rolling “Trump is gonna win” containment thread

I think the evergreen ILX divide and sensitivities around "pessimism" comes down to deeply personal psychological stuff, personal ways of coping. For me, it's like...we’ll mostly be okay, as individuals, of course some of us impacted more than others for all kinds of reasons. By and large, even for the most marginalized, it’s not our personal fates—not our personal happinesses—that are being foreclosed on. We can and will continue to try and make the most of our own lives.

But the future of this country—the immediate future—is extremely bleak. It’s just the reality. The American population is just a deeply hateful, racist, selfish, one. That this has not been glaringly evident to the vast majority of Americans can be chalked up in part to the nice faces we’ve put on it—Reagan’s and Clinton’s and Bush’s and Obama’s. It was easy to ignore for most.

The thing I am struggling with is the degree to which my assessment about the future of the country influences my own well-being. I was in full-blown panic mode last night after it was clear Florida would go to Trump, and the thing I couldn't stop thinking about was "How do I let this affect me less?" I feel like the last few years have been generally pretty bad for my psyche, and I don't want that to continue to be the case, no matter what the final result is. But is that because I don't have good coping mechanisms, or because I live in a country that is objectively getting worse and in a culture where politics now plays an outsized role?

Good question.

My Marxist friends tell me the purpose of the state is to protect private property and its owners

KM, yeah.

I think the evergreen ILX divide and sensitivities around "pessimism" comes down to deeply personal psychological stuff, personal ways of coping. For me, it's like...we’ll mostly be okay, as individuals, of course some of us impacted more than others for all kinds of reasons. By and large, even for the most marginalized, it’s not our personal fates—not our personal happinesses—that are being foreclosed on. We can and will continue to try and make the most of our own lives.

But the future of this country—the immediate future—is extremely bleak. It’s just the reality. The American population is just a deeply hateful, racist, selfish, one. That this has not been glaringly evident to the vast majority of Americans can be chalked up in part to the nice faces we’ve put on it—Reagan’s and Clinton’s and Bush’s and Obama’s. It was easy to ignore for most.

But then we had what seemed like *maybe* the good fortune to put an ugly face on it—the very ugliest imaginable—shattering the illusion and dragging that ugliness into the light. It gave us a chance to have a referendum on hatred. And it turns out, as a country, that America is ok with it.

― early-Woolf semantic prosody (Hadrian VIII), Wednesday, November 4, 2020 7:32 AM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Can't be repeated enough. The worst writing that came out of 2016 was the "we're better than this, we lost our innocence that election day." What 2016 and 2020 have showed me is that what I suspected to be true was even more true than I thought: half of the population of this country is embroiled in a racist honky death cult, and want to impose that cult's immiseration on the rest of us.

xpost your Marxist friends are correct.

idk if you use social media a lot but the magnitude of how government affects those around you, at least for me, was magnified intensely once I started using it a lot. things that pre-social media I was probably willfully ignorant about and ergo not as bothered by.

coping mechanisms are important though. have to take time for yourself and have a few diversions here and there - but nobody could be blamed for struggling to do that during the Trump era. i sure as hell didn't master it.

Anyway I feel owned even if Biden wins, so Trump wins even in defeat of course

I can tell you that, well c'a depends. Even in a comfortable MDC enclave, I have always felt besieged, and as a result it's toughened me. But I'm blessed in not suffering from anxiety or PTSD; if I did I'd have a different take.

It's quite true, though, that I wish I were more detached from the daily scrim. My brother-in-law, a country club Republican cuz he's young, doesn't care for politics much and went to bed early, no more euphoric than if his favorite college football team had won a game.

xposts

i knew that was coming, and was halfway through a post about how the category of who should be protected has grown over time, starting from a base of wealthy white men and slowly expanding out. to me, that's a pretty well-known thing at least among ilx, but it still has to be said every time.

and my dread is that we now seem to be strongly swinging back in the other direction, back to cruelty. what mcconnell is doing (by not passing covid-19 relief) directly leads to many deaths, and just worse lives, for so many people.

The thing I am struggling with is the degree to which my assessment about the future of the country influences my own well-being. I was in full-blown panic mode last night after it was clear Florida would go to Trump, and the thing I couldn't stop thinking about was "How do I let this affect me less?" I feel like the last few years have been generally pretty bad for my psyche, and I don't want that to continue to be the case, no matter what the final result is. But is that because I don't have good coping mechanisms, or because I live in a country that is objectively getting worse and in a culture where politics now plays an outsized role?

This is a terrific post and really gets to the heart of some things I've been struggling with. Pessimism was something embedded in my psyche really early on as a coping strategy and, even after years of deliberate work on it, hard as fuck to undo. I know it isn't helpful and I was pretty quickly reminded so in the politics thread, but it's what I'm working with, as much as I wish it weren't. Sadly, a lot of last night reinforced my pessimism, while I struggled to hold on to the hope.

with anxiety, at least mine, it makes you kind of like a sponge. if those around you are freaking you, so do you. sometimes without knowing why. so this country's dark cloud makes the days harder, and I've had to remind myself that my life is finite and remember to talk to those I love and tell them I Love them and spend time with my family and smile even in Hell when I can.

the one coping technique i have that works is cynical humor, but my friends don't always appreciate it.

I feel like the last few years have been generally pretty bad for my psyche, and I don't want that to continue to be the case, no matter what the final result is. But is that because I don't have good coping mechanisms, or because I live in a country that is objectively getting worse and in a culture where politics now plays an outsized role?

I think most of us esp on this board seem pretty self-aware are working with the optimized, bespoke coping mechanisms that do the trick...it just might be that they are not certain to be up to the task at hand.

racist honky death cult I know, I know it's serious

I recommend joining a local left-wing militia (or, ok, mutual aid group) to settle yr nerves, build some solidarity and make new friends

I have looked and I am quite certain the internet contains precisely zero effective coping mechanisms

do we have eto have guns, and if so, can I put a sticker on mine

Somewhat interesting article I read recently described people in my demographic as drawing from Stoicism quite a bit in our approach, and that's the way I feel to be honest. There's only so much that I can do, and I do what I can and keep moving...but part of doing what I can is calling attention to the depravity of aforementioned racist honky death cult at every opportunity.

that seems more than reasonable

Table, yeah I'm totes into stoicism - or, rather, stoic analgesics.

(This stoicism-lite is commonly understood in the popular imagination by the "serenity prayer" - change what you can/accept what you can't, etc.) If you dig further into the classical lit there is also stoic logic, stoic math, etc.

But like any doctrine of self-reliance, it needs to be tempered by compassion. It is cool to praise self-sufficiency but, turned a notch too far, it can become "blame the victim" thinking. Topic for another thread, I suspect.

seeing a lot of surprise about how the counties with the highest Covid infection/death rates wound up tilting toward Trump, which a lot of pundits seemed to think was something he'd be punished for. in fact the truth seems to be these counties have the highest Covid rates because they've got so many Trump voters. the fact that Trump's approval rating went largely unchanged despite horribly bungling a pandemic probably should've told us something.

WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT? https://t.co/6487pYLZnL

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 4, 2020

lol he's getting desperate

I don't know how to loooooove him

jaymc, may I quote you?

Sure.

some xposts

Oh YMP, yes, I am aware of how it can go horribly, horribly wrong.

you know it's gonna be nice to be able to laugh at Trump's tweets instead of being horrified by them...like Jose Canseco, he really is a deeply funny character

I dunno, I'd say I'll remain pretty horrified for quite a while.

i'm looking forward to a day where i will not think of him at all

He's now just complaining that people voted for Biden?

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
They are finding Biden votes all over the place — in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. So bad for our Country!

he should pay rent and taxes in my mind xp

they're finding votes for Biden on official ballots, actually turned into the office of elections! we must fight this!

Brad et al. otm. I look forward to ignoring that individual (even more than I ignore him now, I mean)

remember Trump was also the guy who said "more votes (by a lot) equals a loss? we should take to the streets" when they called the election for Obama in 2012 but California hadn't reported yet, so popular vote was still in Romney's favor.

he has it in his head that like you have 5 minutes to find votes and after that, you can't count them anymore.

well the other thing is that if we stop counting now...he loses!

Yeah I'm a hetero white guy, I'd continue to be relatively fine under another Trump term so just like 2016 the most depressing aspect if he won is just having to hear and think about him. And the effect he has on my poor mama.

WHERE DID ALL THESE VOTES COME FROM?

He's now just complaining that people voted for Biden?

the Republican party does not view Democrats as people

at least not after they've been born

if you're born as a white god-fearing small business-owner, or at least someone who respects the supremacy of those who are, you're a person

After recount in 2011 race for WI Supreme Court, there was a swing of 300 votes. After recount in 2016 Presidential race in WI, @realDonaldTrump numbers went up by 131.

As I said, 20,000 is a high hurdle. #Election2020 https://t.co/CEr82eiCWH

— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) November 4, 2020

that's a damn good sign

yah. 20,000 sounds small but recounts don't generally result in 100,000 votes.

half-expecting them to find a big box that says TRUMP VOETS in crayon with handwritten ballots written on looseleaf

Handwritten ballots on loose leaf are totally valid in my state!

Postmarked "Yesterday"

https://app.leg.wa.gov/WAC/default.aspx?cite=434-261-075

Next time there’s a special election with almost nothing on it I might write my votes out in cursive on wove with a fountain pen

Maybe I'm naive, but I'm having a REAALLLLY hard time coming up with a theory under which Trump could challenge this election at SCOTUS. Also, it would be really nice if the Wisconsin recount gets mooted by other states.

Ur a lawyer so thats reassuring

There’s always a tweet. https://t.co/H7FKgIT3Vt

— Apodyopsis (@Moyamal) November 4, 2020

I mean, don't be too reassured, bc it's not my area at all, but like what is the argument? Don't count the votes that were properly cast according to their own states' laws? That seems different than the scenarios in the recent decisions where I believe it was SCOTUS overturning a state court's decision that was in turn *rejecting* or *overturning* a state official's election decision. Still wrong, but that's not what's happening here. People have pointed to that (I think Kavanagh?) dicta about the sacred need for finality or whatever, but that was dicta. There's no basis I know of for not counting votes that were properly cast and on time. I guess if it is really down to a hair's breadth issue where the deciding votes are iffy on whether they were properly cast or something, that's different, but right now it's not looking like that yet. Don't want to be overconfident though.