How Terrified Are You? January 2017

two threads at top of sna about dr who has pushed me to 8 this morning

what would push you to 9?

being forced to watch that shit

3-4 but I'm sitting in an airport with "Shake It Off" on the loudspeakers, ymmv

it's like watching your parents fight, while one of them is driving the car in a rainstorm.

otm

is it time to finally watch hypernormalization or is it going to push me over the edge?

I was a teenager during Cold War II and the worst I've existentially felt terrified was when the Korean airliner was shot down in 1983. Wargames had just come out a couple months earlier and I was convinced that every political escalation that week was leading down to some KOREAN AIRLINER nuke war plan sandwiched in between ALBANIAN DECOY and AFGHAN MISDIRECTION. I was just about to start college, do I even bother to buy books?

I don't feel the same way now. Everything Trump touches turns into Atlantic City-sized pools of poison and his non-plan for fucking up the government has been and will be completely fucked. Four years of this? I'm thinking that this charade barely lasts four weeks. Perhaps a little bit hoping/praying so. I would have felt like a martian had people *not* protested, and seeing the sheer numbers self-organizing and being out there among it all was good for the soul. I'm not terrified of President Bannon nuking Chicago ("told you I'd send in the Feds!"). I'm not even particularly terrified that the end point of this is when Federal troops square off against protestors - that's just suspense. I'm terrified that 62 million people have joined a cult. They've come to this cult for any number of reasons, but it's a cult and cults all have strange bedfellows .

I voted 7, but my girlfriend's mom is in the hospital - she's 83 and not expected to leave. I'm not terrified of anything.

when trump won i compared the shock to 9/11, but this migrant ban feels closer to it actually. after election night i just felt profoundly hopeless and depressed. right now i feel like my entire body is on high alert. my senses are like fucking tingling. and right after 9/11 in new york the reaction of new yorkers was just incredibly galvanizing and heartening, suddenly this shit-fuck petty city found a wellspring of generosity within itself that no one knew was there. i feel like that's happening now all over america.

I was all depressed and solipsistic but seeing the JFK protests self-organize in minutes was legit inspiring. I didn't see any Trump supporters out in the streets.

Bad:
- TrumpBannon's tactic seems to be to keep the outrages coming at such a rate no-one questions the last illegal manoeuvre because a new one has come along (divestment of business interests, golden showers video, Russian election interference - all off the front pages now)
- the world is now relying on traditional Republican politicians to stand up to a cabal of wannabe-despots
- the new regime, to a large extent not being from a political background, couldn't care less about democratic principles and probably have a long-term plan to suspend the Constitution if they can get away with it
- if not, and if this clown is still there in 4 years' time there is NO WAY he'll accept the legality of an election defeat
- this may have a knock-on effect on European elections, leading to far-right govt in France at the very least and the subsequent annihilation of the EU once and for all
- my personal experience with narcissist sociopaths tells me that predictions are impossible, as even Trump doesn't know what he'll do next (although Bannon surely does, which might be even scarier)
- this may well be a foretaste of how the world will be once the looming environmental crisis kicks in for real in the near-future

Good:
.................cat pics?

Also good: protests, politicisation of many, the same social media that allowed this to happen could also help to defeat it

Wondering what this means for the future. Even if this was stopped right now it has set the precedent that things can go this far. It might have people saying mistakes were made and trying to avoid those specific mistakes.
But you're left with a major mess that has lead to people being intentionally excluded from a supposed democracy. Hate to think what distortions that could lead to in future. If the wrong hands got some popular support and enough apathy from what should be the opposing side.
Interesting times.

IN other words this has shown the extent to which a right wing agenda can be pushed is further than previously assumed. So in more subtle hands might go much further. It is unlikely that a clumsy charlatan would be able to get into a similar position again, if this is stopped now, but somebody with a bit more intelligence might be able to push things a lot further.
So I'd be worried taht somebody might come along in 20 or 30 years and try to push things taht way. Is the Repoublican party going to step back towards the centre after thsi point anyway?

A revolution would be so handy right now. Hoping that the truly evil would form an orderly queue to be first in line for first up against the wall.

Wondering if there's anybody in the UK who might be able to pull a similar trick? Not Boris Johnson, surely, or any of the grey suit trad Whitehall types. But it's not like the country isn't going down the shitbin at an accelerating rate, and that's when tyrants can poke their heads out of the mire if armed with the right promises.

Russell Brand, maybe. Doesn't seem any more ridiculous than Trump managing it.

A glass haff full scenario is that Trump crashes and burns so badly that some of the sheen gets taken off right wing populism - unfortunately this is what the German Communist Party thought about you-know-who in the 30s.

(xp) Lord Protector Clarkson

- this may well be a foretaste of how the world will be once the looming environmental crisis kicks in for real in the near-future

My suspicion that this already in progress. It's not just Exxon - *everyone* knew that this was coming and global capital responded accordingly - going as global as possible while these horrible right wing id monsters swoop in to fill up the power vacuum. Elon Musk is legit going Alternative 3, and that was one of the wackiest conspiracy theories ever.

I'd say I'm about a 5 rising to 6 occasionally, it's more a constant feeling of dread and uncertainty than actual panic or fear, and a lot of the time I don't really it at all. It's easy to feel insulated in London though (which in regard to our own issues was part of the problem in the first place).

i'm at about a 4. maintaining this precarious position through weed and hugging my cats

Idk I voted 3 because I don't feel any identifiable fear but otoh I am exhausted all the time so maybe it's just taking itself out on me another way.

It's easy to feel insulated in London though

won't be saying that when Bannon nukes us to demonstrate America's iron will

"Happy Independence Day, motherfuckers"

I'm far more terrified for people who differ from my own demographic profile (cis, white, not an adherent of one of those scaaaaaaary non-Christian religions, able-bodied, relatively mentally healthy, college educated, urban, native-born American male living above the poverty line) than I am for myself. Probably a 3 for me but like an 8 for them which kinda nullifies the 3 for me.

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2017/01/30/military-convoy-trump-flag-rolls-through/97255844/

everything is fine

nitpicky but maybe anxious would have been better wording just because terror is such an extreme emotion that to say "I'm about 4 or 5 terrified" sounds weird

only an idiot would be sanguine about nazis in the white house or about what they've been doing, I'm not thinking too much about possible nuclear apocalypse right now vs stuff like my family possibly being targeted which seems a lot closer to happening

voted 8

As long as I remain employed, 3 for myself. But feeling a 10 for the future of everything else.

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2017/01/30/military-convoy-trump-flag-rolls-through/97255844🔗/

everything is fine

I'm disappointed they didn't put coal rollers on their shitty army surplus trucks

i go about my everyday political reading thinking it's a 9 or 10, then come across something about supreme commander bannon's rise to power and think huh i guess that wasn't so bad after all

I don't get the posters on here saying they're not personally worried, because they're not targets. If you're an intellectual, a liberal, a left-winger, an aesthete, educated, a city-dweller, free thinker, weirdo, bohemian, hipster, any of that, you're as much of a target as any POC, Muslim, LGBT person, you're just a little lower on the list. Doesn't matter if you're white, Christian-born, male, straight, etc.

So a whole lot of you aren't going to get a pass if the patterns of history about these movements are correct.

you are greatly misquoting what a lot of people in this thread said but w/e

i mean i'm terrified because i'm a bleeding heart but even as a chronically mentally ill weirdo i'm still not at the top of anybody's list. i'm less afraid for myself than i am for the people i love.

Say Trump and Bannon somehow consolidate power and had their wish of anything. You don't think the Pepe Deathsquads wouldn't go after leftist SJW hipsters from the city who think they're so smart? That's like, their #1 target, listening to these people, Muslims aren't even as high. These fascist authoritarians have some fascination with destroying the types of people you find on ILX, they just lack the guts/opportunity.

This is a dark timeline I'm imagining here, but reading history about these movements, the ILX demographic tends not to do very well in them, is all I'm saying. So we all do most certainly have a personal stake in this even if you're typically not in a traditionally targeted group.

curious what other message board communities existed prior to the 1990s

I don't understand the point you're trying to make, larry, but I'm getting used to that being the case. I'm not going to reread the entire thread but I don't think anyone was asserting that they didn't have a personal stake in current events.

If anything, I feel like I have more of a moral imperative to do what I can to counteract this shit precisely because I'm not among the most obvious targets.

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2017/01/30/military-convoy-trump-flag-rolls-through/97255844🔗/
everything is fine

guessing these are the same jackass idiots who do this w/pickup trucks and confederate flags on rural highways in the south

If anything, I feel like I have more of a moral imperative to do what I can to counteract this shit precisely because I'm not among the most obvious targets.

If you're posting to ILX, chances are you are one of the obvious targets. Intelligent, educated, cultured, left-leaning people go to the camps, get gunned down, all the same as Jews, Muslims, LGBT, disabled, etc. They're like, #2 or #3 on the list because not only are they resented, they're also threats to the regime's reality. Ever listen to these guys? Trump supporters hate ILX-type people more than Muslim people or Jewish people. Don't think they wouldn't relish the opportunity to finally take down those SJW hipster smart-asses? They'd probably pull the trigger faster than they would for any other group.

Not trying to freak you out, I just think it's absurd to forget that fascist movements, especially based on bizarre race genetics bullshit, and creating these unverifiable alternate realities, it's almost a necessity to disappear the intelligent, educated, moral, ethical, etc, making these people pretty high up on the list.

Yikes, I didn't realize the pogroms had already started, but thanks for the heads up.

. If you're an intellectual, a liberal, a left-winger, an aesthete, educated, a city-dweller, free thinker, weirdo, bohemian, hipster, any of that, you're as much of a target as any POC, Muslim, LGBT person, you're just a little lower on the list. Doesn't matter if you're white, Christian-born, male, straight, etc.

sorry dude this is bullshit

white hipster dudes in brooklyn are going to be just fine. "a little lower on the list" below a syrian refugee family who is denied entry to the US or muslim attendees at a mosque who are targeted with a violent attack? please dude

For real. Like, even in the most extreme hypothetical case where that's true, a person with white skin is less of an obvious target than a person with dark skin.

anyway i work at a university and went to campus-wide information session hosted by the office for international affairs and the provost. the auditorium was packed w/ international students, most of them from the middle east. people were in tears. plenty of students from the 7 countries on the list. they cried while sharing their fears of being deported or cancelling visits with family they haven't seen in years. people are scared.

and this is like a relatively privileged group of muslim and arab students, people studying to be doctors, engineers, nurses. they are terrified too

sorry dude this is bullshit

yeaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh, let's just forget what Hitler did, Pol Pot did, and a thousand other authoritarian fascists. It's pretty standard shit, man.

I'm thinking worst case scenarios here, because that's what I do. And what I'm saying here is only a plain description of historical patterns that are very easily verified.

white hipster dudes in brooklyn are going to be just fine. "a little lower on the list" below a syrian refugee family who is denied entry to the US or muslim attendees at a mosque who are targeted with a violent attack? please dude

Yeah, it starts with Syrian refugees and Mosque attacks. Think that's going to satisfy these people? Whatever. My ancestors escaped this shit in Europe because they saw it coming ahead of time. Maybe I'm getting some kind-of ancestral spidey sense here. Really, I'm just putting historical patterns together and imagining a worst case scenario, because there's no going back from that.

If I can guess your state of mind, if you collaborate you'll be fine. I'm sure you're smart enough to know how these movements play out. I'm not sure I have it in me to collaborate and run my mouth about helping, so I'm figuring out what to do from here. If the worst case scenario happens, which is possible, then more people than Muslims and Syrian refugees are screwed.

first they came for the hipsters, aesthetes, dreamers, free-thinkers, croissant-munchers and game theoreticians

marcos, do you work at CWRU? Do you know Cami Ross?

phil i don't know her personally but she was at the meeting yesterday, answering questions along w/ other people from administration. she seems very cool!

larry appleton gunning for the "ILX Poster of the Year" award

i think larry is speaking the truth but not exactly sure to what purpose

yeah, she's very cool. I only know her a little, but I know her husband relatively well, and he's a lifelong friend of another friend/co-worker of mine.