Whether Dishing it Out or Taking it...
You're still way too focused on controlling everyone else.
A good rule to check for unjustified bias in your belief system is this:
Would you still advocate for the things you support if your worst, most virulent political enemy had control of implementing and enforcing the policy?
Do you believe in the policies you believe in because they are actually good for everyone, or do you believe in them because the people in charge are on your side, and those policies will be used against people you want to see suffer?
Would you support the censorship of free speech if your own worst enemies were the censors?
Would you support the government making your healthcare decisions if your worst enemies were in charge of the government?
Would you support the targeted closure of businesses if your worst enemy got to decide who was “essential” and who wasn’t?
The problem with a vast number of people today is that they throw their support behind what sounds good rather than what is good. They follow. They buy in. They join. They outsource their thinking to the people their chosen in-group has decided it’s safe to listen to and they don’t bother ever once thinking about the actual foundations of those beliefs. They are the ones who will cry foul when the “other side” does to them exactly what they’ve been doing all along, or the ones who take delight in finally being able to dish out some payback and give their former oppressors a taste of their own medicine. And they’re the ones who will refuse to acknowledge it’s wrong no matter who does it.
I don’t advocate for personal liberty and individual choice because that’s what my “party” thinks. On the contrary, I advocate for it because ideas should be free from anyone’s party constraints. If you’re being sold an idea as “good” because it will be implemented by people who will use it to help you and hurt your enemies, then you’re buying something that is deeply, deeply evil. If you’re ok with a policy because it only hurts people you don’t like, you’re a tyrant at heart living vicariously through the people you seek to elect or empower over others. The only real way to ensure that things are fair to people no matter who is running things is to let almost everything be a matter of individual choice and liberty. It should be ok that some people are offensive. It should be ok that some people are hateful, even. Nothing about that says you have to be. People should be able to pursue the things that make them happiest in life, even if their happiness is repugnant to you in every way. They should be free to work for the basics they need to survive in whatever ways they see fit. Their needs should be fulfilled by their own efforts, their own intellect, their own creativity and work ethic, their own families and friends and support networks, built and maintained by their own commitments to others and to themselves. A person’s life should be that person’s responsibility. As the sovereign authority over “self,” it should fall to the individual to be accountable for their own needs, for the consequences of their choices, and for the rewards of their labors. The individual should be able to choose what path to follow, what is of value to them, who to help, what to buy, and where to invest their personal time, energy, effort, and self. There is no place for government in most of that, and there is no place for coercion, compulsion, or regulation by others of things for which you are accountable.
America is going to vote tomorrow, and if history is any kind of indicator, we’re going to fuck it up pretty royally. The division into tribes is almost total, and almost nobody seems to want to cover actual issues and policies. Social media ads dispense with even so much as the pretense of policy concerns and just get right to the “Give me money because the other guy might win!” line. No one even thinks to ask why that would be a bad thing, or why it would be a good thing if the beggar in the ad were to win. The domination of the American intellect is so near-total that we barely even bother to ask “Why might this candidate be good for me and my family” anymore, let alone why they might be good for the nation as a whole. We’re down to the bare minimum – Does this candidate have the right letter after their name? Will voting for them keep me safe and secure within my in-group? So amidst all the polling and predictions, I’m going to venture a guess and say that we’re about to see an entire country act like inmates in a prison yard and vote whichever way they personally feel will allow them to stick it to the people they hate most. Then we’ll see whoever wins spend the next several years preoccupied with spending taxpayer dollars in a multi-trillion-dollar game of Gotcha instead of governing.
The small minority of rational thinkers left will probably do what we’ve done all along. Keep going. Ignore most of the idiocy, except when we can’t. Be responsible for ourselves and our families. Console one another as we watch what was once a radical fringe encroaching ever closer on all sides toward the once-reasonable middle. Mentally plot the graph in our minds as predictable courses of action produce entirely predictable consequences. Keep our eyes open and maintain a mental record of all this idiocy so that when it’s time to deal with the fallout, we know where not to step. Do all we can do in service to self and to our relationship with truth. And no matter how tirelessly they try to prevent it, be happy and self-reliant, come what may.
Told ya so.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/oops-pelosi-s-words-from-2019-are-now-being-used-against-democrats-in-biden-impeachment-push/ar-AA1gJveC?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=3b9a3be4fe3547bf9c324f4f1dce5a31&ei=12