It’s caused by the lack of sunshine in the winter. The cure is a walk in the cold weather. The alternative is to just curl up under a quilt and watch TV until it warms up. Since SAD includes a lack of motivation, plan B usually wins.
My experience is that it hurts just as bad when you think about it, but every day there are a few more minutes that you don’t think about it. My son died of Covid in 2021, and it gets better.
Ok, we seriously messed up this time, but it’s a long game and since the beginning of humanity, we are actually making progress. The arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.
Just go back to the sidelines, pray for the defense, help out the defense any way you can, and figure out how to do better when you get the ball back— and we will. Once the hype wears off and there is no opposition, people will look at what they have elected, and that itself will inspire some serious buyer’s remorse. The economy will continue to do whatever it wants to, since the president doesn’t actually control it. Trump will either fail to do much about the border, or there will be news reports of roundups, comparing them to Nazis with the Jews. Trump will hand Ukraine to Putin, inspiring him to start looking at what he wants next, again inspiring comparisons to appeasement of Hitler. One thing we can count on is that Trump’s handlers are actually going to work on project 2025, and he has no clue what is going on, so they are in control. Not much of what is in that plan is going to make people happy.
The game isn’t over, and we are on the right side of history. This is a very serious setback, but that’s all it is.
Ok, we seriously messed up this time, but it’s a long game and since the beginning of humanity, we are actually making progress. The arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.
Just go back to the sidelines, pray for the defense, help out the defense any way you can, and figure out how to do better when you get the ball back— and we will. Once the hype wears off and there is no opposition, people will look at what they have elected, and that itself will inspire some serious buyer’s remorse. The economy will continue to do whatever it wants to, since the president doesn’t actually control it. Trump will either fail to do much about the border, or there will be news reports of roundups, comparing them to Nazis with the Jews. Trump will hand Ukraine to Putin, inspiring him to start looking at what he wants next, again inspiring comparisons to appeasement of Hitler. One thing we can count on is that Trump’s handlers are actually going to work on project 2025, and he has no clue what is going on, so they are in control. Not much of what is in that plan is going to make people happy.
The game isn’t over, and we are on the right side of history. This is a very serious setback, but that’s all it is.
Alternative facts have made logical discourse impossible. It is possible to reason from accepted facts and at least consider each other’s viewpoint and possibly make some progress toward uniting our country. But, the right wing media has been presenting a twisted view of reality, designed to benefit the rich who own rural news outlets, for about 40 years now. If you think you can reason with someone who was raised on Rush Limbaugh, then Faux news etc. you are as delusional as they are. And, in the last five years or so, the truth can’t even be twisted enough to suit their purposes, which is not a problem because their brainwashing has resulted in a number of people who will believe them when they tell out right lies.
The party doesn’t get to choose its members, they choose the party, and there is no mechanism for throwing anyone out short of ticking them off enough that they leave willingly.
Both political parties are private organizations. They have no responsibility to represent the voters. They sponsor the candidate they prefer, which is always going to be the one that they think will win, even if they might prefer another. To be upset about that fact is to misunderstand that the parties exist to push their agenda, and to support the candidates that they believe will further that agenda. If you agree with their agenda, then support them. If you don’t support their agenda, then that would be a dumb thing to do, because they don’t represent you, they never promised to do so, and they have no responsibility to you. And, it doesn’t make any more sense to allow them to determine your opinion of any candidate than it would if it were your local YMCA. However, a third party candidate in our current system has pretty much no chance of winning, so it comes down to choosing the candidate whose party annoys you less than the other one.
For that, you need to actually do a little research. Read the party and candidate information available on line—what they say, not what is said about them, by either side. Then try Open Secrets and find out who does best represent your opinions. Then decide if you think they have any chance, or if voting for them would just elect someone you really hate. The result of that decision making is where you should send your money, volunteer and vote.
The situation in rural America has been deliberately designed by 1%ers to produce MAGAts. They own the news outlets that broadcast the conservative propaganda. These are people who were raised listening to Rush Limbaugh and then Fox News. In some rural areas, the only actual news is on the local main stream networks, and they have bent over backwards for years to not take sides, even when one side is obviously lying. And, the people they have coffee with, go to church (or the bar) with etc are dealing with the same situation. That means that real people that you trust are backing up what you are getting from the propaganda machine. Unless you are a really intelligent, involved person, you are going to accept the world you see, unaware that it has been paid for and organized by people who are working against your best interests
At Thanksgiving, we were talking about medical problems, and cost came up. My brother in law is a racist and I considered him a hopeless MAGAt, but he signed on to the ACA with gratitude and it probably saved their house. But, I still almost fell off the chair when he said:
" Really, I wish they didn’t have the rule about only serving two terms, because Obama was the best president we’ve had in my lifetime." I managed to just say “Yeah!” and change the subject. He needed not to be laughed at because it took him a decade to get there. He needed to be welcomed and made to feel safe where he was so he could get up the courage to take another step. A lot of MAGAts know that they are wrong, but they are afraid of the world if they can’t cling on to their delusions. Most of them will die safely in their alternate universe, but a lot of their kids are learning better, which is why schools are such a big MAGAt target.
I have to keep talking to them in order to be able to say “I told you so”. Heck, HE told you so, why didn’t you listen?