Where are we going with this?

Firstly, this is not about Kumbayah, or snowflakes, being triggered, unicorns, or pay it forward, fake news, or who is the smartest.
It's not a joke thead, nor is it an admonishment, for I am as guilty as the rest.

Its' about who we are becoming and where are we headed. I'm not talking about this forum, singularly. It is only a collection of many other thoughts and feelings, both on and off line.

I'm referring to our country. Our relationships with one another, and recognizing that we are at a crossroads, and we must make a decision about who we are going to be, and if we choose to stay on this course, because it is a choice.

In other words, are we sure the place we are going is really the place we want to be?

There's alway the folks who hope for civil war, total annialation, the destruction of everything and I'm not talking to them. You are in your own horrid depressing little mind set, and you can stay there or hopefully try to find a way out of your private hell. I wish you the best, but this thread is not for you.

I'm talking to those of us who work and have families, or those who strive for joy in our lives, and peace. Who want the country we seem to be at each other's throats over, to continue to be one we can live in with peace and safety. With some reasonable expectations of what tomorrow might bring.

We are in the process of destroying it. Not Russia, not Congess, not Trump or Hillary, or the so-called "deep state". We are doing it to ourselves. Think about it. The frog is successfully in the warm water, and it's become a lot warmer in the last few months,( or, hmmm, haven't you noticed?)

I think I can mostly say, that the majority of us disapprove of the way Middle Eastern countries, Arabs, live. We dislike their culture; the way women and children are treated. We dislike all the rules they must abide by to simply get through the day without getting into trouble with their governments. But mostly, we dislike how they frequently kill one another over the ideologies of their religion. Killing each other over IDEOLOGIES.
Is that where we are going? KIlling each other over ideologies? Only we are worse. They are killing one another at least over a percieved prophet. And we are killing each over, (or want to at times) over what? A political ideology? POLITICS?

Again think about it. I saw a thread recently here, disdaining how women dress. If they dress like whores, then they can be treated like a whore. Where does that come from?

So, liberals want to kill conservatives. Conservatives want to kill liberals. They are scum, and I really can't remember all the name-calling and insults. ( Some people were so excited about it today. Who can make the first thread?) The worst of us? The threads weren't written as news, were they? What was the tone? They were an invitation to voice hatred and disdain.

***
So to think "I am killing my enemy. A Sunni". "I am killing my enemy, A Shia". Or whatever.
Shall we kill our 'enemy" a Democrat? A Republican? Is that how much of a tiny box we are moving into, like the Arabs? Shutting out all the light, and seeing only in tunnel vision?

Killing someone's Dad? Someone's wife or husband. Someone's son. Someone's grandfather, or grandson. Someone who has hopes and dreams, and wants to raise their kids, and play softball to raise money for kids, or take their wife to dinner this weekend, or go to their granddaugher's birthday party.

But the political ideation/ affiliation is all they see? Where are we going with this, and where did it come from? How did we get here? Is it a phase? Growing pains? Is it temperary? Because if it's not, there won't be much left of us as a country. We'll go down like so many of the ME countries have. Where else is there to go? Where? If we hate each other over political beliefs, where is there to go?

This shallow mindedness, and superficial superiority is like a cement block tied around the ankles, and there is nothing in front of you but the sea. All of us.

And the constant promotion of hatred! My God! We have some of the greatest distributors of hatred now. And for what? Come spew out your hatred here, and give me some meaningless stars!
Ever stop to think some those hateful comments might be the last straw to push an already unstable person over the edge?
Like the shooter today at the ball park. Where did HE post? Where did he go on-line to feed his hatred and distribute his own for others to feed on? Somewhere. He's somewhere on-line and we can take that to the bank. He fed his fear and disdain and fed it and fed it until he could no longer contain it all so he snapped. Who fed him? Did you? Did I? How can we know?

I usually default to thinking the best of people. It's my nature. I don't think most of here want to be a part of the generation who took the great United States of American down.
I don't, do you really? What a sad legacy if you do. But it's happening. Brick by brick. Value by value.

Someone said to me today "You can't hide hatred, it doesn't make it go away".
But you know what? HIDE IT. Hide it out of existence. Because like ebola virus, or herpes, some things are better not shared.


From my heart to yours,
Angelina

Divide and conquer. It works almost always. We have studied it, learned from it and challenged it. Yet it still seems to work. Nice thread Op. Looking forward to the discussions.

a reply to: angeldoll

The left feeds it's own hatred, they are mentally ill, unless they get their own way, they snap.

Clearly it is possible. We went that far during the Civil War.

I don't think they teach that anymore except as a reason to make everyone feel guilty or entitled because their ancestors whose names they likely don't know assuming they even have those ancestors were treated very horribly. They don't teach the other lessons - like how families were divided and fought one another and what that meant, why those monuments are up in those southern states, etc.

And we're busy erasing that part of history as quickly as we can too.

But no matter. We may have a new occasion to revisit and relearn those lessons.

It's not what I want. It's just something I've seen coming for a while now.

You cannot make every single political issue one of good v. evil to make yourself feel morally superior to your ideological opponents without risking exactly this.

The Left owns the violence. Last year they were shooting cops, this year Congress. They lost seats and they will lose way more till finally they reduce themselves to nothing and real Democrats can come out of hiding to replace the progressive fascists.

a reply to: ketsuko

Well said. To erase the past we are bound to repeat it.

originally posted by: thack
a reply to: angeldoll

The left feeds it's own hatred, they are mentally ill, unless they get their own way, they snap.

If you don't mind, I think we can do without your thoughts tonight. Peace.

a reply to: angeldoll

Where are we going with this?

See...even in your discussion of seeking rational solutions....some can't wait to turn it into a hate fest of blame and partisanship.

Apparently that's where we are going....

originally posted by: thack
a reply to: angeldoll

The left feeds it's own hatred, they are mentally ill, unless they get their own way, they snap.

Human beings snap. Doesn't matter about political orientation. History shows us this.

The tone of this place has changed from warm, welcoming, and polite to cold, hateful, and rude.

Imagine a new poster deciding to join this site and deciding to participate only to be met with condescension and hate. Either they will leave the site or they will start posting the same way they see others posting.

This isn't the same place as it used to be and I believe ATS is a microcosm of America and a lot of the world right now, divided and hostile. Things aren't looking good in my opinion.

originally posted by: olaru12
a reply to: angeldoll

Where are we going with this?

See...even in your discussion of seeking rational solutions....some can't wait to turn it into a hate fest of blame and partisanship.

Apparently that's where we are going....

And even here, some cannot wait to claim that moral superiority.

Two can play the game, and this is what has gotten us all into trouble. Don't you see?

a reply to: TinfoilTP

Here goes the blame game. Everything is the lefts fault every time something bad happens. It's a constant blame-fest around here.

I'm sick of the crying on both sides.

I am willing to join with the left on Cannabis Reform.

My side of the aisle,it appears some have their heads,

Straight up their collective A$$e$...

Fight each other is the name of the game. It distracts from the higher ups, who are pulling the stings,from being targeted. Who will take the fall? Politicians, sure, and the citizens. This is exactly why partisanship is being brainwashed more so on the people.

It's to quell the population. It used to be "Keeping up with the Jonses", then the "Me Generation" and now it's are you a better this partisan side or that, because it defines who you are now. The weapon is mass distraction and destruction is the citizens, not ISIL, on the US home front anyway.

originally posted by: 3NL1GHT3N3D1
a reply to: TinfoilTP

Here goes the blame game. Everything is the lefts fault every time something bad happens. It's a constant blame-fest around here.

Honestly, in this case, it's sort of hard to look at this guy's social media and then say that his ideology had nothing at all to do with what he did.

originally posted by: 3NL1GHT3N3D1
The tone of this place has changed from warm, welcoming, and polite to cold, hateful, and rude.

Imagine a new poster deciding to join this site and deciding to participate only to be met with condescension and hate. Either they will leave the site or they will start posting the same way they see others posting.

This isn't the same place as it used to be and I believe ATS is a microcosm of America and a lot of the world right now, divided and hostile. Things aren't looking good in my opinion.

That's odd. When I got home and walk around the neighborhood, I am not met with condescension nor hate. I can talk politics with the more extreme leftys and rightys and after it's over, we go about our day. When I come to work it's the same. At the store, the same.

What I'm trying to say here is that whatever is here at ATS is amplified and anonymous. It's not the real lifeblood of the U.S. It is this posters opinion that between social media, the media and government, they are blowing everything way out of proportion and amplifying it themselves all for profit.

Star. & Flag.
We feed the trolls.
Which is why I stop answering troll posts as soon as I identify them as such. Trolls feed on their power to anger viewers. And on their hope that they have ( detestable word ) triggered someone. They don't care what the results are.

Political trolls
Net trolls
MSM trolls
Religious trolls
Ad nausium

Shun them all , even the ones in daily life. Response is a trolls lifeblood.

VF

a reply to: JinMI

Ah, we will say anonymously what we would never say face to face.

I am recalling that post on another site about how actual suburban style neighborhoods were important tools because you had to encounter your neighbors there. You see them out in their yards. You wave. You talk. You interact. You know them to some extent. No matter the ideological leanings which it's pretty clear you likely have some inkling of, you probably still make an attempt to get along because you live right next to each other.

Rural environments and inner city ones don't have that quite like suburban environments with the white picket fences do.

a reply to: angeldoll

we're headed to greatness. just like the Romans did when they reached their precipice...
after one peaks, where else is left to go.... ? to 'greatness' (private prisons included.)

a reply to: ketsuko

I've lived in suburban settings and rural settings. Currently I'm urban. It's a rarity to find someone who would espouse all the varied deep political slants in any true to life setting from my experience. We're not nice because we have to be, we're nice because we want to be.