From this point I refuse to feel emotional about any of this shit

[maggrwaggr]

I'm sick of having my emotions tweaked every which direction by all these different folks who have absolutely no compulsion to stoop to the lowest, nastiest form of human behavior possible in order to only do one thing --- stir up people's emotions.

Prison pictures -- OUTRAGE! It's immediately a partisan issue by the republicans.

A snuff video of a nasty beheading is the response to this. What are we supposed to feel -- OUTRAGE! Even worse than the first OUTRAGE! Which the republicans are now jumping on as a partisan issue again -- if you don't feel OUTRAGE over this, you are a horrible person and you should be ashamed and LOOK AT HOW THOSE LIBERALS AREN'T FEELING OUTRAGE ---- anyone who doesn't feel OUTRAGE over the fact that the liberals aren't OUTRAGED should be OUTRAGED.

The fucking hate-mongering in this country has to stop.

My own father and I can't have a conversation anymore remotely about anything political anymore because we'll start yelling at each other.

Why? Because of the professional hate-mongering-for-profit that's been going on now for TWENTY FOUR FUCKING YEARS that I've been counting it, ever since Reagan was elected and Rush Limbaugh came into his own weird little power.

It just gets worse and worse and worse ......

9/11 -- WE HATE THE PEOPLE WHO DID THIS. We have them so much we're going to attack countries that didn't even have anything to do with it! Who cares!? They're all horrible people who want to see us dead! We HATE THEM!

If you don't agree with us, WE HATE YOU!

Well we respond by saying "if you're gonna kill people indiscriminately who have not attacked us you are SCUM! You are MURDERS AND WAR CRIMINALS!"

They look at that and say "LOOK AT HOW ANGRY YOU ARE! YOu ARE HORRIBLE!"

I mean it's just gotten to the point that now people are buggering innocent people up the ass with broomsticks and chopping off each other's heads and WHY????

TO ELICIT AN EMOTIONAL RESPONSE. NO OTHER REASON.

Well, I, for one, refuse to play that game anymore.

I refuse to have an emotional response to anything now, no matter how nasty, how sadistic, how brutal or criminal.

I am done being manipulated.

It is time to throw out the thought --- HOW DO WE END THIS?

HOW DOES THE COUNTRY HEAL?

IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE?

Or do we let ourselves be destroyed in the fires of our own creation?

Thanks for letting me rant.

[oceanpoetry]

1. "1984" - 2004 version

"we have always been at war with Eurasia" ...

I agree with you - it is all very twisted and surreal. I am feel like I am a little on emotion overload over the last couple of weeks. I fear for the future - given the current course we are headed on.

[rucky]

2. That was very emotional

and very moving.

Good people will react appropriately. We should have emotion in our message. We MUST have it, because sincerity is the best way to connect with each other. We musn't be ashamed of our emotions. That's what the manipulators want you to do. I'm sad. I'm sick. My mind is fucked up. No matter who's behind what - there are psychops being waged upon us. Our thoughts may be our only freedom left soon and mine don't feel like my own today.

[maggrwaggr]

7. I had to laugh at that

I guess what I meant was that I refuse to be manipulated any more, by anyone, even people on our side.

For us to be cheering becuase Sixty Minutes II is going to air a video of someone who's happy because Iraqi prisoners died means that we've fallen into the same morass as the worst of them.

For us to be shouting at Inhofe that he's "A NAZI!" means that we've fallen victim to the hatred that THEY started and that they want us to feel.

Those are just two examples. "Terrorism" is all about inciting an emotion. The response to it is all about inciting an emotion as well. Fear!

Iraq was used, in part, as an example. We're gonna kick a country's ass with everybody watching, so all will fear us.

Fallujah. Well obviously those people aren't scared enough of us, or they wouldn't have the nerve to kill those "contractors" and mutilate their bodies. We'll show them. We'll instill fear right back into their hearts by destroying their city, killing their babies, levelling their homes. Do you fear us yet, SCUMBAGS?

It's ALL just part of one big sickness. And we're all getting sucked into it. Myself included.

As of tonight, I do the buddhist thing. I detach. I regard the emotion from the outside. I study why I'm feeling the emotion. I study why others are feeling the same. And I wonder what can be done to stop the misery.

[rumguy]

9. well said

[wtmusic]

3. Anger is your (and our) friend

it is a great motivator. I'm convinced the only way to avoid self-destruction is to channel it into action.

[rumguy]

4. Not Dark Yet

Shadows are falling and I've been here all day
It's too hot to sleep time is running away
Feel like my soul has turned into steel
I've still got the scars that the sun didn't heal
There's not even room enough to be anywhere
It's not dark yet, but it's getting there

Well my sense of humanity has gone down the drain
Behind every beautiful thing there's been some kind of pain
She wrote me a letter and she wrote it so kind
She put down in writing what was in her mind
I just don't see why I should even care
It's not dark yet, but it's getting there

Well, I've been to London and I've been to gay Paree
I've followed the river and I got to the sea
I've been down on the bottom of a world full of lies
I ain't looking for nothing in anyone's eyes
Sometimes my burden seems more than I can bear
It's not dark yet, but it's getting there

I was born here and I'll die here against my will
I know it looks like I'm moving, but I'm standing still
Every nerve in my body is so vacant and numb
I can't even remember what it was I came here to get away from
Don't even hear a murmur of a prayer
It's not dark yet, but it's getting there.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Anger is apropriate as well as horror

And as to your question, the country will not be destroyed
by an outside force... but by us.

I fear a civil war more and more and it is being caused by
those who benefit from keeping us divided

[maggrwaggr]

8. If the hatred wins in this country, I fear it will be from the outside

If we become Rome, or we become the Aztecs, if we become an empire that reigns and rules through fear, we are doomed. Eventually we will be attacked, and sacked.

This is, I think, America's most dire time. We are now on the brink, thanks to the neo-cons, of turning into an empire that will inevitably be destroyed from the outside.

It's time to quit hating everybody, it's time to quit feeling anger at all of those who hate YOU, and wonder what's it going to take to stop this cycle before it swallows up everything?

[Delano]

6. EXCELLENT, excellent post.

Thanks for putting it so succinctly.

[blackcat77]

10. Just today, I was thinking that it feels like things...

...are just spinning out of control.

It's trite, but there was a line from the comic and MTV cartoon entitled "The Maxx." One of the characters reached the end of her rope and pulled out a gun.

"None of this makes sense," she said. "And if it does, it's got to stop!"

That's the way I'm starting to feel. It's like the start of some mad, cosmic chain reaction.

[sandnsea]

11. You're right

Opihimoimoi put me on the right track. I was literally losing my mind, more than normal. My husband and son got in a horrible fight, and we're all on the same side in this family. Emotions are spinning totally out of control.

It is time to get centered. It is time to do whatever it is that one might do to draw them to a peaceful place. And then calmly seek the truth and the courage to speak it.

Emotional responses drain energy and distract us from our purpose. Which is to bring truth of this Administration to those who are blind.

[izzie]

12. You will make it. In my age we were into seeing people doing this

Setting them selfs a fire. Dogs sent after children going to school.Black people burned up in churches and hanging in trees. Dying children in Africa. Bombed out cities. Families with all they owned walking down road as planes fired at them. Shall I go on? I was born in '34 and I swear it is the same old story. Now we have reached the grade of the English and Irish were in and Israel is now in. Tit for tat. I am back to grade school once more. I kill, you kill and around we go.I used to have night mares about it as a child.

[maggrwaggr]

15. you're the same age as my father

that was a good post. Thank you.

I was born in 62. My first memories were of the Vietnam war, riots, Mai Lai and all of that. And also -- hippies, great rock music, protests, and HOPE that it was all gonna get better.

And it seemed like, or maybe it was just the way it looked to me, that people actually wanted peace, and had actually learned something from Vietnam.

But I guess not. It seems we've regressed right back to the dark ages.

Check out the post "no one expects the spanish inquisition."

It's GREAT. Pretty much says it all.

[Not a robought]

13. Nice rant

In one day, all form of media paraded and invited America to the viewing of a snuff video for general public consumption on their computers - with blatant disregard to the family of the murder victim. Odd to me how there would ever be issue with the display of flag draped coffins.

In one day, it was passed off that al-qaeda (...in Iraq apparently) made this snuff film which got posted to an islamic website... which one? Haven't seen mention of the originating website yet... have you? For the unusual immediately prolific handful of sites I've seen this video posted at, they have been right wing American or private security based sites. Which is the exact site this was first found on?

In one day, we have to once again re-assure our kids that things are going to be okay despite what they might see or hear.

By the end of this one day, I find that by searching through the Kazaa file sharing network, the Nick Berg video is in FULL abundance out there for downloading on an inordinately copious number of computers in various file formats and sizes... yet I do a Kazaa search on 'Abu Ghraib', a much more aged story with video supposedly to back it up, and not a thing shows up... in one day.

One day, America will say they've had enough of this and have a good long hard honest look.

When will this one day be?

[camero]

14. We're all being fucking played

These pics and videos are coming so fast that we can't digest it all in one sitting. Or even a bunch. I think the timing of the release is suspect and designed to further the ends of the Bushies thourgh divide and conquer.

Just to set the people apart from uniting against them and giving a reason for the rage to grow. Then when things get out of hand they can clamp down and have the dictatorship that they've always wanted.

This is their October Surprise. We're in it now. I hope people wake up to what is happening.

[FDRrocks]

16. Feel outrage at every murder...

From Iraqis to Americans,

Murder is just wrong.

[gauguin57]

17. Anger over all this ...

... got me to my first Democratic meetup tonight.

Anger IS a great motivator.

According to reports on the prison abuse scandal I heard today: Our soldiers randomly tore Iraqi men out of their beds at night (non-criminals), took their posessions and didn't give them back, took the men to prison, held them without charge, tortured them (for what vital information I just can't imagine), killed a few of them, didn't allow their families to know where they were ... these weren't even people who had shot at U.S. soliders ... these were just people sleeping in their beds.

Those right-wing, PNAC-endorsing, military-industrial complex-belonging, tax-money-sucking-contractor-paying-off people who ordered such things ARE Nazis. This is Kristallnacht, people! Perpetrated by OUR military, OUR government, people. Don't tell ME to heal when we ARE dealing with Nazis.

[neebob]

18. Thank you for that

I was stopped in a construction zone on the way home from work yesterday, bizarre day that it was, sitting behind a van with Texas disabled vet plates and "Protect Freedom" bumper stickers on either side, wondering if he knew about the beheading and what he would think if he knew the person behind him needed to be convinced the executioners weren't American spooks. Then I thought about what a weird thought that was.

And I'll admit I don't feel very emotional about the beheading itself or the men who did it. All of my feeling is directed at the creeps who created all this death and destruction and their constant, obvious lies. Lately I find I don't even feel much toward the idiots who believe and perpetuate those lies, or maybe I don't think about them as much because I'm sick of feeling horrified and disgusted all the time. It's always there, following me around - like I don't carry enough emotional baggage.

These are things I can do little about. Either Bush is going to get four more years or he's not, and things will get better or not. I think refusing to get sucked into the hate machine is a very good idea - each of us do our little bit, do what good we can, and hope enough others see what's happening and act to stop it.

[DemExpat]

19. Excellent rant.

I will have to turn off my feelings in November if * is re-selected.

Until then, I can't, even though it feels like the disbelief/horror is undermining my health and sanity!

:nuke:

DemEx

[gauguin57]

20. further ...

... on a freerepublic thread about some Australian soldiers being dismissed for torturing kittens ...

I found this little number, by poster "FairOpinion" ...

"How horrible.
Frankly I am a lot more upset -- and I think rightly so -- about people torturing poor, innocent defenseless kittens, than soldiers "humiliating" a bunch of terrorists who either already have blood on their hands, or would murder us, if they had the chance."

OK. NOW you just TRY and tell me to HEAL.

BULLSH*T!

[maggrwaggr]

29. what good does it do to amp up your hatred?

Does hating freepers make anything better?

[Puglover]

27. Yup, if "il"

is elected (remember he still hasn't been elected) in Nov. I'm gonna have to turn my feelings off for awhile and take a break. At some point in time you gotta take care of yourself and that will be the time for me.

On edit, reread your post and you used "reselected" duh.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

21. Remember the Star Trek episode (original) where evil aliens fed on emotion

...evil aliens fed on the emotions of the Enterprise crew?

They induced fear and anger and despair by frightening and abusing the crew.

Of course, Capt. Kirk figured this out and saved everyone by convincing them to let all the negativity go and have a good laugh thereby depriving the parasitic aliens of their sustenance.

Resist by watching a Monty Python video or such.
Then apply your passion and outrage to communicating cogently with all the politicians and journalists you can.

Ring that alarm bell and save the village.

[Karenina]

22. That episode

and the one with the guys with black and white faces are my favorites!

[Brewman_Jax]

25. "Let that be your last battlefield"

is the name of that episode of Star Trek.

[maggrwaggr]

30. yes, and the context of that show -- the Vietnam era

which was the last time these SAME PEOPLE (Rumsfeld, Cheney, Kissinger) were up to the same thing they are now.

[mopaul]

23. keep your head, while all those around you lose theirs

you're right, we should turn down the meter and stay focused. it will be difficult

[callous taoboy]

24. Same with my dad~

We talk lawn, weather, work. He and my brothers stood in the dining room right before the war and told Frenchman jokes.

Don't give up hope, man. We need everyone pissed and involved.

[Brewman_Jax]

26. Agreed

Tired of being how to feel, when to feel, etc.

The neo-cons scream outrage now, but have no problem with the lies told to go to war...

They're sorry about the prison torture, but only because they got caught, not because it's wrong...

They're mad at the liberals because the truth is very inconvenient and makes living in denial difficult...

The timing is very convenient. Like someone noted in another thread, every time Bush* and Co. get into major PR trouble, an outrageous terrorist video surfaces very soon after.

It's enough to make you wonder... :shrug:

[bobthedrummer]

28. Our perceptions are being manipulated overtly and covertly-you've been

stunned, go away from your computer for awhile and come back with a fire in your heart and a desire to do something as an American citizen.

NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.

[maggrwaggr]

32. I'm not saying "lose the desire", I'm saying lose the emotion

lose the negative emotion.

I've been overwhelmed with desires to inflict bodily harm upon a whole lot of people. Daydreamed about it.

And from a cold, clear, rational point of view, such an approach could be argued.

What I'm arguing against is letting anyone, from the right or the left, or from the "terrorists", manipulate me.

That's what Bush does. He manipulates people into backing him by using emotions. It's what Hitler did.

Look at what MLK did. He convinced people to avoid the emotional trap, knowing that his opponents were trying to bait them into going violent, and instead he and his followers peacefully stood up for what was right.

Ghandi did the same thing.

It worked.

[bobthedrummer]

36. It's mind control using all the media and the images and crimes were

"scientifically" designed to have the overall effect of anger/hatred and to escalate violence worldwide. The fascists are following PNAC using 21st century tech they've invested in imo. They've failed and they know it.

NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.

[KittyWampus]

31. The Human Race Is Capable Of So Much More Than This

that's the thought that enters my mind.

[maggrwaggr]

33. Yes, our leaders are turning us ALL into savages

the lowest common denominator just keeps dropping because of them.

Pretty soon we're all gonna be bashing each other over the head with rocks.

Someone will make a reality TV show out of it.

[info being]

41. But we have to look within, not above

All of the potential and all of the answers can be found in our hearts and minds. We don't need gods and we don't need to be governed.

[Arianrhod]

34. The key is: Which emotion are you going to feel?

Personally, I choose compassion.

[maggrwaggr]

35. can you feel compassion for Dick Cheney?

I still can't.

I can detach from my hatred for him, but I can't feel compassion for people like him.

I feel they belong in a jail cell. That's not an emotional judgment but a very cold and rational one.

They need all power to be removed so they can't hurt anyone else.

[Arianrhod]

37. Detachment is an excellent start.

Of course, the key word in my post is "choose". My base feelings are anything but compassion for these people, but that doesn't mean I'm going to simply sit on my spiritual hands and allow those feelings full sway within me. That is precisely what the terrorists, the * administration, the Freepers are doing, and I will not behave in that manner.

Meanwhile, although I don't personally believe in the concept of crime and punishment, taking power away from someone who is abusing it can certainly be a compassionate act, both for the abuser and the abused. It needn't be a revenge thing. Who would think ill of a person who took a hammer away from a 2-year-old? But should that person scream angrily at the child, or explain to him/her how dangerous the hammer is, and why s/he is not ready to wield it? Same result--different choice.

I like this thread. I like seeing so many people who are examining their feelings and their motives, and thinking about what those feelings mean in the light of a world that is anything but a paradise. Here we truly face Arjuna's dilemma: How do we walk in the world without getting dirtied by it?

Not easily, that's for sure.

[maggrwaggr]

40. nice comparison! "taking a hammer away from a 2 - year old"

An ANGRY two year old.

Last night I found my 19 month old son with a pair of scissors. I have no idea where he found them.

I like your post. Yes, imprisoning those who are harming others should be done without emotion.

Revenge gets us nowhere.

That's how they're trying to frame the argument now. "Well, they did it to us, so it's okay if we brutalize them".

It's the most disgusting thing I think I've ever seen as far as national discourse goes.

[Arianrhod]

43. That must have been frightening.

I can't begin to list all the things my 4 kids did while they were growing up. . . .

I see this thread as an important insight, and I'm glad you started it. The RW is most certainly trying to frame the argument in simple tit-for-tat terms. This way they feel justified for the misery they're feeling. Because IMO, anger and hatred and a desire for revenge are ultimately based on fear and unhappiness, the insecurity of thinking someone may have something you do not, or may want to take away what you think you have. Detachment removes that fear.

The biggest problem with this frame of argument is that it inevitably leads to an escalation of violence and horror--as we are clearly seeing. What is frightening about the human condition, though, is that even while we are feeling that horror, we are also drawn further into it. There is something addictive about fear; perhaps it's the fact that it is based on the same chemical as excitement?

I think our country is about to cross the line between fear and thrills. :(

[maggrwaggr]

44. yes, that's why it's time to stop

I think what this country needs more than anything is not just to get Bushco out of the executive branch, and even into jail, but to find a leader that will remove us from this cycle.

I have no idea who that could be.

I liked Dean because I felt that he was outside the system of the usual party "tit for tat" politics.

Kerry will just give the repubs another excuse to continue more of the same "us versus them" politics.

I feel we need a leader who can do this or else America will be destroyed, either from without or from within.

[Arianrhod]

48. Yes, a real leader would be a start.

But my feeling is that we need more than just that. I don't follow leaders very well myself, so maybe my opinion doesn't really apply to the country as a whole, but I think that we need to preach a genuine personal responsibility. IMV, half our problem is that we too often want someone else to do things for us, when we should be doing them ourselves. I don't mean that the safety infrastructure shouldn't be there; just the opposite, in fact. But unless we quit blaming others for the situations of our lives, and learn to recognize how we ourselves have brought those situations about, we will never break out of the entanglements that keep us trapped in the emotional overflow so necessary to the fascist agenda.

It's admittedly easier to go with the flow, but too often the current is strong simply because it's running over a waterfall.

[Karenina]

39. And to be stripped

of the a$$et$ they have stolen.

[vetwife]

42. I agree....

I am tired of waking up with dark circles, if I ever get to sleep,
Bush and co is killing us all off little bits at a time or either
horrifying us to stress levels beyond belief and draining all of our living expenses. Our children have no back up and this is wht 50 percent call compasssionate conservatism? Well give me Liberal..Bleeding Heart liberal anyday !

[DU GrovelBot]

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[rumguy]

45. Hi grovel bot

[Taverner]

46. Man, that was an awesome post!

[KansDem]

47. "LOOK AT HOW THOSE LIBERALS AREN'T FEELING OUTRAGE"

I'm inclined to believe that if the GOP feels "liberals" are not feeling outrage at what has happened to the US (since Bush stole the White House), it is because "liberals" knew (or at least suspected) crap like this would happen if BushCo got power (although I never thought to this degree!). For example, "liberals" very vocally protested the invasion of Iraq and protested by the millions to no avail. We knew this was wrong and we knew Bush was lying, but how loudly and often does one need to protest to stop this kind of thing from happening? If "liberals" are not demonstrating "outrage" (as seen by the GOP), it is simply because they knew something was coming, and it was just a matter of when...*
_____
*But I NEVER thought, in my wildest dreams, it would be THIS BAD!!!

[BiggJawn]

49. You figure out how to do this, you post it, OK?

Because these fuckers are playing my heartstrings like a gawd-damn Dobro and it's making me a VERY old man before I'm ready...

I actually told a guy the other day "You wanna know why I'm taking up this "Ultra-distance cycling" stuff? Because it helps me cope with the shame I have living in the most hated, most evil country in the world..."

[maggrwaggr]

53. I recommend yoga for this detachment

I used to run, but I'm 42 now and my lower back can't take it.

:)

[sangh0]

50. That rant was one of the best things I've ever read on DU

Congratulations for taking the first step; recognizing the problem. I do hope you contemplate Arianrhod's advice. Choose compassion, even if it means you have to hate Cheney a little less.

Good luck, and remember, if you lose it in the future, that doesn't mean you've failed. It means you get another opportunity to try again and succeed.

[sangh0]

51. kick

because it deserves it

[maggrwaggr]

52. Arianrhod's advice is excellent

and it's what we should all strive for at this point.

I know it's nearly impossible to do 100%.

[sangh0]

54. According to Buddhist philosphy

if you were to succeed 100%, you'd be released from this world, and therefore be unable to help it improve. There's a branch of Buddhism where the monks take an oath that once they are on the edge of total enlightment, they will turn away and forgo the benefits of eternal enlightenment so that they can remain on this earth and continue their good works.