>Hi Tamar,
>
>I read your post, much of which I recognize. I hear similar but opposite litanies from associates in the mid-west who quote the Russia-Russia-Russia hoax, the "Good people on both sides" lie and the conversion of the Democrat party from the natural home for the working class to the poodles of the 1%... on and on it goes.
>
>Both sides vilify. Both sides say the other is the ruin of the country. Nobody reaches out. Nobody shows respect.
>
>Right now the Democrats have House, Senate and Presidency. This is the chance to sort out healthcare funding, voting integrity and maybe a few of the other important issues that the US still has not managed to improve decades after everybody else.
>
>I wonder whether they will do that, or whether it's more urgent to re-enact The Butter Battle Book by Dr Seuss?
>
>On the topic of anti-Semitism: it's entirely predictable that on hearing your charges, GOP voters will say well done focusing on one slightly wacky Republican while giving repeat offenders in Democrat congress the usual pass. There's that infamous Democrat double standard again, I can easily imagine them saying to each other, reminding each other the liars even called Trump anti-Semitic in his first 6 months until they realized that's silly when his daughter converted and his grandkids are Jewish and he's clearly pro-Israel, so they moved onto their next lie about racism. All in lock step with the corrupted controlled media, naturally.
>
>What do I see? I see people with more similarities than differences sitting inside their own battlements full of grievance and certainty that the other side are devils, and then acting surprised when the untended fields go to weed.
>
>On the topic of fascism: frankly I despair. Even an amateur historian like me sees that while the GOP may be big on nationalism, so were all the allies who defeated the fascists in WWII. Much more relevant is control over the media: are we to believe that Trump or his ilk have control over the media! Because in real life, the media was consistently opposed to Trump, confident to attack him at will without fear and to censor him towards the end. If somebody was in lock step with the media, perhaps they are to be found elsewhere. GOP voters will have no difficulty telling you where to look for the party in cahoots with media and censorship. Other attributes of fascism might include corporate power protected, labor power suppressed, rampant cronyism and fraudulent elections. Again, when people may try to point the fingers at GOP voters or Trump and cry "fascist" they really ought to expect even more fingers pointing right back at them.
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>What usually happens now is that somebody decides that the above is my own perspective, justifying thundering denouncements and attempts at the online billy club- rather than an effort to show that the other side is just as outraged and filled with moral indignation.
>
>As for your son: if he is only responsible for his own actions rather than for all bad players around him, then why is it acceptable to denounce millions of fellow citizens for the actions of a few who share voting preferences? This is the same question they will be asking- or probably not even asking any more, just rolling their eyes and saying there they go again.

You're not getting much support here John but I will stand with you and say, well said! You have hit many solid nails right on the head. To no avail of course, a waste of your time (because “I’m right, you’re wrong”) but well stated nonetheless. The left is as filled with scandal and lies and corruption and underhandedness as much as the right.

What you omit, however, is that it matters not who is in charge. We used to have representatives but now we have leaders, rulers who we must obey, not direct to further our interests but obey. We have gone from representatives to career politicians, life-long "public servants" (LOL) that have never had a real job but have managed to accumulate vast wealth and with immunity from all wrong doing. Like George Carlin said, it's a big club and you ain’t in it.

The America of our ideals is gone. Same for Europe, just a little further behind the curve. Huxley and Orwell were prescient on a whole different level. Soma is here as our lives are sucked up into an endless iGadget social media hypnosis and virtue signalling puerility. There is no fixing it in my opinion, no going back to “normal”. I think dark times are ahead (not that the current times are that bright either).

“Within the next generation I believe that the world’s rulers will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging and kicking them into obedience.” ~ Aldous Huxley

… and don’t we love our servitude? Don’t bother me with facts, John, I’m too busy tweeting, selfie'ing, building my followers and getting “liked”.

“When the people find that they can vote themselves money that will herald the end of the republic.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury." ~ Alexis de Tocqueville

… and that is all what modern day politicking is about; buying votes by promising benefits to keep those in power, in power.

Your comments about the virtual billy club is spot on. Cancel culture and social media billy clubs destroy people’s lives as surely as any physical beating, perhaps even worse as the beatings can heal but the effects of cancel culture might last forever.