Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Come on, man.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Accountability, motherfuckers.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

You are here: Home / Politics / What To Do With Our Outrage

What To Do With Our Outrage

by | 31 Comments

This post is in: ,

Someone here or elsewhere must have linked to this recently because I just found it in an open browser tab.

Given that I am on the hunt for constructive ways to handle the current awfulness, I was very happy to have seen this.

I would, in fact, love to meet the person who put that together!  It appears the name is Lindsay Braman.  Have you guys heard this name before?  Perhaps following on social media?  If so, I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments

 

Reader Interactions

31Comments

  1. 1.

    Omnes Omnibus

    This fits with what I was saying in the thread below.  We can’t react the same way to all the outrages that are coming our way.  We will burn out.  Everyone has to find their issues. Fight how you can, where you can.  You have to let the rest go.  Not because the other things aren’t horrible, they are.  You just can’t do all the outrage.

    This also means extending grace to people whose choices end up being different to yours.  They aren’t rejecting your issues. You aren’t rejecting theirs.

  7. 7.

    Kay

    HUGE walk back on Trumps promise of lower prices on Meet The Press. Now he can’t “guarantee” that.

    How media and Republicans continue to believe a word this clown says amazes me – you can’t cure stupid.

  8. 8.

    scav

    @Omnes Omnibus: Well, you might but not in this instance — or maybe I missed it?  The little flow gizmo seemed a bit activist group loaded.  We need a font to distinguish agreeing and building upon replies and the are you nuts sort.  Too many fonts.

  9. 9.

    H.E.Wolf

    Develop the ability to find satisfaction and pleasure in taking a small, concrete action to make something a little bit better.

    I’ve updated a couple of thousand voter addresses since the election, one at a time. Looked at from one angle, that’s (a) invisible, (b) ridiculous, (c) boring.

    Looked at another way, those are 2,000 voters who will be reachable at the next local election. And I’ve had the pleasure of imagining them happy in their new abodes!

    I bet their birthdays show up on their digital clocks, too. :-)

  11. 11.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay:  I would be interested in seeing a transcript.  Which I would want to know if it was sanewashed or not.

    The Felon’s Vichy Times headline:  Trump Lays Out Agenda in Extended Interview

    BezosWaPost headline:  Trump says members of January 6 committee should be jailed.

    I ask you: which is more informative?

  14. 14.

    HinTN

    @Kay: I hope some industrious soul is collecting those promises and the inevitable walking back, putting them side by side and finishing with, “Trump lied to you!”

  17. 17.

    Kay

     

    @Elizabelle:

    I just saw 3 minutes on TikTok but it looks like a competent interview. When did they start couching every question with “experts say…” though? Its defensive and cowed. He said prices would come down. She can ask him if he’ll guarantee that without leaning on “experts”

    That profession is just ruined. I don’t how they restore it.

  21. 21.

    O. Felix Culpa

    I’m eschewing outrage. Nothing that the incoming maladministration is doing or says it will do is surprising, and I’m not going to jump like an angry monkey every time they poke us with a stick. I’ll figure out quiet ways to help the vulnerable wherever possible, and the rest is out of my hands.

  22. 22.

    Another Scott

    ICYMI, Medium.com – Obama at the 2024 Democracy Forum:

    […]

    And that’s why we’re here. That’s what these forums have been about. Two years ago, we kicked things off by examining the ways that we might counteract the flood of misinformation across the media landscape. Last year, we looked at how disruptions in the global economy and resulting rampant inequality are undermining faith in the democratic process, and we discussed how innovative economic reforms might give more people a stake in the system. So today, we’re focused on a third factor that healthy democracies depend on: an idea that political scientists often refer to as pluralism.

    Now, let’s face it: pluralism is not a word that most of us use in everyday speech. I talked to one young leader earlier this year, who’s doing incredible work reducing gun violence here in the United States, and she admitted that she had to look the word up right before our call. But the concept of pluralism should, and is actually familiar to all of us. It means that in a democracy, we all have to find a way to live alongside individuals and groups who are different than us. So we commit to a system of rules and habits that help us peacefully resolve our disputes; we try to cultivate habits — those practices that encourage us not just to tolerate each other but also — every so often — join together in collective action. The pluralist ideal is what allows a Christian church and Muslim mosque to sit side by side on the same city block — and then maybe agree to share a parking lot. It’s what keeps you from pulling down a sign in your neighbor’s yard supporting a cause you find completely irritating, and it keeps him from doing the same to you; it’s what encourages you to team up with a co-worker on a project and get the job done despite the fact that the two of you disagree on abortion, gun ownership, and the merits of Taylor Swift versus Beyoncé.

    So this idea, that each of us has to show a level of forbearance towards those who don’t look or think or pray like us, that’s at the heart of democracy. And that’s hard. Even in relatively homogeneous countries, it’s hard. It’s not easy to maintain. Look what happened just this week in South Korea. But it’s especially hard in big, multi-racial, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious countries like the United States.

    […]

    Point Number One: Building bridges is not contrary to equality and social justice in fact, it is our best tool for delivering lasting change. Now today, there is a perception, among some advocates, that being adversarial is the main way to make change. Compromise and civility only serve to entrench existing power structures.

    And partly this reflects legitimate frustration over the seeming inability of the existing political process to get anything done. And they are certainly right that those in power have often cloaked their resistance to meaningful change by appealing to civil dialogue and lengthy deliberation, and ‘let’s form a committee.’ In his Letter From A Birmingham Jail, Dr. King scolded those who counseled patience and seemed more worried about social disruption than rank and justice, saying, “There comes a time,” Dr. King said, “When the cup of endurance runs over and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair.” But, Dr. King, like Gandhi, like Nelson Mandela, also understood if you want to create lasting change, you have to find ways to practice addition rather than subtraction.

    So let me make this key point: Pluralism is not about holding hands and singing “Kumbaya.” It is not about abandoning your convictions and folding when things get tough. It is about recognizing that in a democracy, power comes from forging alliances, and building coalitions, and making room in those coalitions not only for the woke but also for the waking. Now, there are risks involved in engaging with groups you disagree with, particularly if there’s a power imbalance involved. There is a risk when you begin to negotiate comprises that you’ll give away too much, that you’ll whittle away your issues to the point where it’s hard to claim that you’re making progress. And building bridges may require you to deal with people who not only disagree with you, but do not respect you.

    […]

    This makes a lot of sense to me. We always have to find ways to work with fellow humans, even while we – when we must – vehemently disagree with some of the things they’re trying to do. And even when too many the folks on the other side have little or no interest in working with us.

    Worth a click.

    (via HCR’s substack/email from December 7).

    Hang in there, everyone.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  24. 24.

    Elizabelle

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    I’m not going to jump like an angry monkey every time they poke us with a stick.

    Yes!  Which means, for me, that I should limit online time, because it is filled with rage-farming and seeing ugly stuff.

    (The truck mistermix used to illustrate the following post is both descriptive and depressing.  Cannot look at it one more time.  ETA:  Obviously, got to learn to desensitize myself to that kind of stuff.)

  25. 25.

    Ella in New Mexico

    A few posts back Watergirl asked us to tell what little things gave us some happiness and respite from the minute by minute firehose of crazy things Trump and his minions think they’re going to do and I gloomily replied with “we’re basically fucked”.

    Yesterday my daughter-in-law graduated (at 31 weeks pregnant with our second grandchild no less!) from our CNM CC nursing program and is going to be the latest RN in the family. My own daughter graduated in August, her male cousin in December 2023, and my other daughter in law, daughter of South Korean immigrants,  is an RN and a Nurse Practioner working at the VA now. I’m so excited about this new, dynamic, intelligent and hard working, caring group of young people coming into our profession. When I watched the diversity of young, new grads yesterday waking across the stage it brough tears to my eyes. From refugee familes barely speaking English, to Native Americans in their tribe’s indiginious dress, to a transgender female who was a leader in the class, to non-traditional graduates with kids and spouses and family in the audience screaming in joy for their accomplishments.

    When I listen to clips of Trump and his choade hoard, they are gleefully blathering like they are now free from any restraint or the Consitution or rule of law or better yet–push back from Congress, state and local governments and the people–and they are wrong. Thing is, they’re literally blurting out their playbook like rogue NFL coaches on a 3 sleepless night crack bender. They’re telling us ahead of time where to block and fight. All we need is to do is listen and take notes.  And use them against them next year.

    Some of their crap will start happening, just like it did the last time Trump stepped off the dais from his swearing in. I do see him trying to pull a Yoon at some point as well, which will go over about as well as it did in South Korea. But many won’t —can’t—fly, it’s pretty apparent. And it’s going to be chaos for quite a while with not only his loser cabinate nominees but with the narrow margins Congress is working in. I think we can take back the House and Senate in 2 years to halt a lot of them if we can delay them.

    But it took something really dignifiying, bright and hopeful like a small nursing school graduation to remind me: We got this.

    I’m gonna try harder, now, for them. Mentoring and precepting RNs, NPs and PAs will be one of my focuses this year. Working in whatever way can to try and solve Albuquerque’s very serious homeless problem will be my second. Sucking up every minute with my granddaughters and family is always gonna be top of my priorities. I’m done letting the gloom and doom and ugliness define my outlook, keep me immobilized, as bleak as it may seem.

  28. 28.

    WTFGhost

    I’ve seen some bad flow charts (we all have, amirite?) and some good ones – one for discussion of potential data loss included “restore from backup.” The “I don’t have backups!” pointed to “update resume; leave town.” because, at that level, you knew you needed backups, or you were dumb as a post.

    That’s a *good* flowchart, up to and including “you’re at risk? Don’t try to save us – get help.”

    Random thought: remember Total Recall, Arnie and all? There’s a line in it I *love*.

    “Don’t think! I don’t give you enough information to think!”

    Yeah, I know, the joke is “I don’t pay you to think!” but, “you don’t know enough to think!” actually *makes sense*. “Do what you’re told, or, do what you’d do if you were stone cold stupid, because I don’t yet trust you enough with enough information to *think*” is actually pretty good advice, for a boss who knows how to give the right instructions.

  29. 29.

    DEBG

    @Another Scott: Fabulous. Thanks for posting–it’s hitting home for me on several levels.

    I have just gotten involved with an Indivisible chapter near me. It’s scary, given my personality quirks, but it will be interesting. I’ll share this with my work group.

  31. 31.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @TBone: So sweet, so true.

    I really thought I’d lost my ability to feel hope, to use the teachings from Buddhism and Christianity that sustained me so much over the decades. Even before the election, my gut was feeling doom, like I knew what was gonna happen. I’ve been in a pretty bad spiritual place for a couple of months, its been hard. I’m so grateful to the Universe for the little rays of hope that are peeking back into my soul.

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