warped view of what the Constitution is, and listening to those who are paid scam artists warp their minds and turn anger at the wrong people into hate at the really wrong people. The Third grader with an F in history view of America where everything's black and white and compromise (the very THING our country's law is based off of). Drumph is a symptom of the illness, not the cause. Republicans could have pulled back and ignored these guys into a splinter 3rd party and we'd be disillusioned by Bush V Clinton with Drumph failing an independent party bid, like he used to three other times.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Trump is a symptom of a broken economy and a disenfranchised people that neither party even remotely cares about. Politics as usual indeed. Unfortunately, Trump doesn't care about them either.

Nothing is going to be fixed no matter who wins. Again, not celebrating.