(I’m halfway through my daily ration of grog so I’ll ramble along with you)
I’ve been doing the right thing since 2000. I vote in every primary and general election. I donate to candidates. I did text banking for Bernie. I’m doing what everyone says you should do. Hell, in 2000 I swapped my swing-state Nader vote with someone in a solidly blue state because I knew how much it mattered.
But every election makes me feel like some kind of alien creature. People act more and more irrationally, arguing about more and more inane things. And nearly every time things get worse. I’m trying to be a good little raindrop but the rest of them are going in the opposite direction as hard as they can.
When do I get to stop doing something that feels like beating my head against a wall? It’s been two and a half decades of this and every single time I feel like we get further away from what I’m working toward because everyone else is acting crazy. And every time I feel less and less like I’m even a member of the human species. They’re all so alien to me.
I think it’s important to keep your mental health. I try not to dwell on the bad and just know that I did my part along with millions of other people. Even in the reddest state, there are A LOT of rational people.
BTW, I live in a red state so I usually feel like my vote legitimately doesn’t matter. But we got the Chief Justice that we wanted (she wrote the minority opinion that an abortion ballot measure should stay on).
It’s not mental health per se. I’ve been in a pretty good mood today, surprisingly. It’s more that every election I feel like what I do has less and less impact, because everybody else isn’t pulling in the same direction.
And, yeah, the state senator and representative I wanted won, so that’s nice. But these tiny victories feel so useless against the weight of a nation determined to destroy itself and the world.
Plus even the rational people don’t make sense to me in other perplexing ways. If I just reinserted myself into the ad-filled, algorithm-driven existence they all seem to inhabit I’d feel less like I beamed down from outer space. I’d be able to talk about TV shows and Facebook and other normal people stuff. But I’ve been there and I didn’t like it.
That does not feel satisfying to me. And I’ll constantly wonder if there was anything else I could have done.
deleted by creator
(I’m halfway through my daily ration of grog so I’ll ramble along with you)
I’ve been doing the right thing since 2000. I vote in every primary and general election. I donate to candidates. I did text banking for Bernie. I’m doing what everyone says you should do. Hell, in 2000 I swapped my swing-state Nader vote with someone in a solidly blue state because I knew how much it mattered.
But every election makes me feel like some kind of alien creature. People act more and more irrationally, arguing about more and more inane things. And nearly every time things get worse. I’m trying to be a good little raindrop but the rest of them are going in the opposite direction as hard as they can.
When do I get to stop doing something that feels like beating my head against a wall? It’s been two and a half decades of this and every single time I feel like we get further away from what I’m working toward because everyone else is acting crazy. And every time I feel less and less like I’m even a member of the human species. They’re all so alien to me.
deleted by creator
I appreciate the sentiment, friend.
I think it’s important to keep your mental health. I try not to dwell on the bad and just know that I did my part along with millions of other people. Even in the reddest state, there are A LOT of rational people.
BTW, I live in a red state so I usually feel like my vote legitimately doesn’t matter. But we got the Chief Justice that we wanted (she wrote the minority opinion that an abortion ballot measure should stay on).
It’s not mental health per se. I’ve been in a pretty good mood today, surprisingly. It’s more that every election I feel like what I do has less and less impact, because everybody else isn’t pulling in the same direction.
And, yeah, the state senator and representative I wanted won, so that’s nice. But these tiny victories feel so useless against the weight of a nation determined to destroy itself and the world.
Plus even the rational people don’t make sense to me in other perplexing ways. If I just reinserted myself into the ad-filled, algorithm-driven existence they all seem to inhabit I’d feel less like I beamed down from outer space. I’d be able to talk about TV shows and Facebook and other normal people stuff. But I’ve been there and I didn’t like it.