So. Here it goes. The news last night reported that we have had 200 mass shootings in this country in this year, the year of 2021. The year for which I held so much hope. And Google just told me we have had 232 of them. So much better!
I don’t understand. I just don’t understand. How can we humans, we people, we residents of this United States – oh wait! That brings up a whole ‘nother thought – be so tolerant of the stupidity that is happening around us? Elected officials still saying Trump won the election. Elected officials demanding yet another audit of the election results in Arizona. Elected officials making it their purpose in life, their complete goal, to block anything this president proposes. That, of course, is not new. It was the same as it was in 2008 and 2012, and, oh my gosh – it was the very same person initiating the whole blocking thing. “United” States? Hardly. There is no unity going on in this country right now.
People, please tell me how you can tolerate 232 mass shootings in less than six months of a year. Please tell me how you can tolerate the racism – the current anger towards Jews, Asians, Blacks, anyone that seems to not fit into the mold required by the white supremicists. Because that’s what I’m seeing – a frightening surge of white supremacy, and man, I’m thinking we are anything but supreme. Smart, we are not. Wise, we are not. Tolerant, we are not.
Then there are all the complaints about fake news – yet, we tolerate our politicians who are spouting what is clearly fake news. And then we turn around and re-elect those same politicians, the ones who are promoting the dysfunction of our government. And – we elect someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene, and we pass laws that make it harder for people to vote, and we pass laws that infringe on a woman’s right to control her body, and we applaud the efforts of the right to life people but yet we murder people in our prisons and that’s okay, and I don’t see the right to life people offering any options to help out those unborn fetuses once they’re born to moms who are unable/incapable/unwilling to raise them, and we perpetrate hatred and unkindness and intolerance, and man oh man! What are we? What have we become?
As to fake news – I cannot disagree that too often the media hypes the sensational aspects of what’s going on but, on the other hand, we just soak it up, don’t we? We buy magazines and newspapers with sensational headlines, we watch TV shows and movies with too much violence – we encourage the very thing we condemn. And then there’s those politicians/activists/regular folk that promote the fake, the false, that absorb the lies that are told and pass them on.
And all of this makes me glad I am old, because people, I would not want to be young and face 70 or 80 or 90 years of life in a world like this one has become/is becoming. People, I do not like green eggs and ham, people I do not like the hyper-sensitivity we exhibit on the one hand, and the complete intolerance we exhibit on the other hand. And so I stay inside my home, anti-social and isolated, because I feel the need to hide from the world out there. I do not wish to participate.
I did warn you that I was having a tantrum, didn’t I?
Wanderings of an Elusive Mind 
Seems Google and the media have gotten the results they desire. 😉
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“The results they desire”? If you’re saying getting me riled up is what they wanted, you’re right. And shouldn’t we all be angry at what’s going on?
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Yes… but there’s much, much, more good going on that isn’t reported. AND, I agree our politicians have let us down but IMO the directed outrage and so little ‘good news’ is a service to those who would rather we aren’t paying attention to serious long term troubles. How can we believe the government wants to stem violence while they are releasing thousands of criminals? The media conflates and modifies and redefines terms so much too that it’s a purposeful shell game meant to divide and distract us. I’m deeply sorry that ‘We the people’ aren’t united and are feeling distraught. Yes, I believe the powerful want us to be. God bless.
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Yet, it is not the released criminals who are causing the violence – it is plumber Joe, the disgruntled son, the misguided misfit, the girl across the street – although truth be told, it is mostly male generated violence. And I believe we can only be distracted and misguided if we allow it. If we start opening our eyes and our ears, researching what we hear and see, choosing our news sources carefully, refusing to take at face value all of those things, using our brains to think, finding common sense and logic – then there might be hope. I am developing a dim view of our future, however, and thinking we have not yet hit rock bottom and it’s going to take a major catastrophe to wake us up.
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I’m sorry that you believe things that way. Choosing a news source? Don’t you recognize fact from opinion using your brain and comparing information?
Gosh… perhaps we are doomed.
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Well, of course I think I recognize fact from opinion using my brain – i.e., common sense and logic, and I’m sure those who still believe Trump won the election think the same thing.
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Why do you care what anyone else believes? You’re giving others too much of your time. It’s each of our own responsibility to figure out what’s going on. I choose to listen to everyone and all sources. To me, that’s the inclusive way to approach the truth and the best way to test my opinions. Thanks for your thoughts.
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Who said I care what anyone else believes. Each to his own, Susan. Thank you for your thoughts.
Sent from my iPad
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Good points to your tantrum though. You echo what I feel. The overwhelming surge of stupidity (aka lack of any common sense) is the thing that most discourages me IF I think about it. I had a face-to-face conversation with a woman yesterday who kept using Facebook as her source of ‘real’ news. Oh my heck!! Like you, I’m finding the solitary life the most appealing. I get far too upset by that kind of idiocy. We’re all entitled to our own opinions, but that’s where it ought to stop IMHO. Keeping them to ourselves, especially when the facts do not support the ‘news’ one is sharing. I see the fallacy in that too of course, how do we know what we believe is REAL? The internet has changed everything and not for the better. Anything can and often is ‘news’. Depending on who is ‘reporting’ it, it can be shaped to fit any situation. Scary stuff. You’re wise.
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Where is that time travel machine when you need it?
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Yes, you are right about all that you said here. Good people are worn out from all the cruelty, while the haters thrive on it. It’s impossible to figure out what to say to someone who believes she is a good person then doesn’t care about mass shootings because they don’t impact her directly. I have no answer, but I get what you’re saying.
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Unfortunately, it appears no one has an answer. Perhaps more gun restrictions, but oh my gosh! We can’t do that because after all maybe someday we’ll need our guns to protect ourselves against our government. Perhaps more common sense, logic, tolerance, but are those words even in the dictionary anymore? I’m so sad. I’m so tired.
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Silly me, but I thought once The Other Guy was out of office, things would settle down. What was I thinking? Still the noise keeps getting louder. The hate spewing from peoples mouths has gotten so awful. Gov Newsom spoke for me when he said, “What the hell is wrong with us?”
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Sadly, Newsom mirrored my thoughts.
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I really think he spoke for a lot of us.
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The world has gone mad…………….
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That doesn’t include the 100 cars shot with bb/pellet guns on a local freeway over a,few weeks; nor the road rage, on the same freeway, where someone shot at the back of an suv… and that bullet continued till it hit and killed a 6yr old in his car seat. (Current reward $300k)
It’s a mess. This is most surely not what the founding fathers had in mind!!
I keep trying to process why there have been so many shootings in such a short span. Being around people again? Making up for lost time? Release of anger built up during quarantine? …???
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I keep trying to process a lot of things, with no success. It just makes me very sad. And what really disturbs me is I believe so much of the anger is being stirred up by elected officials, some no longer in office, others still there.
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Yep. Politicians saw Rump’s success via conflict and decided to embrace it to further their careers.
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I clicked “like” but you know what I mean.
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I do!
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Carol, I too am glad I am growing old in a world that seems increasingly hard to understand. I would not want to be here in 50 years. I’m not even sure I want to be here in 20 years. I don’t understand the American obsession with guns or the seemingly worldwide obsession with electing right wing governments who have no care for the poor or the disadvantaged and seem intent letting big business decide our futures. The haters seem to have the upper hand these days and while I read the news or listen to it on the radio I try to limit the amount I take in and to focus on the good things in my life because that’s the only way I prevent myself from being angry all the time.
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Yes, I do read some news, but I’m selective and read less now than I used to, for the very same reason you mentioned.
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It is so hard to realize that people think and feel so differently. I have been trying–especially during this past year–to figure out how to live in a good way knowing that this is true. It was challenging during my visit downstate recently, but it was also interesting how much love emanated from friends and family who think in seemingly polar opposite ways. Dunno. It’s a learning curve and tantrums are allowed. *smile*
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You spoke my thoughts in every way
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Oh Carol, the challenge of our times! To think what is normal any more is certainly a difficult task. What we thought of as normal was not normal to my grandparents, and what we think of as normal won’t be normal to my grandkids…if I had any. Things change, and our awkward steps to make them fit into a sensible picture is becoming too complicated for my 79 year old mind. I keep think I am flexible, but my flexibility seems to be deserting me when I most need it.
Rave on Carol, its good for the soul.
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My flexibility is also rapidly waning. It’s kind of like I just don’t want to flex anymore after doing it so frequently in my 79 years.
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You Stated — ” And so I stay inside my home, anti-social and isolated, because I feel the need to hide from the world out there.”
My Response — That’s an interesting view of the world… to be afraid of it.
I find that to be very curious. Such a strange way to look at something so helpless.
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Not so much afraid of. More afraid for.
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Interesting
So you “hide” because you have fear for something else.
I’m not sure if hiding for one fear is less interesting than hiding for another but you fascinate me.
As long as you are safe in your seclusion all must be right from your perspective.
Like a security blanket… albeit a very peculiar one given your response.
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You and I are very far apart in understanding one another – which is to be expected considering we know absolutely nothing about each other. However, I would appreciate you giving up on the armchair psychoanalysis – it’s quite annoying, actually. Let’s move on to something of interest, okay?
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You Stated — “I would appreciate you giving up on the armchair psychoanalysis – it’s quite annoying,”
My Response — Absolutely, there are so many other things to talk about in the world.
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Your garden is truly beautiful. I am sure you will eat very good vegetables.
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