It's a situation that I have been expecting for a while, but I wasn't fully ready to accept it. Specifically it's one of my LGBTQ friends who honestly believes in the democrats will protect them and their partner. I have tried to make the point that both parties are eroding any sort of civility towards all marginalized groups, but fear seems to drive them more than logical observations. They make the excuse that change doesn't happen over night and that the left continues to grow and will have meaningful affects down the road. I fundamentally just don't agree with that idea and vocalize it regularly. More and more it is ending up in a circular argument where I am painted as unrealistic and my rhetoric (leftist rhetoric) is doing more harm than good because it promotes distrust in the only system we have to work with. I try to tell them it's kind of the whole point. We gotta start somewhere if we want to see a better, more representative system, but they are so hung up on the immediate future while simultaneously saying that my idealistic feelings are shortsighted and I cant expect change in the immediate future... The double-talk is wild, I know.
I am trying my hardest to stop from engaging at this point because on the most basic level we agree on a lot of stuff, but they are just way to wrapped up in the fear mongering of the democratic party. They know that the two party system is broken, they know that something drastic needs to change, but they also think that they are powerless to do anything except choose the lesser evil. It pains me because I am watching them do the same shit past generations have done, where they give up on their ideals for the sake of preserving the current status quo that they benefit from. I am legitimately watching them imply "fuck you, got mine" under the guise of civic duty and I hate it. I want nothing more than to be able to finally say "I told you so" without being a smug asshole about it and ruining our friendship.
Thanks for reading my rant. It's probably a bit disjointed, but the frustration is boiling over and I needed to vent to the only group of people that seems to understand the hopelessness of being a disenfranchised leftist.
I know people say not to cut off the lib friends and I'm trying not to lose connections that have mattered to me, but it is hard to make myself bother with most of them anymore. I feel like they are just demonstrating they can't be relied upon.
What am I saying, their complete return to "normal" and pretending covid isn't dangerous is 100% demonstrating they can't be trusted
I think this is honestly just a big cope from people. I know how seriously they take their convictions when they say stuff like this because my militant masking and insistence on accomodations as an immunocompromised person since January 2020 has utterly destroyed my social life and I don't just get to turn the other cheek about that, lol. So yeah, I'm with you. Fuck em. Your world will become far smaller, but what world? A world of people who will abandon you for this? For genocide? For an evening at Applebees? Kill the liberalism in your soul that makes you want to poison yourself in the company of these people and you can begin to figure out how to live.
My social circle is much smaller now and it sucks. But not as much as long covid would. Not as much as playing nice with white supremacist assholes who excuse genocide when it's done against people with my skin color.
"Trust the science" liberals like when the "science" is skewed so it sounds like wine is a health and longevity supplement (it's not; those old studies were bullshit ignored the other material conditions of the healthy and long lived people) and that covid is "over." Basically, trust in the "science" that says more treats.
It's maddening how many "trust the science" liberals -- many of them tech and science nerds and professionals! -- just ignore when I point out he science of airborne transmission, the science of long covid, the science that says the only way to be pretty safe is if we all mask the fuck up in respirators.
Because respirators somehow ruin the vibe and that's what mattera most, even though they didn't ruin the vibe earlier in the pandemic.
Most confusing of all are the ones who post about updated vaccines and free rapid tests being sent out -- they act like they don't know covid is worth caring about but then occasionally they say shit that demonstrates they know it's still around, and go right back to gathering without masking
Covid has a peculiar connection to climate change for me: in both cases, the crisis didn't go anywhere, it's getting worse all the time, but "I fucking love science" bazingas in both cases want to look at hyped up "good news" then return to whatever they were already doing, trying to silence people for caring too much about either.
Yep. I should have realized covid wouldn't be solved because of how climate change denialism is hegemonic but silly me, I thought people might be able to learn
right there with you – I foolishly thought it might be a turning point that actually made us wake up about climate change 🤦
There were two good weeks or so where it looked like it was going to be possible. Major outlets were running articles with headlines like "It's weird how much of our lives was actually bullshit" and realizing that commuting to work is optional, etc. Then the reaction set in.
Are there any good books yet about the reactionary turn under Covid / after the George Floyd uprising?
the whiplash from this wounded my heart and then my social circle. genuinely, truly, I had real hope again for a minute, and the way my own friends and family were so eager to just ignore the pandemic and get back to "Normal" shocked me and ruined my regard for those people.
I genuinely thought better of all of them, or I wouldn't have been their friend.
This, this, one thousand times this. We learned that most jobs are inessential! And then we gave the "essential workers" a new honorific, but not sick days!
In my neighborhood someone had a sign that said "Instead of 'back to normal,' shouldn't we try for something better?" But then all the hogs brayed and insisted that things get worse. And so they did.
People call me doomer but I am just witnessing events as they unfold. I do not have hope that it will get better anymore. I don’t.
That is a completely different, but totally valid topic that I wasn't even thinking about in this moment. Because I also find that I cant be honest about that either. All my liberal friends know my stance and many of them have accepted it by just not including me in their plans anymore. Which I'm fine with, I hate public gatherings anyway, but yeah, most of them just shrug and say, "it's endemic at this point". As if that is a form of fucking protection. UUUUUUUGH!
The Venn Diagram is nigh a circle because the same brainrot underlies both forms of denying material reality