One of the things that I don’t understand is that I age, I become (believe it or not), more patient, more forgiving, and trying to be kinder than I was when I was younger. But I also see a large number of people just getting angrier and angrier, more bitter, and hurtful to others. Why?
You Were A Good Boy, Champ (Biden’s Dog)Reader Interactions
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Mike in NC
Tucker Carlson and all the other scum that populate FOX News?
zhena gogolia
@Mike in NC:
They truly are poisonous.
The country’s racism is eating it alive. But there was a good, hopeful message on Penzey’s newsletter today. I’ll try to find it and post it.
Here it is — it’s much longer, but this is a sample.
Josie
Honestly, John, I think they are disappointed at how their lives (children, mates, jobs, etc.) have turned out and are looking for someone else besides themselves to blame it on.
Steve in the ATL
Light rain today at lunchtime so I had to wait to grill my salmon. #FML
Also, conservatives/revanchists around the world fucking things up for everyone.
Chetan Murthy
I’ve certainly felt myself getting angrier towards “the other half” of America. I think they want to kill us all, and as I contemplate what might be coming in 2022 and 2024, my fear is stoking that anger.
I think a lot about how Black Americans withstood “all this” without exploding, for centuries, and I just don’t think I have that in me. It’s not what I signed-up for, all those decades ago when I was a kid. I remember when the Freedom Train came thru D/FW, and I wrote an essay that won me a free admission. It seems a long time ago, and in a different country.
mrmoshpotato
?Spice up your life ? ?
artem1s
My patience is largely dependent on who is involved. My patience with white privilege, glibertarians and folks who keep demanding others wait in the back of the line is gone. My patience with BiPoC and their allies is infinitely greater than when I was younger.
Tony Jay
You have us, you lucky, lucky man.
You’re welcome.
PsiFighter37
@Josie: This is probably it. Having children in particular has a way of grinding one’s nerves, no matter how lovable the kid may be. That, at least, is my experience. I am much more prone to being stressed out and getting anxious about juggling things now than I ever was before my daughter was born.
mrmoshpotato
@Steve in the ATL:
Shake a fish at the sky, and go Braves.
New Deal democrat
I think that, as a rule, on the individual level people become more able to see shades of gray in almost all behavior, and also see where they themselves did harm when they were young and reckless, and so try to become kinder and more forgiving as they grow older.
On the other hand, on the societal level, the US has let loose the demons that it thought had been exorcised and banished, including a few that are existential threats. Which means drawing some lines in the sand about what will and won’t be tolerated (by the demons themselves as well).
grubert
Some people fear aging so they deny it and when it happens they get angry.
Others accept the inevitable and are better emotionally prepared
Possible reason #73
Cameron
@Josie: Totally agree. When our hopes (no matter how ridiculous, inflated, stupid, call it whatever) disintegrate, only bad thoughts follow.
Josie
@PsiFighter37:
This is so true. Children complicate your life. You have to learn to take the long view. When something seems insoluble, ask yourself how much this will matter in five years, ten years.
FlyingToaster
I can say from personal experience that it’s periodic extreme frustration because shit just isn’t working.
I’m in an incredibly bad mood because I was awakened at 3am by spouse telling me I was snoring; since my sinuses were COMPLETELY plugged, duh. I went downstairs and sat up for two hours to get them to drain, and then fell asleep on the sofa. The yard work I’d expected to be doing at 8am is not going to happen today. The errands I was going to be working on are off the table until Monday.
So each additional thing that goes wrong (some idiot filled the dirty bowl with cold water, which will not actually soak the cheese off: Delta-H + solvent, motherfucker) gets me angrier and angrier. And I snapped when the culprit entered the room. It’s not their fault (other than not paying attention to basic chemistry), but it’s one more fucking thing I have to do over. Jeebus.
Everyone needs a vacation, and before that, they need their neighbors to go and get fucking vaccinated (I’m looking at you, [redacted]). For fucks sake.
Kay
I walked in a parade today with the local Democrats and we were all surprised that more people weren’t jeering at us – we usually get quite a few mean, shrieking comments when we go by and all we got today was one low energy “Trump 24” man. I gave him a thumbs up.
Steve in the ATL
@Tony Jay: weird glitch—only two lines of your post came through. Can you repost the other 200?
@mrmoshpotato: you’re only saying that because you want the Cards to lose. I know a fellow Cubs fan when I see one!
PsiFighter37
@Josie: Yep. The tricky thing is that kids are ever-changing, so there is no extended plateau to which you can get adjusted. My wife and I basically had the same lifestyle (and jobs) from before we were married to when our daughter was born a couple years ago. Six years of steady-state childless living upended – and I don’t think we have found our ‘new normal’ yet. I do think our next life move (buying an apartment and a car) will put a line under it to some extent. But it’s still a huge change, especially since childcare during the pandemic (especially the early days last year) we’re absolutely relentless.
Steve in the ATL
@Kay:
That was Tony Jay, indicating TFG’s weight in stones rather than pounds. You know the Brits….
A Ghost to Most
Ayn Rand and Christianity taught an entire generation that being selfish pricks is a good thing.
Raven
Shit, I’m not nearly a pissed off as I used to. It doesn’t change anything so what’s the point? FIDO
Roger Moore
@Josie: It’s not just their personal lives they’re thinking of. I think a lot of them don’t like the way the world is going, and that affects everything. If you’re a White supremacist, you probably find the state of the world terrifying; why wouldn’t that make you angry all the time?
Kay
@Steve in the ATL:
Stop picking on our British friend. Tony Jay makes up for Andrew Sullivan.
WaterGirl
@Steve in the ATL: I laughed out loud.
Nutmeg again
I agree–about the patient, kinder bit. The more garbage & pain I have gone through, the more tolerant I am. But, I suspect, that other people have the opposite reaction? Cumulative chronic pain for example, is a hellish lifescape (speaking as one with lumbar stenosis and no good strategies on the horizon). While my response is depression and resignation–also seeing lots and lots of other old folks who are bent over and limping–I fully understand a reaction that maybe requires anger to get through the day. I also think the negative response is ultimately counter-productive, since you wind yourself up and it’s just not helpful.
Also, my kid who is an expat in Europe is getting fairly pissed off that she can’t get a vaccine. One of her friends even came back to the US to get her shots. But she would just never treat anyone badly based on that, nor does she walk around scowling. And, it’s not a USian problem.
germy
What makes people so angry?
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Kay: i see jorge esprescott takes after his dad.
WaterGirl
@Kay: I thought that was good-natured teasing, not picking.
steve g
I think it’s pain. As in body pain when all the working parts start creaking and aching, and the organs stop performing 100%, and the aging body is continuously in some sort of discomfort and doesn’t work as well. It makes you grumpy, and it is just a few steps from that to being angry about something. Being nicer to other people is how you overcome that, in fact.
Josie
@PsiFighter37:
Lol. As soon as you think you’ve got it licked, the kid throws a monkey wrench into things by getting older and changing the equation. I’m on my second round now, helping to raise granddaughters due to the pandemic. It’s the circle of life. Luckily, I like my kids and my grandkids a lot. Not everyone is that lucky.
jc balinger
Donald Trump is an existential threat to the nation as long as he remains a free man and I’m keeping my fingers that he’ll eventually be sent to prison where he belongs. That being said, this lapse in judgment by Joe Biden stinks to high heaven and should not be swept under the rug by liberal pundits, BJ frontpagers, or BJ commenters. Kudos to Walter Shaub for calling out Biden for this completely unacceptable bullshit behavior.
h/t https://www.mediaite.com/biden/what-a-fcking-failure-former-us-ethics-chief-destroys-biden-in-massive-tweetstorm-for-his-administration-hiring-children-of-top-aides/
Baud
For me, it’s the hemorrhoids. All day, every day.
trollhattan
Synergy. Only it’s not the kind of synergy management promises when your company gets bought out by a larger company so you’ll be benefiting from all the new resources and capabilities, etc. Or your kid’s t-ball team that’s suddenly playing better because a couple of the kids have it figured out and the rest now have somebody to copy and it’s become fun.
It’s people’s inner anger becoming external because they’re feeding off other loud and angry people. In 21st century America Trump has been their enabler. “Be proudly angry. Don’t worry, we’ll find things for you to be angry about.” I guess it feels good? Don’t really want to know, truth be told.
realbtl
I’ll offer a simple answer; Practice. Likely they have always been sour hateful people but now that the inhibitions are loosening it’s all out there.
Baud
@jc balinger:
I’ve already got my broom out.
satby
@Josie: From my observations as I’ve aged and watched others age, this seems to be a large part of it. @grubert: And this is the other contributing factor, in my experience.
We have a society that tends to value competition and transient things; realistic expectations and contentment with less is sometimes derided as “settling”. When the dual realities of aging and falling short of their goals set in, many people feel cheated. Instead of moderating their dreams (or creating new ones) or their expectations, they become angry with all the external things they can claim thwarted the perfect life they would have had. Their anger is turned outward and by god, someone will pay!
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@Chetan Murthy:
Two things: 1) We didn’t explode because we’re not what they think we are. 2) We didn’t sign up for it either – you deal with what you have been handed. Don’t sell yourself short.
Josie
@satby: Well stated.
M. Bouffant
Other people, that’s what.
Even as testosterone (& attendant anger) have diminished, the toll on one’s patience from 60+ yrs. of dealing w/ moronic assholes is too great. And there’s always another piece of shit just waiting to fuck w/ you right around the corner.
whomever
It’s an interesting question. Some older people often have an epic sense of entitlement also. At the retirement community where my MIL lives, we tried to order a pizza and they called back and said “We don’t deliver to [Retirement Community]”. You have to work to get blackballed by a pizza shop, I’d be curious why (Wife thinks it’ because they weren’t getting tips, there is also a possibility of lots of people complaining and demanding free pizza, or more charitably seniors ordering and forgetting)
I have to say, these retirement communities seem awful to me. Everything about the Village [Note: not MIL’s community] makes it seem like hell on earth to me.
Skippy-san
I’m having a hard time getting more patient – when I see what is happening to the country. I gave a lifetime to the service of this country and I continually ask myself now, what was it for?
And then it hits me that my ability to effect change is diminishing with every day. And that makes me mad.
And I becoming more convinced that the country is not able to be saved. The Republicans will keep attacking and attacking till they get their one-party apartheid state. For my own sanity, I’m going to have to find some other place to live.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I’ll hold the dustpan for ya.
Geminid
I always thought fear and hatred were related, that people tend to hate what they fear. The right wing has been pushing fear-based hatred hard these past years, and it has overfloewed from the political sphere into other areas of civic and social life.
Some political scientists focus on the phenomenon of negative partisanship, the polarization of political groups that don’t just disagree with the other side, but fearand hate them. I don’t see this as a symetrical dynamic, though. I check out enough conservative voices on various media to see that they are selling a caricature of my side that is based on exaggeration, half truths and outright lies. But I think the people on my side rationally and correctly assess the danger that the right wing poses to the nation. And while I myself am not much of a hater, I know there are others who feel this threat more than I do.
So I wonder what the trend will be. The optimist in me thinks this public meaness will get better. But the realist in me thinks it will get worse before it does get better.
NotMax
Angry and I parted company once and for all some twenty years ago; the single thing we continue to share in common is that neither has the least motivation, desire or interest in maintaining contact.
“Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt
.
JaneE
Some of us have been holding back for 50-60 years. At my age I no longer care how it may look, when I am angry I show it. That, and the provocations have been getting worse and more frequent over the years.
Kay
@WaterGirl:
I’m just kidding. I thought it was completely fine.
M. Bouffant
@JaneE: Yes.
Villago Delenda Est
@jc balinger: I wonder. Did Schaub bother to look at the qualifications of these folks? They might be good hires, unlike say Javanka, even though they have relatives in the administration. Or is this just kneejerk Broderism? With the WaPo, you can’t rule that out.
debbie
@Mike in NC:
Their one “talent” is nursing grievances in others.
satby
@satby: And maybe because as a person of Irish heritage, it’s striking to me how much in denial our society is about aging, and the reality that each of us will die some day. That’s just a reality I grew up with: small children are included at wakes and funerals, decline and death are not hidden and not a taboo subject. Hell, we update our wills before outpatient surgery ?
I am more and more stunned by people who are older than me who’re positively pissing away the few years left to them all while pretending to themselves that they’ve got eternity to get around to doing some of the things they want to do.
Odie Hugh Manatee
As I get older I am finding that I hate old people because they forgot what it was like to be young and thus want to stop the youth of today from living their lives. Many of the hippies and stoners that I partied with in my youth are now nasty, bitter old fucks that vote for the people they hated as young adults. Trump showed around 75 million people that they too can let their freak flags fly, no matter how racist, misogynistic or white nationalistic they are. All because Trump and the Republicans have convinced them that they are Exceptional American Patriots, meaning that they believe that everyone else is subservient to their whims and wishes.
Or you’re a traitor.
How about that guy in GA that killed the cashier over having to wear a mask. Anyone want to put money on the murderer NOT being a Trump supporter?
Seriously
Gosh John, you run a blog where commenters spent years telling anyone with whom they disagreed that they should go die in a fire, go fuck a rusty chainsaw, and a dozens of other equally crude variants. Oh, yeah, and the hundreds million people in this country who own firearms all have small penises.
So, yeah, let’s talk some about civility.
dexwood
@M. Bouffant: I have a t-shirt that says, I used to be a people person, but people ruined it.
Gretchen
@Villago Delenda Est: Jen Psaki’s sister(not child) at least is a highly qualified health professional. Being against nepotism doesn’t mean that two members of the same family can’t both be among the tens of thousands of people who work for the federal government.
raven
@Odie Hugh Manatee: from the neighborhood I’d say no way
Suspect arrested in fatal DeKalb County grocery store shooting has lengthy history of prior arrests
MomSense
My great aunt used to say that “people become more of who they are as they get older”. I think that’s true.
msilaneous
John Powell SJ wrote about two old priests who lay dying. Powell, himself, was a newly ordained priest assigned to care for them in the infirmary. The first elderly priest could not be satisfied on any level with any little thing no way no how whatsoever and loudly made sure everybody within earshot knew about it. The priest in the other bed was at peace and clearly enjoying his remaining time. Relaxed and smiling, he was grateful for everything. Just being in his presence made the novice priest feel better. It struck Powell that he was going to be one of those priests someday, and how he lived his life from that moment on would determine which one it would be.*
I think most people just become more of who they’ve always been.
*He left the church and got married. LOL
John Revolta
@germy: This. Being angry is a physical sensation and you can get hooked on it! just like any other. A lot of older folks especially, but not just them, don’t have much else in the way of “buzzes” to choose from anymore but this is still available to get the heart racing. And so they keep tuning in, which = ratings = $$$!
divF
@jc balinger: One of these is not like the others. In universities it is a standard practice to recruit spouses, even if they’re working in adjacent fields, provided they meet the qualifications for the position. This is an acknowledgement of the fact that both members of a couple are accomplished professionals, and part of the recruitment process is to do whatever possible for both members to pursue their careers. Couples with careers in public policy / public administration are no different, perhaps even more so since their are only two employers in DC in these fields: the federal government, and lobbying shops. My preference would be to have the spouse in the former, rather than the latter.
Betty
@Nutmeg again: I feel your pain. – literally – lumbar stenosis is not a joke.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Seriously:
I hope you had a couch close by to collapse onto when you finished writing…
back of hand to forehead too, of course.
James E Powell
@jc balinger:
Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I will forward your report to people who I trust will give it all due consideration.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@raven:
I’d have lost the bet…lol
Ohio Mom
jc balinger:
Your comment is hilariously apt for this thread.
You want us to froth at the mouth — to get furious — that Biden followed his prerogative to put whoever he likes in certain, non-civil service positions?
This is exactly what Cole is talking about, people who cultivate anger and divisiveness for whatever gratification it gives them.
Elizabelle
@jc balinger: Whenever I see language like “X destroyed Y”, I know it’s clickbait and ignore it. Maybe phrases like that are catnip to the far left and far right. I don’t know.
Funny of you to bring that item up, though, in a blogpost about why are people so angry? I will not click on it, but isn’t that the emotion your mediaite link wants to provoke?
germy
@John Revolta:
I’m hoping the legalization of cannabis becomes more widespread, if only to give the rageaholics something more peaceful to get hooked on.
Elizabelle
@Ohio Mom: Funny. We made the same basic comment in the same moment.
Yep.
J R in WV
I have to say, I think there’s probably a big difference between hiring relatives of senior appointments in the Biden admin and that same practice in the Trump admin. Trump didn’t care if the relative being hired was educated or competent, while I bet in the Biden admin someone is assigned to make sure these lower level appointments can walk, talk, and read without moving their lips.
Now, we know that being admitted to and graduating from a high-end institution like West Point or Harvard doesn’t guarantee actual education nor competence, look at Mr. Kushner or Mr. Pompeo, but perhaps, just maybe these relatives have good job records and recommendations. Did Mr Schaub bother to look into that? I bet not…
Elizabelle
@msilaneous: It’s a good story, and your * makes it all the better.
raven
@Odie Hugh Manatee: I just followed on the local news. There’s a lot of shootin going on in the ATL.
raven
@Elizabelle: Great minds travel on the same path, so do sewers! Ca Ching!
MomSense
@Baud:
I’ll grab the dustpan.
Teamwork!
James E Powell
@MomSense:
I heard it as “People don’t change, they become more so.”
germy
@Elizabelle:
I stopped reading “RawStory” a long time ago for that reason. It was becoming more and more clickbait; all heat but no light.
Another Scott
I was driving home on the Parkway in the late afternoon a few days ago. Saw an old white guy in an old, well cared for, white Honda Prelude on the right on a cross street up ahead. I wasn’t sure if he was going to try to turn left in front of me, but I made sure to keep my wits about me in case he did. The speed limit was 35 and I was going maybe 37.
Well, there was plenty of space – maybe 100 yards? – and he made the turn just fine with plenty of room to spare and nobody had to drive like Mario Andretti and everything seemed fine, but he apparently was furious because he flipped me off as he was driving by.
I laughed.
But, yeah, lots and lots of old white people are angry these days…
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Tony Jay
@Steve in the ATL:
Hey, I can do pithy!
Just count yourself lucky I’m watching the Football. I could have indulged myself with a 200 line run-on sentence justifying that claim. 8-)
Betty
@Villago Delenda Est: My understanding is that they are minimally qualified. Not sure Biden is directly responsible, but he may need to set some guidelines.
Chetan Murthy
@J R in WV:
First, I don’t think these appointments are so problematic. Second (though) I think Walter Shaub …..well, his entire raison d’etre as a public intellectual and former official, is to push the issue of ethics in government. Third, we just went thru a period where ethics in government was …. not such a big thing, and we need to remedy that. And fourth, there are more important things to that remedy, than cracking down on these hires.
In short, I think it’s complicated. But something else: remember when Obama went from being anti-Patriot Act, to signing its renewal? At the time, people remarked that one of his reasons was (probably) that “well, I’ll use these powers for good”. And those people noted that maybe Obama’s successor wouldn’t do so, wouldn’t be very good. Might even be evil. Hmmm …. I guess we can see how that turned out.
I think it’s not so clear where the right decision lies here. Even if these appointees are eminently qualified, it’s possible that it’s still a bad appointment. OK, now my personal assessment is: fuck it, if they’re well-qualified, appoint ’em. B/c that’s not where the damn corruption is coming from. [But again, I can see why Shaub would differ, and I can see that he’s arguing in good faith.]
Gretchen
Shaub is even more infuriating when you read the WaPo article. Most of the “nepotism” hires are highly qualified professionals with years of experience in their fields. Including Psakis sister, a PhD in public health, and Ron Klein’s wife. They should have been passed over for reasons.
James E Powell
I’d like to think I get less angry as I age because I’ve become a better person, but I think a lot of it is that I’ve become too lazy, too indifferent to summon up the energy for anger. Things that used to piss me off just get an eye roll.
Elizabelle
John’s question is a good one.
We are seeing rageaholics and disruption on airliners, too. And it’s even more scary at ground level. That guy picking a fight (about masks, about whatever). Are you sure he is not armed, too? And ready to snap?
I know a lot of you find me stupid and naive, but a lot of this has been mainstreamed by Fox News, and now its even more egregious competitors. I think you can lay a lot of deaths and injuries, and an absolute threat to maintaining a functioning democracy, at Fox News’/Rupert Murdoch’s/dead Roger Ailes feet.
They know how to manipulate their viewers, to incredibly negative effect. It’s using the public airwaves to foist the media equivalent of an Exxon Valdez every single day.
If you could see the oil and all the damaged creatures, you would do something about it. But people just say “First Amendment” and “Educate people to think critically.”
But they are not doing anything about the oil. And you cannot go up against brainwashing, which this is a form of, with “education” when the first lesson imparted is “you cannot trust any other sources.”
No one is writing articles like “I lost my dad and grandparents to CNN.” It’s the rightwing propaganda model. And we keep allowing it to pollute and destroy and divide.
jc balinger
@Baud: @?BillinGlendaleCA:
Thanks for confirming what I expected. At Balloon Juice, there’s nothing Biden or Harris can ever do that merits criticism.
I don’t take a back seat to anyone when it comes to the contempt I have for Trump, McConnell, McCarthy, and their mouthpieces on Fox News. However, I still believe it’s possible to walk and chew gum at the same time. Republicans need to be called out for trying to undermine our Constitution but when Biden or Harris do something clearly wrong they need to be called out as well. Clearly, Biden or Harris at their absolute worst will always be better than any Republican in the White House but I don’t believe in pledging blind loyalty to any politician.
Elizabelle
@jc balinger: Oh get over yourself.
NotMax
An interlude for some Peggy Lee.
Baud
@jc balinger:
Straw man arguments. I’m not being dismissive of all criticism of Biden/Harris or dismissive of this one out of blind loyalty. I’m dismissive because the argument is so weak as to be borderline frivolous. In all my life, I’ve never heard of the “only one family member in government” rule that Schaub is now pushing. So if there’s no ethical violation, there’s no reason to engage in debate over the ethical violation.
Believe it or now, people don’t just get to declare something unethical. They actually have to have a sound basis for the claim.
laura
@Seriously: A hearty Fuck Your Guns to you good sir!
Villago Delenda Est
@J R in WV: TFG only cared if his appointees were loyal. To him, personally, not to their oaths of office.
CaseyL
Besides the obvious – the world is changing from where they were comfortable, and they want to stop it from doing that – I think a lot of people suffer from unfulfilled dreams and ambitions.
Too many people take the path of least resistance, waiting for something terrific to fall into their laps, or settling for whatever comes their way. They get out of high school or college, take the first job that’s offered, marry the first person who says “yes,” have kids for all the wrong reasons… and 30 years on, realize they were place-holders in their own lives.
That realization – that you never actually lived your life, you merely existed – has to be a dreadful thing, leading either to rage or deep melancholy.
WaterGirl
@Kay: Oh, good! :-)
mrmoshpotato
@Steve in the ATL:
True. No use rooting for the Cubs today. Go Braves, go Rockies!
ETA – postponed, bummer.
Elizabelle
Honestly, I wonder if we could ever regulate Fox News, etc., as we finally ended up regulating the tobacco companies.
It’s the same thing. Toxic product, and big lies and distraction to avoid others coming to that conclusion.
All the anger. All the guns. All the lack of healthcare and public services. It is all exacerbated — on purpose — by the rightwing, in particular. They just helped foment an insurrection at the US Capitol, for dog’s sake. They have distorted the Republican party — you have congresscritters behaving like they’re auditioning for rightwing programming now. They’re all Joseph McCarthy. And they have no decency. They are lemmings.
This is not just Trump’s party. It is Roger Ailes’/Rupert Murdoch’s/Rush Limbaugh’s too. They prepared the way for a Trump.
Why could we not learn from what Hitler and Joseph Goebbels wrought in the middle of the last century?
Because those who would destroy democracy studied that example very carefully.
khead
@jc balinger:
Sir, this is an Arby’s.
randy khan
I am pretty much not an angry person, but I see a lot more of it around me. I will echo, though, what was said above that, the more I think about it, the more impressed I am by BIPoC people who aren’t angry (or, maybe more accurately, don’t let it show). It’s easy for a straight white Christian guy like me. I’m not sure I could handle what people not like me have to go through all their lives.*
*Just to add – I know that, in fact, at a certain level not acting angry is a necessity for BIPoC people, not a choice, but I’m still not convinced I could do it.
Tony Jay
@Seriously:
What do you mean ‘spent’? Tenses, how dooz dey wurk?
Anyway, yes, people who hoard firearms all have small penises. Comes from not wiping off the toxic gun-oil when they, to quote some of the Ammosexual fetish flics with which I’m sure you’re passingly familiar, change weapons before discharge.
Enjoyed this chat. Don’t forget to tip your waitress* on the way out.
*Or maybe vote for the people who would legislate to raise the minimum wage so she doesn’t need your tips to survive. That’s probably the civil thing to do.
WaterGirl
@Tony Jay: Have you been taking lessons from Baud?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jc balinger: I worked for a company that had one rule about relationships among employees and hiring spouses, as long as they don’t report to the other person, it’s OK. I feel the same way about this.
Jager
I turned 76 yesterday and we decided to buy a new (used) sailboat, it’s a 37 foot Swan, a classic. The deal clincher with my wife? We had a sailing friend when we lived in Massachusetts, Ben was 80 years old and still sailing. He and his wife invited us to go on an evening cruise. Ben was at the wheel, his wife next to him, he put down his beer, pulled her close, whispered something in her ear, she giggled and he squeezed her boob. The old girl laughed and kissed the old boy. I told my wife, we need to be like Ben and Angie in our golden years. She agreed. Our first trip will be to Channel Islands National Park. BTW, Old Ben told me the only thing he didn’t do anymore is to change headsails in 25 knots of wind.
ian
Self-reinforcing media that generates revenue and viewership through negative stories and narratives
Huh, should have read the comments. #1 beat me to it.
Chetan Murthy
@divF: This is so well-known that it has a name (which I’m sure you know): the “two-body problem”. Another reason why this isn’t a big deal.
Geminid
@germy: Virginia country boys next year: “Yeah, they’re talking about taking our guns again…but have you tried that Maui Diesel? It’s indica crossed with a diploid sativa, and man, I’m tellin’ ya…..”
PST
@jc balinger: The fact that relatives of some Biden aides also have jobs in the administration does not bother me very much. For a lot of people, politics is the family business. Wonks marry one another and then have children who grow up thinking that taking staff positions in Congress and aspiring to jobs in the bureaucracy is normal. This isn’t like being given a no-show patronage job in city government. Take Ron Klain’s wife, Monica Medina. She has spent most of her career being an environmental lawyer in government during Democratic administrations and outside of government otherwise. Her path is not all that different from her husband’s. She started as a military lawyer, moved to a counsel position in the Senate, was tapped by Janet Reno to run the environmental section at DOJ, then became general counsel of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Under Obama, she was back in a top job at the NOAA, then went to Defense and drafted the regulations to allow women to take combat positions. In other words, she is the real deal and very well qualified for the job she is being nominated for. My questions is what would you prefer someone like her to be doing. During the Reagan years she was at a giant law firm, and if she was in demand then, imagine what she could be pulling in now. The real scandal is family members on the outside trading on their connections. It seems me that this nomination puts Medina exactly where we would want her to be, earning a middle-class paycheck in a responsible position she is fit to fill, and not out peddling influence for millions. This may not be perfect — it would be better if she was teaching at a community college — but spouses of the powerful have a right to pursue their careers too, and this seems harmless. It is nothing like the Javanka situation, with relatives at the center of White House policy making.
Gretchen
I look forward to Peter Doocey asking Jen Psaki if her sister. Is a nepotism hire.
Steve in the ATL
Anyone who actually reads Balloon Juice would know that Biden was *literally* no one’s first choice here. So spare us the trolling, whether you’re a moronic Trumpalo or a moronic Bernie bro.
That said, Biden has proven to be exactly what the doctor ordered (figuratively, not literally, even though his wife’s a doctor instead of an Eastern European hooker) so he gets the benefit of the doubt on all decisions until evidence proves otherwise.
Plus, another poster, one who is a known quantity here, explained why hiring family members is a common practice. if you have evidence that these hires are incompetent or were hired for personal loyalty only, we are all ears.
Otherwise, kindly fuck off until you have something useful to say.
Baud
@Jager:
Why are you living my dream?
Tony Jay
@WaterGirl:
I took one of his online courses. I though “Stop. Be funnier. Now Post” was the course title. Nope. That was the course.
£25 that cost me, and I’m still stuck on his PACs mailing list. Every week another graphic mankini picture, another hand-written note asking if it’s doing anything for me yet.
Still vote for him though.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jager: The trip to Channel Islands NP should be nice, enjoy. I’ve never been.
Baud
@Steve in the ATL:
We had a couple of Biden people. They were prescient.
Another Scott
Why are people so angry? Could it be that too many liars are deliberately feeding them lies??
(via nycsouthpaw)
Cheers,
Scott.
Steve in the ATL
@Gretchen: well played!
Jager
@Baud:
May as well spend the retirement money on something that makes me smile and the maintenance will keep me busy.
Jager
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Go and don’t forget your cameras.
Jeffery
“Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death.“ Auntie Mame
Steve in the ATL
@Baud: you know damn well I would never use the word “literally” correctly!
@Tony Jay: this post is an an excellent example of why you’re my favorite scouser since Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant
Another Scott
@jc balinger:
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
Ohio Mom
jc balinger:
A subtext to this thread’s discussion is the adult task of developing and maintaining a sense of proportion in all aspects of life.
You don’t have any.
Apparently all the individuals in question were apointed to jobs they were qualified to do, and the jobs are just that, appointments the President is entitled/obligated to make.
That’s the bottom line.
Get back to us when there is evidence of kickbacks, bribes, or other blatantly illegal behavior.
Right now, all you have is a case of offended aesthetics. You don’t like how it looks. This is this same category of not liking someone’s new hairdo.
debbie
@Another Scott:
Oh man, that candy dish filled with after-dinner butter mints. ?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jager:
There’s always lovely photos from BillinGlendaleCA .
Baud
@Tony Jay:
It has made you very funny. Have you thought about signing up for the advanced training course: Stop Again. Be Funniest. Now Post Again. It’ll raise your commenting to the next level.
Chetan Murthy
@Tony Jay: Given how funny your posts are, that’s quite an advert for Baud’s online course. Where do we sign up?
ian
@Tony Jay:
SHHH!!! Don’t tell anyone Baud’s votes are from Britain!
Baud
@ian:
The votes aren’t from Britain. The vote changing blimp is from Britain.
Another Scott
@debbie:
rofl. :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Roger Moore
@Gretchen:
To be more specific, nepotism means relatives hiring each other. As long as the person making the hiring decision isn’t the one who’s relative is being hired, it isn’t nepotism. Joe Biden deciding Jen Psaki’s sister is worth offering a job in his administration isn’t nepotism, because Jen Psaki isn’t the one making that hiring decision. There may be an issue with cronyism, but determining that requires that you look at the qualifications of the person being hired.
Soprano2
@Villago Delenda Est: The article did say that all the hires were highly qualified for their jobs except the one recent college graduate. A lot of sound and fury about not much. A couple of them worked for the campaign, too.
Tony Jay
@Steve in the ATL:
First Kay, now you. When did this this blog become an online self-esteem resource?
OMG. Am I dying?
@Baud:
Hold it right there, slick. I know your game. Another £25 and the PAC literature switches to weekly? No mankini, just legs akimbo on the back of a shocked alpaca?
I checked. That, sir, is not what I would call proper Animal Husbandry.
I’ll still vote for you though.
Roger Moore
@MomSense:
I’m not sure I buy that. Some people become more who they’ve always been, but some people have really big personality changes. Sometimes that’s a warning sign of some kind of underlying health problem- things like brain tumors can wreak havoc on someone’s personality- but it can also happen because of a major life event. Look at all the people who went totally off the deep end after 9/11, for instance. Maybe the potential to be that way was always there, but it wasn’t expressed until a big event brought it out in them.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud:
Led Zeppelin?
JPL
@Steve in the ATL: Since we are airing our grievances, how the hell were you able to grill at lunchtime. It’s been raining although lightly, since eleven.
Cermet
As for me, couldn’t be happier as I age (approaching mid-60’s); I focus on improving myself and understanding the world and universe far better every year.
That all said, I agree that the fake news (aka Fox) has created only hate and this has a big part in creating so many angry white men – add that the liberals are obviously right – AGW is getting worse, our society is improving by creating marriage equality which a majority now support; a black man was president and was very successful and finally, a woman won the election in votes cased. The issue is these old farts can’t stand seeing anyone get equal to their privilege position.
nclurker
@Baud: for me,it’s the fucking tourists.
all summer,every summer.
Kirk Spencer
I cannot speak for others, but I am getting angrier as I age.
It is happening for me because my plans and expectations of my aged self have gone kerfluie, and not in a good way. I had expected, while younger and even into early middle age, that I would retire in my 50s or 60s with a paid off house and a modest retirement income (lower to middle middle class was fine in my book at the time.) I’d spend my retirement years gaming, sculpting, painting, gardening, cooking, and a few other hobbies.
Instead for various reasons I find myself looking at working 60ish hours a week most weeks of the year till my mid-70s so my retirement will give me maybe that lower middle class income, NOT owning a house, that same hours per work week leaving me little time to enjoy my hobbies (but liking a roof overhead, food on the table, and medical care for me and my spouse more).
And so the anger is born and fed. That my fingers are pointed at various Republican politicians and high capitalists instead of democratic politicians and racial targets is because of my experiences, not because I’m a better person.
I understand their anger because I have it as well. I am frustrated that (in my opinion, and probably that of most jackals) they keep supporting the people who feed that anger. But it makes it no less real, and for that they have my sympathy and ironically my patience.
Please don’t dismiss it or marginalize it. Understand it, work to make it unnecessary, perhaps aid in redirecting it, and above all please have patience with it insofar as you are able. Maybe as a result we’ll all be a little better off in the end.
Another Scott
@Roger Moore:
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@Tony Jay: hahaha
WaterGirl
@Baud: Both of them!
Dorothy A. Winsor
I’m angrier. I think the R devolution has led me to pay more attention, which is made easier by social media. What I see is infuriating.
Kent
But Trump just tapped into the hate that already existed. He is a mirror reflecting back what this country is actually made of.
different-church-lady
Because the mavens of cable news and social media make more money when people are angry.
Amir Khalid
An observation I heard on The Lucy Show many many years ago has stayed with me through all these decades: Some people mellow with age; others ferment.
piratedan
@jc balinger: Hellloooooo Nurse!… I mean pie filter.
Tony Jay
@Chetan Murthy:
I found it at http://www.mad/bad/thebaudiknow.ru. But I think you can still sign up via the Parolee Rehabilitation Portal hosted on the Shawshank Penitentiary server.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I still blame them for Nixon.
Steve in the ATL
@JPL: intermittent here, a few miles from you. Still very blah though, even when not precipitating. Wife is napping, golden retriever is also napping, as always.
J R in WV
@jc balinger:
Pretty hasty comment. You obviously didn’t look up these people before you bought into the criticism of Biden’s staff appointments. Of the four people named that I took the time to research, two are clearly qualified, the others appear to be good hires.
Here’s what I could quickly look up for these newly hired. Both Daniel Ricchetti and Monica Medina are extremely qualified.
Daniel Ricchetti – Education and work history:
Education
Georgetown University Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service – MA, security studies (2014-2016)
Activities and notes: Concentration in technology and security studies
College of William and Mary – BA, history and government, magna cum laude (2011-2013)
Activities and notes: Baseball
Kenyon College – Attended (2009-2011)
Activities and notes: Baseball
Potomac School (McLean, Va.) – High school diploma (2009)
Employment History
U.S. Department of State Office of the Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security (Jan. 2021-)
Senior Adviser
Senate Foreign Relations Committee (2020-Jan. 2021)
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ)
Legislative Analyst/Policy Analyst
Senate Foreign Relations Committee (Feb. 2018-2020)
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ)
Operations Director/Legislative Aide
Senate Foreign Relations Committee (2017-Feb. 2018)
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD)
Operations Director/Legislative Aide
Senate Foreign Relations Committee (April 2015-2017)
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD)
Operations Director
Senate Foreign Relations Committee (Dec. 2013-April 2015)
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ)
Staff Assistant
J. J. Ricchetti recently graduated from U Penn, so this may be his first real job.
Shannan Ricchetti is a 2016 graduate of Franklin and Marshall, and has had several responsible jobs already:
Deputy Associate Director, Office of the Social Secretary
The White House
Jan 2021 – Present 6 months
Washington DC-Baltimore Area
Research Assistant
The Biden-Harris Presidential Transition
Sep 2020 – Jan 2021 5 months
Program Coordinator
The Aspen Institute
Sep 2018 – Sep 2020 2 years 1 month
Washington D.C. Metro Area
Planned, executed, and led fellowship seminars: programming, venue procurement, contract negotiation, logistical planning, coordination, tracking, and on-site managing of all materials, correspondence, travel, activities, expenses, vendors, and participants of the events. Correspondence and relationship management for fellows, vendors, and stakeholders. Production of post-event evaluations to capture program successes, improvement, and impact.
Facilitated nominations, interviews, and…
Contract Researcher
Historic Preservation Projects
Jan 2018 – Jul 20187 months
Washington D.C. Metro Area
Various projects including work for the National Association of Olmsted Parks, the Cleveland Arts Museum, and the North Country Garden Club of Long Island.
Project Researcher
Organization of American Historians
May 2016 – Nov 20171 year 7 months
Washington D.C. Metro Area
Monica Medina:
Medina received an Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps scholarship in 1979 and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Georgetown College. She received her Juris Doctor with honors from Columbia Law School.[3][4]
Career
Medina began her career in the office of the General Counsel of the Army, where she served on active duty in the United States Army.
From 1989 to 1992, she served as Senior Counsel to the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
Clinton administration
In 1992, she was appointed by Janet Reno to serve as Deputy Associate Attorney General at the United States Department of Justice, with oversight of the Environment Division. Medina was later appointed to serve as General Counsel of NOAA from 1997-1999. While General Counsel of NOAA, Medina represented the United States in several international negotiations, and argued and won significant cases before the United States courts of appeals.[5]
2000–2008
Medina served as a senior officer in the Pew Environment Group, where she provided advice and assistance on issues of marine law and policy. Medina also worked in the U.S. Office of the International Fund for Animal Welfare and spent a number of years as a partner at the law firm of Heller Ehrman, with a practice focused on environmental law, corporate law, and biotechnology matters. Medina served on the Presidential transition team of Barack Obama.
In the Obama administration, Medina served as Principal Deputy Undersecretary for Oceans and Atmosphere of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Medina also served as the U.S. Commissioner to the International Whaling Commission. Medina led efforts on Arctic conservation, restoration of the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, conservation of endangered species, and fisheries management and enforcement.
Medina later served as Special Assistant to United States Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, where she played a role in eliminating discrimination against women in the military and in addressing military sexual assault. Medina also drafted the rule overturning the ban on women from “combat” positions strictly because of their gender. Medina later served as a member of the Defense Department Advisory Committee on Women in the Services.
So this woman has both great academic credentials as well as a very serious job history — obviously qualified for her new appointment, regardless of her marriage to another highly qualified person.
I think Walter Shaub should be really embarrassed about this criticism of people who on the surface look to be extremely well qualified people. and commenter jc balinger should also be embarrassed for repeating this BS without making any effort to research the people being criticized as unqualified!
Chetan Murthy
@Tony Jay: Oh hey, sweet! I clicked-thru, and they have some sort of referral-rewards program? It says if I put in your credit card number, you’ll get 10% of my fee as your reward? You want in?
Baud
@Tony Jay:
Ugh. I stupidly tried to claim a free Amazon gift, and went to some weird Chinese website that came up with some scary looking code, so now I’m terrified my computer is infected.
Jager
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I know. When we get this settled, maybe I’ll run you over to the islands. The views back to the mainland on a clear night would be spectacular. The sunsets over the Pacific, too.
I’m pretty tight with Ben’s son, he tells a great story about his dad’s last night. Ben’s wife Angie had died a few years earlier, he was in his late 80s with inoperable cancer. He asked Tony to bring him a Martini when he came back for evening visiting hours. Tony mixed up a thermos full. He and his dad each had two stiff ones. Ben thanked Tony for the drinks, told him he was proud of him, that he loved him, then hugged and kissed him goodbye. Ben died three hours later. A good way to check out. Ben is an inspiration.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: So Jen Psaki pre-answered Doocey. And good for Tommy V. for standing up against the bullshit and giving Jen something public to respond to.
I suspect she thought that pre-answering Doocey was the better choice over just punching him in the face in the briefing room.
Baud
@J R in WV:
It’s worse than embarrassing. By falsely suggesting that both sides are unethical, he is effectively dumbing down ethical standards for GOP administrations.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
She would be wrong.
Ruckus
Kids start out happy and looking for fun.
Some get that ripped out of them early one.
Others get it beat out of them soon enough.
Adults often get bitter that life hasn’t given them any access to that golden ring or allowed them to even seem like they made something of themselves. And conservative adults (this is an age thing, none of them are actual adults) are pissed that others live golden lives, while they often live in almost abject poverty. Of course many of those defend those that have ripped any idea of an actual life out of their grasp, maybe that’s the confluence of hate and stupidity.
JoyceH
@Elizabelle:
Exactly. I’ve seen SO many of those ‘lost my parents to FOX’ articles – the parents retire and start watching FOX news and the sweet sensible people who raised them turn into frothing rageoholics.
I read one of those articles, though, where the adult child was asked by the parents to hook up their new television. He used the child block to block Fox news and when their parents realized it was missing, he told them their new package didn’t include Fox. And gradually they reverted to being their old selves.
Maybe the Dominion and Smartmatic lawsuits against Fox will put them out of business, or at least motivate them to change their business model? Yes, there’s Newsmax and OAN, but those don’t have nearly the reach of Fox. I think a lot of good would come from Fox News just going dark.
Michael Cain
I’ve always been pretty mellow, and don’t think I’m more or less mellow than I used to be. So far as I can remember, I’ve always started out the day with “Today I will do something interesting and useful.” The rest of it follows from there.
PST
@J R in WV: I agree with everything, and to add something that I said or implied in an earlier post, we want these well qualified relatives in government, doing the people’s work, not at Goldman Sachs being paid a fortune in the hope that they have influence with their kin.
Another Scott
@Baud: Yup.
It’s fine and good to demand that everyone stand up to the letter and spirit of the law. But going off like this – when there’s not even a suggestion that anything was wrong – is very bad. He should know better.
Cheers,
Scott.
Tony Jay
@Chetan Murthy:
Oh I’m already in it deeper than Troy McClure at a Koi Carp speed-dating site. Say, why don’t you hit the button to sign up for the Special New Guest credit card and use that to do the referral? It’s free money, man!
@Baud:
We own you now.
Continue as if nothing has happened.
When the time is ripe, we will be in touch.
You know how to read instructions in Italian, right? That’s kind of important for this to work.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Baud:
When I was working for the federal government, I knew plenty of husband / wife couples where both were working for the same agency.
There is of course no rule against it and nobody suggesting it even smells unethical. Everybody goes through the normal competitive hiring process.
Uncle Cosmo
@jc balinger: FUCK OFF AND DIE, ASSHOLE.
Seriously
@Tony Jay:
I take it that English isn’t your first language:
past tense: spent; past participle: spent
used to show the activity in which someone is engaged or the place where they are living over a period of time.
“she spent a lot of time traveling”
Chetan Murthy
@Tony Jay:
I bow before the master.
LiminalOwl
@zhena gogolia: Thank you. That’s lovely, as Penzey’s so often is. (I’m on their mailing list but somehow didn’t get this one?)
Another Scott
@Seriously: Um, really? You want to go there??
Cheers,
Scott.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jager: I’ve shot the sunset from Leo Carrillo with the Channel Islands in front of the Sun, it’s quite a view.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Seriously: You must be new here, Tony Jay speaks the Queen’s English.
Ohio Mom
Kirk Spencer:
I hear you. The level of economic fear and insecurity too many of us live with is unconscionable in this, the much ballyhooed, richest country on earth. We are struggling with money anxiety here in Ohio family too.
Still, we manage to keep our manners in everyday life. We aren’t gratuitously angry at strangers. I am betting you aren’t either.
Suzanne
Because their lives are deeply disappointing to them. They cannot help but cast that energy around on their other interactions.
I was just commenting to my family in the last couple of days that I was always left-of-center, but I have been significantly more radicalized since 2016. I no longer have the willingness to extend good faith to a lot of people and organizations who have proven to be shitty. Trump supporters, conservative evangelicals, ammosexuals, and anti-vaxxers are at the top of that list.
Uncle Cosmo
Bullshit. He was mine.
The rest of you demonstrated to all the world that, when it comes to anything more politically sophisticated than stuffing envelopes with flyers, you’re imbeciles. Regardless of how many degrees or honorifics you duct tape to your names.
Ruckus
@Kirk Spencer:
I thought I’d be retired before now. But I’m on my second day of retirement and I’ll be 72 yrs OLD shortly.
Anger at life gets you nothing but increased blood pressure.
You share the world with wonderful people of all ages. Also with assholes of most ages. People with wide ranges of abilities, people with no abilities what so ever. I can understand disliking the people that want to hurt you, make you unable to retire and take it easy and yes, even be bored. But life is what comes at you and how you do what you can with it. Some have wonderful lives, some have just shit. Some get treated like crap because their skin is a darker color or their eyes are a bit different or likely numerous other bullshit reasons. But angry that life didn’t give you what you wanted? When does it ever? Certainly not in my life. From Oct 2016 to Nov 2018 I lost 12 friends to death, only one older than me, and that by one year. Both my parents and sister gone before then. Could life be better? Sure it could. Could conservatives all have a come to Jesus moment? Possible but extremely unlikely. Each of our lives are what we make of them. Some need help just to live. Some lots of help. Some steal far more than what they need, because they are greedy as fuck. Does that make me angry? Sure, but I try very hard not to let that anger be my guiding light, because that makes me no better than the shitheads. I’d guess that my life’s view is that no where is it true that we get everything we want, or even need, and that I can be angry about that, or I can live a better life by just trying.
Redshift
I think I’m in agreement with most here, that it’s always been true that people get grumpy about things changing as they get older, but now we have right-wing media telling them the change is a deliberate attack on them, and they should be outraged rather than grumpy.
And the other change, that I attribute more to TFG, is that liberals increasingly gave up on our natural inclination toward good-faith argument after getting nothing but bile in return and just went straight to fuck you.
Personally, despite flashes of anger, I’m still pretty mellow and hope to remain determined rather than angry.
J R in WV
And you all are right about the utility of the pie filter for @jc balinger — no need to read any more of that. I’m glad I looked up online data about some of the people jc dumped upon, tho. He obviously didn’t bother, just copied other brainless criticism of obviously qualified people and published it. Now gone into the filter ozone.
And Google tells me jc balinger has never posted here before — SHOCKED!!! A troll, here?!!
Steve in the ATL
@Uncle Cosmo: you are truly the Tom Brady of Balloon Juice. Or possible you’re the type of the person Mr. Cole was describing in his post.
Uncle Cosmo
@Another Scott: It’s JOHNS Hopkins, Jen. Not a possessive; no frackin’ apostrophe!!
Jager
@Ruckus:
I’m with you brother, I was on the job until just before my 73rd. I’d go back to work in a minute if I could find a job I liked.
Chetan Murthy
@Steve in the ATL: I, uh, think, uh, Uncle Cosmo is doin’ this for comic effect.
Ruckus
@JoyceH:
Faux news will have to be shut down because it will never leave, unless the money dries up. Because there is too much to steal, what with the legitimate commercials and all the grift that the illegitimate commercials bring.
debbie
@Kirk Spencer:
I’m not angry; I’m resigned. I don’t know if that’s better or worse.
Tony Jay
@Seriously:
Well bubble-soak my diablos and call me Tootsie, I literally just finished ironing a “Fuck Me Are You From 2003?” logo onto a T-Shirt and now I get to wear it in celebration of whatever you think that was. Talk about serendipity, eh?
That’s you talking about us doing these things of which you speak in the past tense. We still do them. A lot. You’d know that if you hung around here more instead of spending your evenings sniffing the seats at Kevin Sorbo premieres hoping to identify a mate.
You’d best stop that, btw. They’re on to you.
Elizabelle
@Ruckus:
You’re on your second day of retirement? Congratulations, Ruckus.
TomatoQueen
@Another Scott: Unless I missed something earlier, this is the first we’ve heard a public statement from Shaub in some while. Maybe he’s had an operation and is reacting to pain meds. It just doesn’t fit apart from righteous tone with his past pronouncements. It is also the stupidest thing I have ever heard from a man who has worked in this town for at least ten minutes. Preferential treatment for one’s nephew is how we roll, and it is one part of the human infrastructure here, going back generations. Shaub has no right not to know that. There are clear rules about how it works (you don’t work directly for a relative, but you can work for the same agency) and they are no different from the same rules at 99 percent of large institutions. The real problem is that there are too many well qualified, experienced, valuable employees who were driven away from public service (USDA, State, Interior, Commerce, DOJ) and there’s no sign of them returning. So to the ppl who whine and bitch about how slow everything is, I say, do everyone a favor and either FOAD or go beg on your knees to get those people back.
Ruckus
@Jager:
I’ve never had a job I liked except for one, owning my bicycle shop. My previous job had been in Pro Sports and the very basics of that job was saying no. Also because I always had to work. Now that’s not to say that I didn’t take enjoyment out of the effort, just that for the most part the work side of it was dirty, somewhat risky with a more than slight possibility of injury, and time consuming as possible. The reward to effort ratio wasn’t exactly on my side.
Another Scott
@Uncle Cosmo: I blame autocorrect.
You should too. :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Ruckus
@Elizabelle:
Thank You very much.
It was 60 yrs of paid working to get here, almost to the day. I must have really screwed the pooch somewhere along the line, before or after birth to have the path I’ve been on. Oh well at least it was honest work, unlike say being a conservative anything.
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
Maybe so, but not nearly as much fun for the rest of us.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@TomatoQueen: Yup, I noted above how the company I worked handled it pretty much the same. When I was a paralegal, my boss was dating a woman who was supervising the secretaries and word processing group. When I moved into the IT group, about a year later his girlfriend became my supervisor in that group. As long as one wasn’t in the other’s reporting structure, it wasn’t seen as a problem.
JoyceH
Just how MANY grifter-crackpots are involved in the Big Lie? The Post has an article ferreting out the roots of the Italygate conspiracy (that alleges that votes were flipped from Trump to Biden by Italian satellites), and right down at the bottom of it is Michele Roosevelt Edwards. This weird lady gave an interview the day after the election from a mansion that she claimed was her home, but was actually an estate that was for sale, that she somehow got into and pretended to live there for the cameras.
“Edwards told the crew that the estate was her property, according to their footage. “This is my bedroom,” she said, showing the crew around. “This is very private space.”
She was pressed on the lack of personal items in the house.
“So this is where you live?” she was asked.
“Yes.”
“This is your property?”
“Yes.”
When the interviewer noted that website listings showed the property for sale, Edwards said it was a “recent acquisition for us.” She said it was not for sale.
But North Wales was then — and is now — owned by a company formed by David B. Ford, a retired financier who died in September. Ford’s widow said in an interview that she did not know Edwards. The Post showed her the footage of Edwards inside the property.
“She’s in my house,” the widow said. “How is she in my house?” ”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/italygate-michele-edwards-meadows-trump/2021/06/19/2f6314d2-d05f-11eb-8014-2f3926ca24d9_story.html
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
And seemingly quite well.
Halcyon
Why does anyone do any drug?
Rage is a drug, John. I don’t mean that, like, metaphorically. I mean literally, it’s got addictive properties and releases those same chemicals into the brain. It’s an addiction. Tucker and the rest of them are just smashing the button to send the happy chemicals directly into the brains of our nation’s Olds and others.
msilaneous
@Elizabelle: Thanks!
Jinchi
There’s the perfect answer in the first comment.
I was genuinely surprised at how much and how immediately the level of virtiol dropped after Trump was banned from Twitter. Imagine a world where Fox and rightwing media ceased to exist.
Skippy-san
@Ruckus: Exactly.
Elizabelle
@JoyceH: Wow. You just cannot make this stuff up.
Tony Jay
I guess the very concerned troll had a ticket to another premiere.
Oh well, you canna teach the unteachable. And I suppose it’s for the best now that I’ve got the ale in me.
brendancalling
Speaking for myself, I feel like I can’t talk to strangers anymore—I’m always waiting for them to say something stupid about 5G chips in the vaccine, or “both parties are the same,” etc. I tend to be fairly gregarious normally, but the pandemic left a mark on my psyche.
I make an exception for kids, but no one else. I’m far less tolerant or charitable than I’ve been previously. To paraphrase Dwight Yoakum, “I don’t know you, but I don’t like you.” Nobody gives a damn about anybody else, and I reckon if no one gives a damn about me, I don’t give a damn about them.
I don’t like feeling this way, and hope I change back. Two tears in a bucket, motherfuck it.
L85NJGT
That and Lead poisoning.
Viva BrisVegas
Remember that Goebbels and his Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda wasn’t the Nazi Party, they only validated the actions and goals of the Nazi Party.
Fox propaganda exists for a reason, it’s only happy chance that it makes money. Murdoch keeps dozens of loss making papers going around the world, not because of his love for journalism, but because they allow him to shape public opinion in favour of his political aims.
His political aims are simple, money and power, and he is joined by a class of billionaires who have the same aim. Kochs, Mercers et al.
The incredible transfer of wealth in the past 40 years from the working and middle classes to the very, very rich is no accident. The wealth of all western nations is being moved from the hands of the many into the hands of the few. It’s policy and it’s ongoing.
How do you pursue an economic war against the majority of the population in a democracy? Two options, you can hide it behind a culture war or you can jettison democracy. We’ve been seeing the first for the last 40 years and now we’ve moved onto the second, which I like to call the Russia Model.
Is there a shorter name for all this malarky? Well, we used to call it class warfare, but that’s a term the right has successfully canceled. So lets just call it Conservatism.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Villago Delenda Est: definitely kneejerk broderia.
i imagine ol puddingring will lead meet the press sunday with it.
Miss Bianca
@satby:
I think there is a great deal in what you say here. I know that I just went through a spasm of “I only have so many good working years left, and I’m underemployed and SHIT why didn’t I prioritize making money, I’m a LOOOOOSER,” which caused me to feel quite angry myself the other day, when it became apparent to me that an interview for a job that would have paid me a lot more than my current gigs – and scratched a latent professional itch – didn’t pan out into an offer. (or even the second interview that they had said they wanted. I think that made me more steamed than not getting the job -it felt like a diss.)
But, on the other hand, I live in a gorgeous place, with good neighbors – even if all too many people in the county in general are Trumpenproletariat – and I have fulfilling work that I’m good at, a good circle of acquaintance, and more or less decent health.
In short, I can’t really complain, although I still do, just for the practice.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Why it’s just like JarVanka!
except that it isn’t
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@CaseyL: how is ted mosby made?
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Gretchen: don’t kinkshame pete.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@jc balinger:
A quick search of her wiki page shows she has worked in high-level environment-related positions in the Canton DoJ and Obama’s Dept of State. Then she was on the faculty at Georgetown. It’s not like Klain was trying to find a hobby for the little woman. Walter Shaub needs to calm down.
Bonnie
I read somewhere that as we get older our stress hormone gets weaker and weaker, which is why we get angry more often as we age. But, who knows. I was in college when I read that. I had a very bad-tempered Dad and wondered if that was his problem. I chose just to stay away from him once I left home for good.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@?BillinGlendaleCA: whole lotta fraud.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Uncle Cosmo: autocorrect is a scourge.
Miss Bianca
@Geminid:
lol, we could use more of that attitude in Colorado! I always think it’s a crying shame a previous Board of County Commissioners nixed pot businesses in my county…I think they might have helped made our political divide a lot less fraught. I
WaterGirl
@Tony Jay: It was so tempting to drop a little catcake into that conversation, but I restrained myself.
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
That just begs to be a rotating tag.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Miss Bianca:
Nice them to direct all that business over the county line.
Tony Jay
@WaterGirl:
Their weakness was a disappointment to me. I had hopes for a proper retro wingnut tantrum before bedtime. 8-)
Steeplejack
@Betty:
Psaki’s sister, at least, is apparently well qualified.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty:
What the usual qualifications for deputy associate director of the office of the White House Social Secretary?
meanwhile, Republicans are talking about making trump Speaker if they retake the House.
matt the somewhat reasonable
@jc balinger:
nope, they’re all super qualified. you’re shit.
Brachiator
Damn interesting thread. Just seeing it now.
It is weird. As I get older, I do sometimes react more to minor shit that annoys me. But I take a breath and relax. And I think that most of my older relatives always tended to be mellow.
I can honestly say that I never heard my parents or the relatives I most respected talk disparagingly about people because of gender, ethnicity or other stupid reasons. My mother could intensely hate individuals, and often had a great phrase for these folks, “lying sacks of shit.”
And it has always been refreshing to wake up and not be filled with fear and loathing for people just trying to live in this world, or to carry around a burden of resentments all fucking day.
I knew a guy once who would say about some coworkers, or people he read about in the paper, “That guy thinks he’s hot stuff.” Never understood why this guy had such a need to keep track of people he probably envied.
Also comes to mind. Someone once angrily said I must think a lot of myself just because I went to college. I just said no, and also noted that almost everybody in my family who wanted to go to college had done so, for about three generations. To me, knowing that I would go to college was about like breathing air. Just something you take for granted. Nothing that marked me out as better than anyone else.
The real common factor was an appreciation for education and improvement in my family. It didn’t matter how you got that education.
And one of the smartest men I ever knew was an older cousin from my mother’s generation who had run away from an abusive home when he was 11 years old. He was a great cook and knew an incredible amount about jazz and popular music. And despite his early hard life, he was also one of the kindest and most generous people I have ever known.
I am incredibly lucky to have had such people like this to provide support for me when I was growing up.
Ruckus
@brendancalling:
Just laugh at them for being so fucking stupid. And when they ask what you are laughing at, keep laughing and point to them. And then walk away. Watch your back though, most of the hard core assholes are not too attached to reality.
It’s better than hitting them with something hard that will bash in their head.
Geminid
@Miss Bianca: I was kind of joking, since Virginia has legalized cannabis possession and growing four plants as of July 1. But weed has been part of country culture here at least since the 1970s, when a small wave of hippies arrived in rural Virginia. Some areas like Nelson County (south of Charlottesville) became hotbeds of growing operations large and small. By the eighties Nelson County had a local variety, “Schuyler Skunk,” famous for it’s potency and fragrance.
Ironically, Schuyler is the birthplace of Earl Hamner Jr. After he ended up in Los Angeles, Hamner wrote a TV series about his boyhood home and called it “The Waltons.” If John Boy had stuck around, his grandsons might be cannabis growers.
When I traveled west a couple years ago I was interested to see that Alamosa was in a “dry” county like yours. But Ft. Garland, at the foot of Blanca Peak, was a short drive and it had the goods. Although they were best sampled after the drive back to the Lamplighter Inn. I guess growing a certain amount is legal anywhere in the state, though.
Kayla Rudbek
@?BillinGlendaleCA: never date anybody who signs your paychecks or your performance reviews is a starting point.
WaterGirl
@brendancalling: Do you get to see your son soon?
A Ghost to Most
@Geminid: Four plants is too low. I get by with 3 flowering and 12 total. But I am breeding my own strain.
New York is following the CO model (3 flowering, 12 total).
Kayla Rudbek
Angry at being invisible, ignored, and expected to constantly defer to young white people? I was pretty irritated by the time I left the grocery store this afternoon, as I felt that the younger white dude behind me in line was crowding me while I was in the line. And I had a huge umbrella underneath my left arm with the pointy end facing him so that he shouldn’t have been getting too close to me. I get irritated with that type of thing and getting ignored by drivers when I’m a pedestrian. It seems to be getting worse with age, but I’m not sure whether it’s middle-aged women’s invisibility, or whether the drivers and young white dudes are in fact getting worse.
Geminid
@Geminid: Schuyler, Virginia is an interesting place geologically. It is on the Rockfish River where it cuts through a ridge containing a vein of soapstone. A Vermont cavalry trooper in General Sheridan’s command recognized the stone in the spring of 1865. After the Civil War, mines were opened and a processing plant was built at Schuyler. The soapstone was used for insulators in the late 19th century electrical industry, until ceramic insulators supplanted it. The plant turned out a lot of chemistry lab table tops in the 20th century. The scraps found their way into a lot of Charlottesville patios and walkways, along with some nice pieces for steps, mantles, and countertops. Most of the soapstone paving has since been taken up and replaced with bluestone, as soapstone is too slick to make good paving.
The soapstone has not been quarried for some time now, and it has become expensive. There are still a zillion scraps around, and people carve some nice pieces out of them.
Schuyler now has “The Waltons Museum.” It’s not much, but fans from as far Europe and Japan visit.
sralloway
@James E Powell: I, too, also etc, feel his determination to obfuscate, confuse and otherwise not understand the difference between competence and political rewards escapes him.
Geminid
@A Ghost to Most: I am just glad Virginia is allowing personal possession and small scale growing next month. The cannabis law passed by the General Assembly would have kept everything illegal until the whole regulated industry was ready, something like 2023. There was a lot of pushback, though, and the legislature amended the law during the one-day April “veto session.”
Steeplejack
@J R in WV:
You need to work on your Google-fu, bro’. Rare commenter, but there are posts from May 2020 and January 2019.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
And what’s the fucking point of the “unknown nym” criticism, anyway? Should someone post five or six times in the Sunday garden chat or duckteen updates before they’re certified to comment on serious subjects and, worse, disagree with everyone? If that’s the case, put it in the bylaws.
planetjanet
I have been texting with Fair Fight, right now asking people to call their Senators in support of S1, the For the People Act. It is not uncommon to get hostile or profane responses. One person asked me “Why do you hate white people?” For a moment, it took my breath away. It was just a brutally honest statement. How much more clear can you get than to show your opposition to voting rights is rooted in raw racism? I know that people act differently when they feel anonymous on the internet. But the text greeted them by name and simply asked to consider calling their Senator. It baffles me how many people react to simple civil questions with wildly profane replies.
Ken
Probably no more than two feet over the county line, if past history with liquor stores, adult bookstores, and (ahem) massage parlors are any guide. Oh, and the oleomargarine stores that once lined the Illinois-Wisconsin border.
terraformer
I’m increasingly angry, mostly because of all the time and energy we’re having to waste dragging the troglodyte party along the evolution continuum. We could be so much further along than we are, but we have to stop, re-fight or fight anew topics that had been settled.
I mean, it’s because of this that we don’t have flying cars and vacations on Ganymede and similar shit.
Steeplejack
@Viva BrisVegas:
Good summation.
Ruckus
@Kayla Rudbek:
I, not being female and having skin with almost no color whatsoever, don’t normally notice arrogance, although I’ve seen more than my fair share when I worked in Pro Sports and know what it looks like, have noticed the level of arrogance of a lot of people is in inverse proportion to how much they should have. And by that I mean the amount they should have is less than 1 tenth percent of what most people have. We of course have both white and gender arrogance here, along with the normal job/status/wealth arrogance. Other countries have other status markers that render humans unable to breath without acquiring too much arrogance.
All of the above is a poor apology for the human race and way too many of it’s inhabitants so I’ll add an I’m sorry about shitty humans.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: A lot of the “resistors” have short circuited after Biden took office. I think because their sweet sweet grift (either for money or influence or both) is over.
dww44
Likely I’m not the first to say this, but I do believe the pervasive anger and ugliness is the product of hate media, of any description. It gave birth to Trump who, in turn, gave free rein to everyone to unleash their hate and spite. I honestly do not recall him every saying anything genuinely kind, respectful, or inclusive.
Back to hate media, whether talk, or tv, or on FB and the like, which I believe was and is the main driver of our current cultural dysfunction, I’ve an Aunt who died 5 years ago at age 91 who was almost always kind, and generous, and forgiving. Yet she was an absolute Fox New devotee. On one occasion I drove up to her house for a visit (she lived 100 miles away and in the country), and walked in to hear her saying…….Hillary ought to get off her…….ass” … This was in the Benghazi era. I had never before nor since heard her speak that way about anyone. I was one of 2 or 3 known liberals among the extended family. That hatred of Hillary didn’t come from her;it was ginned up by Fox.
But for us to get back to a better place, as I heard someone say on cable news the other day, we all must start building community in our local places…. Building bridges between ourselves and those who believe differently than we do. Our democracy depends on our being able to do this.
SFAW
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant):
Captain –
This is a great comment. Thank you.
dww44
@Kayla Rudbek:
I can endorse your experience and your sentiments. I’m a Senior and getting everyday experience at being ignored by “customer” service people in all sorts of stores. It’s not easy being invisible. I read that years ago and have always tried to be attentive to those who are older than i when shopping. I speak and smile and nod, always remembering that being invisible is not something anyone wants to be, even if one’s looks and oomph are no longer what they once were.
SFAW
@Tony Jay:
I’ve heard people speak with a lisp, but never seen them write with one.
SFAW
@Steve in the ATL:
Fixed. So to speak.
SFAW
@Tony Jay:
Cabbage crates coming over the briny?
Kayla Rudbek
@Ruckus: thank you! And I’m also so white that I managed to get a sunburn in Ireland. Maybe my salt-and-pepper hair makes them think that I’m Hispanic?
Brachiator
@terraformer:
While talking with my sister the other day, I noted that when we were kids we were promised cities with monorails.
I guess I am a little angry that we never got them.
ETA: I am saddened and bemused that believers in a flat Earth have risen up again. This makes no sense to me. But I guess that some level of persistent stupidity is eternal.
Kayla Rudbek
@dww44: it makes me want to start carrying a large tactical umbrella/parasol at all times. One with a nice sharp pointy end, and in a color/print that can be seen by a one-eyed sniper in a thunderstorm at midnight, out of the sniper’s bad eye.
And as for the drivers, I want to carry the Japanese anti-crime paintballs with me
Groucho48
@Villago Delenda Est:
Psaki mentioned her sister, when a reporter asked a gotcha about her.
“I can confirm my job over the last 5 months did not retroactively get my brilliant sister a masters degree from Harvard, a PhD in public health from John’s Hopkins and decades of published work and respect in the field. She is more qualified than I am to be here.
Ruckus
@Kayla Rudbek:
Who the hell knows why so many have arrogance that they didn’t earn and never will. I once congratulated a top level competitor for winning an international event and he treated me like I just shit on his shoes. And another international competitor was always condescending and rude to me, while with the same breath he could be great with spectators. At least he understood where his income was generated. These were just a couple of the way over arrogated assholes I’ve encountered and I would put it down to bad parenting, both from foreign countries and while their parents may be responsible, these were both grown men, with every opportunity to learn better. One other gentleman was born and raised here and he treated me like shit all the time as well until at one event he had completely changed. I asked the lead man on his team what the hell happened and he said they had a heart to heart talk with him about how he treated people and that it had to change or something else would. It sure worked, I dealt with him for a few years after that and he was never anything but human. People can change, they can learn, sometimes they just need a really heavy boot in the butt to wake them up. BTW I also knew his dad, who didn’t teach him to be an ass.
Now as to what causes them to be condescending arrogant assholes in the first place? That’s anyone’s guess.
The Moar You Know
If anyone finds an answer to the question Cole posited let me know. My mother started going “bad on the vine” in her early forties, long before Fox News entered her life (she now thinks Fox is what’s meant by ‘liberal squishes’). Just angry and resentful and hateful towards everyone. Deliberately starting fights with her neighbors. That sort of thing. And then she got remarried and as soon as she figured out her husband was a weakling, she tripled down on it. So bad they had to sell their house and move out to the sticks because she couldn’t be around neighbors. The number one pet peeve in her life is that her firearms instructor managed to ram through her head that if she started pulling guns on her current neighbors they’d lose everything they own to lawsuits. Wants to move somewhere that’s legal. She’s gonna live at least 10 more years, she’s in her mid seventies and very healthy.
This from the woman who taught me that war and discrimination were wrong. The reason I’m a liberal is because I was raised as one, by her, but the person who inculcated me with those values now thinks they are for idiots.
Ruckus
@The Moar You Know:
Aging can do funny things to a person. It can change your perspective, or at least it’s likely to. Life isn’t the same, and you aren’t the person you were, decades ago and while life is living, living is different today than it was decades ago, and was decades before that. Some go with the flow, some fight the flow and some are just oblivious. We change because the world we live in has changed. Many do not like any kind of change, some having figured out what was comfortable for them and getting pissed that it’s not the same. People often don’t recognize how much has changed and what direction the change has taken and then the other side thinks that everything should be the same and nothing should have changed. The world has built political parties around these 2 conflicting ideals. And one side sees no reason for the changes and one sees reason it should change a lot more. And over the last 50 yrs this change has gotten politically wider and wider and one side is having a grief fest that all the hateful crap is losing. The world is going to have to make up it’s mind that we either stay in the 21 century or actually, after 1/5 of the current century that we go back to when times were better for some and hell of a lot worse for everyone else.
Kirk Spencer
When your response to “I am angry because I’m hurt and/or scared” appears to be “I’m not so you should just get over it,” you’re not solving the problem.
Upending change happens. Whether it is right (e.g. civil rights) out wrong (e.g. job loss due to vulture capitalism), the pain and fear are still real, and dismissing it leaves those suffering it viewing you as a roadblock at best, and potentially yet another foe.
See MLK’s comment on moderate whites as a spring viewpoint.
(Posted here instead of the Juneteenth thread because while I think it relevant, I am an angry white male and could well have an overinflated opinion of the value of my remarks. No sarcasm intended.)
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: What, you want to squeeze Jager’s wife’s boob, too? Man, Jager, how do you feel about that?
(just doing my part to catapult the rage…)
LiminalOwl
Not sure if this thread is still active, but it’s mostly cheering me up on a bad day, so I wanted to say thank you:
– to all the jackals who called out the troll
– to everyone who keeps reminding me how awesome Jen Psaki is
– to the comedy team of Baud and Tony Jay, with apologies to all the supporting cast whose nyms are escaping me…
Also too, can we blame the “Law and Order” franchise as well as Faux News? I don’t know how generalizable this is, but my mother—a staunch liberal for the most part (she never got over stupid Freudian shit about LGBT folks, but otherwise…) when I was growing up—spent her last ten years or so insomniac and watching L&O for many hours a day. And her conversation increasingly reflected a belief in “law and order,” suspicions of PoC (though she was never nasty to thr Duke in the brief time where our relationship overlapped her life), etc.
I’m reading “The New Jim Crow” now and wondering whether she would have been willing to learn from it. Probably not, at that stage…
LiminalOwl
@LiminalOwl: (My mother died before BLM became known, at least to white liberals. I hope she would have listened.)
LiminalOwl
@LiminalOwl: (My mother died before BLM became known, at least to white liberals. I hope she would have listened.)
eta: Argh, this accidentally posted twice. Please remove the duplicate! Or remove both, if you prefer. Thanks,
A Ghost to Most
@Geminid: Agreed. A huge step forward for Virginia.
ian
@Brachiator:
There is zero historical proof that flat-earthers were ever in the majority in the past. Most educated and traveled people knew the world was round. Most uneducated people (aka most people back then) probably never thought of it in as large of terms, and would have answered with “what about that hill over there” if you asked them if the world was flat.
The concept of the pre-Columbian Europeans thinking the world was flat was invented post-Enlightenment, so that people in the 1700 and 1800s could feel superior to their medieval and reformation ancestors.
Kirk Spencer
@LiminalOwl: I am glad the jackaletariat was able to fill a void.
And good point about L&O. My spouse’s particular rant is on the misogyny (though she kept watching because Orbach), but your point was noted as well.
Thank you for the recommendation, I’ll have to check it out.
brendancalling
@WaterGirl: No. I haven’t seen him in over a year, because I can’t afford a 14-day, self-funded quarantine in Canada—and one that is totally unnecessary because I’m vaccinated.
James Robert
I totally agree with your puzzlement and have always felt that as we age, if we are being honest with ourselves and being honest in our observations of the world around us, we will all become more liberal and understanding. It is so easy when younger to be critical and think the world exists only in simple black or white choices. Age and experience reveal the infinite shades of gray within humankind’s existence and recognizing that is hard, because it requires casting away comfortably held beliefs that we used to get thru life up to that point. Those failing to work at re-evaluating their ideas of life stay trapped in cocoons of false comfort and develop increasing frustration that the world is not how they know it should be. Expressed feelings of bitterness and anger, I believe, are a manifestation of that.
Jado
Cognitive dissonance. The angry people KNOW things aren’t the way they should be – hell, the older people know things aren’t even the way they were when they were kids. Things are too tough for the younger people (tougher than they were for me), and older people look around and think, “I worked and saved and sacrificed all those years for THIS? This isn’t right! These younger people should be having an EASIER time than I did. Why is this all messed up?”
And they also know that the answer is “Because you elected horrible people who convinced you that you didn’t need to change everything. They said black people and Hispanics aren’t really being victimized. They said it’s ok. They said you are not in the wrong. You are actually right. None of this is your fault.”
And that’s 100% incorrect – totally our fault for not fixing all this crap. So if you can’t admit that, you have nebulous rage that you can’t focus on the rightful target. And it spills out everywhere.
WaterGirl
@James Robert: Welcome!
A person’s first comment on Balloon Juice – or first comment with a new email address or a new device – has to be manually approved before it shows up for everybody.
I am sorry that I didn’t see your comment until just now.
Future comments will show up for everyone right away, except in the circumstances listed above.
WaterGirl
@brendancalling: Just now getting back to the thread. So frustrating for you and your son, I’m so sorry.