Well maybe you can, but i'm warning you that this is a diary with the kind of truth people don't like to hear or admit. I'm just warning because i'm going no holds barred here and i'm sure some will be offended, others might just think i'm crazy (I hope i'm not crazy I've been saving my crazy for something interesting in the future like thinking i'm Napoleon, Jesus or secret agent and I'd hate to waste it on just a diary about stuff people don't want to know lol)
I will respond to any well reasoned assertion, but not to general disagrees since I expect many to disagree. If these were generally accepted truths I wouldn't need to do a diary on them now would I? :p
(Disclaimer just because I view something negatively doesn't mean i'm against it, it just means I see little real value, but since blog diaries have little real value who am I to tell other what to do.)
The real enemy is not the 1% and is probably closer to 0.0001% so now that OWS is over it would be best to put that to rest or at least not act like 1 in 100 is some diabolical billionaire hellbent on sucking the life out of us.
The idea we are so divided we disagree on more than we agree on as a nation is an illusion. Agreement is boring and has no life of its own. water is wet yeah yeah yeah. Disagreement has a natural tendency to take up all the air because its the basis of discussion, policy, arguments, new, etc. Its like air traffic, safe landing are boring and one crash will create more buzz than all the safe landing in history. Don't be fooled we are all more alike than we are different from left to right and top to bottom.
Americas biggest issue right now in regards to solving big problems is risk aversion. People generally prefer a stable bad over a risk for better. Until things are terrible and people have little to lose, don't expect any major action from the citizenry.When Teddy monopoly busted we were reeling from the Gilded Age and when FDR did the New Deal we were in the great depression. If the great recession wasn't enough we may have to wait a bit.
Obama is neither great president nor a transformational one, not saying anything negative just reality. Great presidents shoot for the stars try for the end of the solar system and settle for the Moon, Obama has a habit of taking the stars off the table, negotiating away the end of the solar system shooting for the moon and getting low earth orbit. We are not experiencing any transformations,all is pretty status quo. (I like Obama the person a lot more than the President so no person slight here).
Justice Scalia is a strict Constitutionalist (just kidding, I made a funny )
Change only comes from within. The left can not change the right nor vice versa because everyone expect criticism from the opposite end. Point out the failing of the opposite fringe accomplishes nothing but division which helps the oligarchs. If you really want to make change do it from the left. If we don't keep our side on its toes no one will, which is why i'm not a big fan of cheer leading though I understand why its sometimes needed.
As hard as it is to believe in some ways America is closer to its ideas today more than ever in that there are very few 'second class citizens' anymore, we have almost reached total equality. The problem is that we are all second class citizens now and the oligarchs want us all sitting at the back of the bus (Hat Tip to Rosa Parks, one of my fav people mainly because she wasn't trying to do anything grand which makes it all the more so, where most famous people had intentions of something greater. As an aside if you have never heard the Aaron Neville song Sister Rosa I highly recommend it, it made me proud to be black, even though i'm white)
The only thing more Dems (at the federal level) will get you is more excuses for not passing progressive legislation. Majority needs super majority and if you get that then you get what happened in CA, BS that they are afraid of losing seats for passing such legislation. Honestly if we had 100% Dems in Washington, we still wouldn't get what we want.
If you want to be a great Democrat in Washington, go independent. If you don't believe me look at Sanders, hes the best Dem we have because he isn't hamstrung by the party.
The right isn't as crazy as the media makes them out to be, they just highlight the crazy. Just like at OWS they only showed people in funny masks in the news even though few actually wore them. Its all about dividing, marginalizing and conquering.
The right is manipulated by a media and political machine, so is the left. I don't want to start a fight here, but lets leave it at there is no actual left in politics any more, its an illusion.
We do not have a two party system we have a one party system with two teams. Think of it this wat. The 9ers don't really represent SF nor the Pats New England, they both represent the NFL. Thats how Washington works with some emotional wedge issues to motivate and distinguish. Its intended that way because it makes people get in the rut of 'voting for their team' making any real change outside the equation.
There really are two Americas, people and money, and money is winning. Thats why the NYSE has nothing to do with the real economy, it can go to 20k and we could be a 3rd world country, no association. Money never sleeps and people watch too much tv to bother fight back, so its not looking good.
People have a tendency to solve symptoms more than problems because they are faster and more instant gratifying. I've noticed this recently trying to get people interested in my public financed campaign movement. People rather send a new rep, even if its 50/50 they are/get corrupted than actually go to the heart of the problem. Thats why we are so far behind, all our hard work can and is being undone and will be till we solve the core flaw. You don't cure a cold by stuffing tissue up your nose and you don't fix a political system by changing a politician here and there ever so many years.
Petitions are a waste of time unless its representing a significant percent of the population. They are there to make you 'feel' like you are doing something so you don't actually do something. If you want change bring people not autographs.
Most people prefer comfortable illusion to a harsh reality. Comfortable may vary but reality doesn't.
The Right have become the masters of all the right things for all the wrong reasons. They know jobs are gone, but are fooled into believing its something other than greedy rich people sending jobs over seas. They know they use to have more rights, but think rights are a zero sum game, where its just two unrelated things, more rights for the left out and less for everyone. Government is a mess, they want to gut it instead of fix it. They have a lot of the right problems identified and have lost the plot on the causes, though that is intentionally done by the media to keep them distracted.
Nothing prevents a genius from being an idiot too. Intelligence is more than IQ.
If you have read this far you are a wise and patient being ;)
Humans have a natural tendency to simplify things to black and white in a world of grays which is why our two team system does so well even though its a fraud. Thinking outside the box is not as easy as it sounds. Thinking is hard, thats why talking heads are so effective people hear something that fits their b&w view and just accept it.
The biggest lies of all are those that fulfill themselves. Nothing is for sure a fail except that which is not tried. Beware of those who say you can't, no one ever accomplished anything by believing they couldn't. (Unless laws of physics are involved then beware of those who say you can :p)
Truth is only stranger than fiction if you don't read much fiction. Of course people don't understand probability very well and think something unusual is rare when in reality unusual is common, just the same unusual repeated is rare. Always expect the unexpected its often as likely as the expected.
123% of all statistics on the internet are made up.
The solution to all of America's problems is as simple as the people caring and willing to put in the effort. You are the change you are looking for but only if you are willing to fight the status quo making most people not the change anyone is looking for unless its the TV channel needing changing. All battles are uphill, if the battle was downhill it woulda been done already. No one wants to hurry up and do a hard fight, they prefer to wait till later when its harder, hoping someone else does it in the mean time. If this doesn't change we have little hope of a bright future.
People are more optimistic than actual probability would say. (Its actually been studied and is assumed a survival trait to inspire motivation against the odds) Unfortunately this works in reverse to, in that people don't see how bad things really are and so don't see a reason to improve them. Thats why reality checks work. If something is important enough to say once its important enough to repeat every so often till people get it..
If you agree with all of this (except the Scalia and maybe the statistics ones) you are as crazy as I am. Could be a little could be a lot.
Wed Apr 23, 2014 at 8:14 AM PT: If you are here to defend Bob please notice I asked him to support his claims 3 times and he refused. Popularity over reason is bad for the site. please actually read with objectiveness before you post how mean I am to Bob. thank you.