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Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Trepidation for Post-2018 General Election, Eerie Quote, MastoTwittervism

CONTENTS

1. Brief Introduction without Header: Trepidation for Post-2018 General Election
2. Eerie Quote Relevant to Present & Possible Future
3. MastoTwittervism

I think I've been procrastinating on thinking about politics or getting involved too much in poltical discussions and arguments since returning from the 1-1/2 week trip to California a couple weeks ago (though I plan on posting some ruminations about regionalism and some videos of the landscape at some point, but that requries some sound editing). I only just caught up on local Chicago and Illinois politics over at the Chicago Tribune Clout Street section (the Chicago mayoral race has gotten crazy since Rahm declined to participate in the election). The podcasts have piled up a bit, but I'm making headway there.

This procrastination has a little more psychology to it, though. Part of me doesn't want to move past the Primaries and the 2018 General Election. Or a better alternative: fast forwarding my perception of time until the hands of government change drastically. Now sucks, I miss the old days when the United States government and the Western world felt sane, but I feel like things will get even more crazy and even more tense after the 2018 General Election.

The 2020 Presidential Election cycle will start, along with the 2020 House elections (2-year terms now feels like a breakneck pace, now that I've learned about it and have come to actually pay attention to the House), and also some of the 2020 Senate races. The Chicago mayoral race with the initial run-off election in February will feel somewhat like a pleasant diversion (and a follow up race later if one candidate doesn't get at least 50% of the vote, which I doub will happen). The 2020 races will start on November 7, and with Trump at the head of the GOP, all this shit will explode get even worse. Hopefully some other Republican(s) will run, too, and help to dampen Trump's impact.

Either which way, I expect the rhetoric and attacks to get tense, rapid fire, ugly, and even more divisive. The effects could expand further out from just rhetoric to action, which could get worse than ugly. Dang, I didn't even think about attacks on the media, social media scrutiny, and tampering in the US Elections, both from the aftermath of Election 2018 and the attempts to further secure and desecuritize Election 2020. Let's not forget voter and turnout suppression, either!

Admittedly, I've all but determined where my votes go in November. I expect to vote the first weekend that early voting becomes available in my district/precinct. I'll just want to get it over with, like tearing off a Band-Aid (TM).

While waiting for that day to come, though, part of me wants to avoid politics and news. That part of me just wants to pamper myself in escapism and enjoyable things. My sensible side, however, tells me not to succumb to this thinking, laziness, and lack of participation. I might enjoy myself by relaxing during these days of relative calm before the storm of the 2020 Election that will start in a little less than 50 days. I might become complacent, especially not good because I have that luxury.

I need to get my ass more into gear. I need to get my politics and news bandwidth open again. Things need to change. The present state of things is not tolerable. Eligible voters need more urging to get out to their polling places, whether through their own initiative or, if within my power, with the assistance of others that can help voters get to their polling places. Even though Trump's approval has declined below 40% again and the generic polls have stayed relatively steady (but still scary close), we can't take those polls for granted. Those polls don't become reality unless we get out there to vote.

So I need to get my ass into gear more to become active and facilitate other people's activity. I need to shake this funk. Come me, let's do this! Let's get into action and raise motivation among the people. Let's "be the change I want to see in the world." Let's revive hope again. I can do this, and so can you!


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EERIE QUOTE RELEVANT TO PRESENT & POSSIBLE FUTURE (Crypto Pluralism Track)

From page 21 of The Altruistic Personality: Rescuers of Jews in Nazy Europe - What Led Ordinay Men and Women to Risk their Lives on Behalf of Others? by Samuel P and Pearl M Oliner (The Free Press, a Division of Macmillan, Inc., New York, NY 1988):
In Germany, the persecution of Jews was official government policy and had evolved gradually during the years when the Nazi regime attained the height of its popularity and power. Here, unlike conquered or satellite states, the assault on the Jews could not be discredited as a program imposed by a victorious foreign tyrant or enacted to ingratiate a dominant ally. Any German opposition to the persecution of the Jews was interpreted as a form of treason. This does not mean that most Germans shared Hitler's racism and sought the physical annhilation of European Jewry. Instead, the accepted anti-Semitic discrimination as just one plank in the Nazi platform for the restoration of German power. Their support for the Third Reih was predicated on Hitler's overall success in overcoming the civil strife and depression that plagued Germany in the early 1930s and in freeing Germany from the shackles of the Treaty of Versailles had clamped on the country's irredentist and military aspirations. When Hitler succeeded in achieving these goals between 1933 and 1941, the suffering of the Jews seemed to be either a necessary or small price to pay for this national revival.
Sound familiar?

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MASTOTWITTERVISM

I've changed from Twittervism to MastoTwittervism because I want to switch over most of my social media activity to Mastodon. I appreciate, though don't fully understand the implications, the Federalism of Mastodon and also like that some Instances (servers) feel comfortable to assert more moderation than Facebook or Twitter, willing to take action against harassers, hateful, and abusive people. Mods and admins have a bit of learning and figuring out to do, but I like the idea and spirit.

The main worry/drawback at the moment: I don't have too many friends, acquaintences and/or followers using Mastodon. I had a lot of hope for Google Plus and the social media system they tried launching before that, but neither of them worked. Mastodon feels the same, but I think a fair amount of people feel excited about it, too, especially regarding the assertiveness that we hope the mods and admins feel and will act upon. Their presence and willingness to act feels more reassuring than the behavior that Facebook and Twitter will tolerate and neglect these two platforms present. Like voting, however, Mastodon won't amount to much unless people adopt the system and migrate over to it.

With that in mind, please do some research and come on over to join the party. I hang out over at mastodon.social with user name @screwjaw. If you have an account at another Instance/server that hasn't muted/blocked my instance, you can still connect with me at @screwjaw@mastodon.social. From what I've, though, even if your Instance mutes my Instance/server, you might still have the ability to follow me and vice versa. Come on over to the Mastodon side and hang out!

Until then, check out my MastoTwittervism:







































































































































































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Posted by The_Lex at 9:51 PM

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