I'm not even angry anymore

[mark414]

I was browsing old Onion articles and came across this one:

"Nation's Liberals Suffering From Outrage Fatigue"
http://www.theonion.com/election2004/news_4027.php

I couldn't have said it better myself.

With the recent election results (fraud or not), Harry Reid saying he'd support Scalia for Chief Justice, and everything else that those currently in power are still fucking up and will be fucking up for at least the next couple of years (here's to hope for 2006), I've lost any sense of rage or anger that I've had. Nothing surprises me anymore. I expect the worst out of everyone: bend you over and like it policies from the Republicans, and bend us over, we like it policies from the Democrats.

I still keep up with the news, and I still pay attention, and I still care...but I just feel like we're at a point where there are no surprises, we are heading down a downward spiral, and life is going to get a lot shittier for a lot of people in the years to come.

Maybe I'm at the point of acceptance, maybe I'm at the point of despair. In this case, they're on the same footing.

Anyone else feel the same way?

[HEAVYHEART]

1. Yes Mark.

I feel exactly the same way. I still care.. somewhat, so I keep up with the news but not like before. Nothing surprises me anymore and it doesn't hurt as bad as it used to. I'm not angry anymore. Sometimes I don't give a shit or maybe it's acceptance, I don't know.

[mark414]

2. maybe your name says it all

maybe we just have a heavy heart

[shanti]

21. and that's exactly how they like it

n/t

[andyhappy]

3. I'm with ya

that article is classic as that is where I am really at.

Constant outrage is exhausting ...and now that it really looks like we are going to have 4 more years I find myself going back to my apathetic ways of lore.

I do keep coming back to the DU yet ...its like digital crack! i am smkin' 1's and 0's and I can't get enough!

[Stinky The Clown]

6. "Constant outrage is exhausting"

But as exhausted as I am, I can NOT get past the outrage I feel inside myself. I look inside me and I scare me.

[Nay]

18. Jeez, same with me, Andy.

I am SO TIRED of it all. Contemplating four more years of this asshole induces in me overwhelming outrage, which has turned into fatigue. I also only check DU for news, and it's hard to get off of here!

[knowbody0]

4. embrace the despair

but remember it was our apathy that led us to these horrific days. we have allies around the world, victims of american foreign policies.

[Rockerdem]

19. Let's take about a month off for the holidays

But then roll up our sleeves and be optimistic. 2006 is less than 23 months away. Even if we only pick up one seat, we have to be aggressive. And that takes elbow grease, not tears.

[Sterling]

27. it was our apathy that led us to these horrific days

No it was not. It was sellout pols on our team and the fact that we have no money comapiared to the people who bribed our leaders.

[sendero]

5. Yep..

... I think America now has the government it deserves, and I'm just trying to insulate myself and my family from the inevitable shitstream headed our way.

I dunno, I suppose I'm still a bit angry tho - angry at Americans for being so goddammed stupid, angry at Kerry for becoming a magician and dissappearing the day after the "election".

I'm angry at hearing Newtie on NPR spouting his usual bullshit (didn't he have to resign under a sex-scandal cloud, never hear much about it from the "liberal" media), angry that the Bush** administration considers 51% to be a mandate, angry but yet resigned.

I've done all I am going to do for the near term. The only thing that makes me happy is that the Reps will have nobody to blame when their fucked-policies child growns into a menacing adult.

[mark414]

7. your last sentence probably plays a role in how i'm feeling

"The only thing that makes me happy is that the Reps will have nobody to blame when their fucked-policies child growns into a menacing adult."

they will have no one to blame but themselves. of course, they'll try to blame someone else, but hopefully by then enough Americans will WAKE THE FUCK UP.

that and the consolation that, at least The Onion and The Daily Show are going to be really, really good for the next fours years.

[andyhappy]

11. I dont know about that

lately in watching the daily show, his jokes make me more bummed out than anything.

I mean, we laugh and prod and mock all this lame shit and then they slam dunk us every 4 years?

I am starting to think that its just not funny know matter how clever or insightful it is.

Can't laugh as I watch ol'W tear our country into little pieces...

[billie_]

8. the onion article is hilarious & sadly true...

i hear what all of you are saying....i am personally exhausted, but i can't give up....we can't give up....

billie

[ernstbass]

9. I think I'm over being mad until

I see a car with chimpie sticker on it (and they are everywhere) and I am full of rage again. If I could just ram into a few of these cars I might feel better!!! But I'm definately resigned to anything I hear on the news or read in print.

[SammyWinstonJack]

10. Pretty much

I go back and forth between anger and despair. Four weeks has seemed longer in some ways then the past four years and the thought of another four years of the Evil Monster's Evil Agenda is more then I can stand to think about.

[andyhappy]

13. isn't it crazy?

There should be some sort of a support group. It feels as bad as 911 did and I do not know how to get out of this funk.

I can't wait 4 more years...oy!

[SammyWinstonJack]

24. DU is my support group

:-)

[maxsolomon]

12. angry & disgusted

its not going away. i still can't accept how gullible & delusional the american public is. how not one honest voice gets through the media clutter. how even the most marginally liberal figures are slimed as america hating communist osama lovers.

i find myself hoping our chickens come home to roost. utter failure in iraq, inflation, gas shortages, undenialble global warming, cats & dogs living together, etc...

which is pitiful. i don't want to hope for the worst, but i really think the only thing that will wake america up is a crisis we bring on ourselves, that we cannot blame away. and considering our blinders-on reaction to 9-11, where we did the EXACT WRONG THING, i don't know what such a crisis could possibly be.

if the polar ice caps melt & raise the sea levels by 9' we'll blame the chinese & europeans.

[sendero]

17. this is what...

... I've been saying and unfortunately actually believe:

"which is pitiful. i don't want to hope for the worst, but i really think the only thing that will wake america up is a crisis we bring on ourselves, that we cannot blame away."

Our country is like every company I've ever worked for. You can see a crisis on the horizon, you can point it out, you can propose a solution, a way to head it off --- but the fact is that until the whole company (country) is feeling the pain, nobody will acknowledge that there is in fact a problem.

It's not going to take long for Bush** to put us in that state, it seems to be his only real talent.

[Stinky The Clown]

22. Your line that reads .....

......... "i find myself hoping our chickens come home to roost. utter failure in iraq, inflation, gas shortages, undenialble global warming, cats & dogs living together, etc..." is exactly what I've felt for a while.

Gain often comes with pain. The economic "armegeddon" may come. And if it does, we'll **all** be in a shit storm, but maybe that's what we need.

"9/11 changed everything."

Actually, for many outside the affected areas, 9/11 was an abstract event. Massive job loss, massive home foreclosure, massive food and energy shortages. THOSE are not abstract.

In my funk ...... I wish for them. And fear for my three children who are just starting their adult lives.

[otohara]

39. It's Not About Bush Anymore, It's The People

who voted for him. I shutter the thought of being in the same room with a Bush supporter. So far, I haven't had to do that. So true about the fucking so called liberal media.. No one I know is able to watch cable news channels yet, I hope it lasts forever.

[Megook]

14. So that's what what I feel is called...

I just can't seem to let go, as the Repukes who sit around me
at work keep "suggesting" to me.  One even had the
nerve to call me "a bitter, bitter man".  They are
so smug!!!  

My revenge was to mock-up a Clinton '08 banner for my desktop.
*LOL*  The fits of apoplexy from the repukes who saw my screen
helped for about 5 minutes.  It is just amazing that
"they" still can't get over that name.  And Repuke
called me bitter. 

[Old and In the Way]

15. We obviously haven't suffered enough yet.

The terrorists hate us for our freedoms.

[truth2power]

16. It's called "learned helplessness."

Often seen in battered women.

When, over time, nothing you say or do makes any difference, you become passive and depressed and just accept whatever punishment the abuser sees fit to inflict.

I kinda feel that way, too, these days. ;(

[Snotcicles]

20. I have been thinking of having yard signs made

that read "I voted for this shit" and when things really get ugly
planting them on the lawns I have memorized that had b\c signs all stickin out there.

[Stinky The Clown]

23. Your name and your idea

made me chuckle!

Thanks!:hi:

[mark414]

25. just want to say thanks

to everyone who posted on here

[HEAVYHEART]

31. No.

Thank YOU. :hug:

[sandnsea]

26. Detachment gives you strength

Detaching from the emotional roller coaster of the Bushies is the first step to gaining the strength to fight and win. It's better to not react emotionally to every crazy thing they do, saps your strength. Set a personal course that you are willing to fight, and then go to it.

"Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.." Eleanor Roosevelt

[FizzFuzz]

28. I feel the same way.

Sometimes so depressed, I can barely move.

Wish I could get a lobotomy and join a mega-church, because KNOWING what they're doing, watching it happen and knowing what outcome they are creating makes me shake with rage.

And as someone said, very accurately, its like battered women's syndrome. Nothing we do or say stops the abuse, or even gets noticed. We're all being faced with personal survival issues, and the underlying thought is "how long until some crisis comes that ruins me and my family? or my friends?"

The self-righteous idiocy, the vapidly virtuous Fundies, the wholesale lies and destruction that hardly anyone else seems to notice are driving me crazy. I can't stand to be around people, knowing that most of them are just doing everything that ensures destruction. Everything beautiful, gone in the twinkling of a consume-more mandate.

Right after it became clear that the election suddenly went off like a big fat SUV with a sudden blow out, I was yelling "NEVER GIVE UP!!!" But right now, I just want to break down in tears or hide under the covers all the time. I'm fighting a bad deal at work (previous concerns about safe work conditions have apparently vanished into nothing more than gusts of hot air--I was injured and alot of us are being put at risk, while admin denies the fact that they are disregarding our complaints, while touting their great concern for safety), I can't actually sue, because of Pataki's(R-NY) Worker's Comp rulings....

you get the drift.

I don't know if this is therapy here for me, or if its a morbid obsession. If only I could turn off the computer, watch FUX news and take a happy pill....

[HEAVYHEART]

32. Fizzfuzz..

You are not alone. :hug:

[FizzFuzz]

36. thanks, heart.

hugs are always good.
:hug:

:cry: :cry: :cry:

:D :D

ha, I just smilied a small emotional rollercoaster, eh?

[Generator]

29. I'm not even a Democrat anymore

Oh I am, I guess. I don't know what it means much though, as we have no leaders to look to and noone to inspire us.

They keep getting a fatal flaw. From Bev Harris to Kerry-well I think their heart is in the right place, but it's just not enough anymore. Who to believe, who to trust?

I'm pretty detached too. Which is good-because you can't stay in constant rage, it's not any way to live when you have a family. It would be easier to be a younger person now with no responsibilities. But I already went through those years of Reagan and I thought they were BAD. Little did I know it would pale to this nightmare.

I'm living in a bad movie, how serious can I take it? It's insane that people have given legitmacy to this band of thugs and propagandists. That's why I got outraged at the Kennedy honors. Dammit don't just sit at a table with BUSH and smile and make small talk and get your award. Not if that is what you really believe???
My faith in humankind is at a new low.

[HEAVYHEART]

33. I know

I'm feeling the same lately. I'm a democrat but I feel lost. We have no leader.

[otohara]

40. If Warren Beatty Got Near Him

grrrrrrrrrr.....spit

[InvisibleBallots]

30. Don't mourn, organize

[DireStrike]

34. Battered wife syndrome?

I feel it, too. Grr. Keep... pressing. One foot in front of the other, start small.

[DireStrike]

35. I am outraged that they did this to me!

But I don't have enough energy or knowledge to do much about it.

Yes, I replied to my own post. That's how desperate I am.

[ailsagirl]

37. I think they're counting on us to burn ourselves out...

[bvar22]

38. Take a break tonight.

Tomorrow, get in touch with these guys.

http://www.pdamerica.org/

You may recognize some of us.
We are going to remove the cancer from the Democratic Party, provide opposition to the bush* administration, and work inside and outside the Democratic Party to get liberals elected.

If you go here and click your state link:

http://pdamerica.org/caucuses.php

you will find a local contact for grassroots work.


If you really want to recharge your batteries, come to DC on Jan 20th to celebrate (protest) the coronation of bush*, and then attend the Progressives Summit over the weekend.

http://pdamerica.org/events/display-full.php?id=29


Working for something I didn't believe in caused depression, anxiety, and despair. I did not believe in the Democratic Candidate's position on most of the issues that matter to me.
I will no longer sell my soul. I refuse to work for ideas I am against!!!

Progressive Democrats Stand on Iraq!
Here is what PDA believes and what we believe needs be said.

The invasion was illegal under both the UN Charter and the US Constitution.

It was unprovoked, unwarranted, unjustified, and unnecessary.

It is obscenely expensive at a time when non-military government programs are starved for resources.

It is based on distortions and deceptions and falsehoods -- not by accident, but by design.

That the costs incurred by the US are borne disproportionately by the poor and underprivileged.

That it was not motivated by a quest for phantom Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, but by the Bush Administration's determination to control Iraqi oil, to provide vast opportunities for war profiteering by American corporations, and to build 14 new American military bases in Iraq which it intends to keep there for decades to come.

That the Iraqi people deserve reparations for the harm we have inflicted on their population, their country and their national soul.

That a way must immediately be found to get the UN in and the US out of Iraq--and to leave behind the possibility of a true Iraqi democracy, with full Iraqi control over their own national resources, the rebuilding of their own country, and with genuine Iraqi self-determination.

That the Democratic Party should stand enthusiastically behind an American commitment to a strong and vibrant United Nations, which, while far from perfect, is the best vehicle we have at this moment in history to assemble the collective conscience of the human community.

That our country must commit without exception to abide by the world rule of law. If we disregard the law of nations we're left with the law of the jungle, where the only constraint on violence is the power and ruthlessness of those who would employ it. Rest assured, in that world, we won't be the only ones to employ it.

That George Bush's foreign policies--of which the Iraq war is the central manifestation--have made us new foreign enemies. That George Bush's defense policies have weakened our defenses. That George Bush's responses to 9/11 have made future 9/11's far more likely to occur. So much for Republicans being "strong on defense."

These are the truths about Iraq we hold as Progressive Democrats of America.

http://www.pdamerica.org/articles/news/pda_iraq_statement.php

Check out the site. This has snapped me out of my depression.
I haven't changed.
My values haven't changed.
Working for things that reflect my values energizes me.

We aren't beaten until we quit.