When people's main argument about net neutrality is "you just listen to too much Rush Limbaugh" how do you handle the complete inability to have a rational conversation?

How do you stay unjaded with the fact that 80 to 90% of the population are sheep that follow their political spirit animal, chanting herr derr lock step right down the toilet?

In the last few administrations we have happily put on our own shackles with the TSA, the 'department of the Internet', Obama care, The patriot act. ( don't try to tell me that stupid government is only on one side ) For what?

Why do people keep doing it? How can you possibly be hopeful about the future when everybody seems to have lost their mind?

/rant

I'm 57 years old.  When I was 40 I got divorced.  That invalidated many of my life plans, hopes, and dreams.

I decided that I'm in it for revenge - Not against anyone in particular, rather the whole world.  That made all the difference.

I like this.

Like it? I fucking love it.

As far as the OP's question - I don't fight anymore. Stupid has won. Weak has won. The majority of the populace want nothing more than security, and freedom from responsibility.  

It's only going to get worse in my lifetime, so I just mainly look to have fun and CYA. (Or, CMA, I guess.)

5/10 on the rant, but I understand how you feel.

I use my "Flex time" to leave work early and go to the range. Went yesterday, not a soul there, and had a great time. I fact, I may just go pick a fight and do it again today!

This is awesome.

I super dig it. Reminds me of the Hulk:

"that's my secret captain, I'm always angry"

I find avoiding GD helps keep my mood up.  But honestly this place is like a train wreck.  You don't want to look, but you just have to.

Successful arguments are made of facts, not feelings.  Getting emotionally invested in talking sense to a moron is a losing proposition.  

Despair?

lol.

I know history well enough to know that the stupid don't survive in the long term.

When the system is engineered to keep the stupid alive as long as possible there will come a point when the system cannot maintain the status-quo. Eventually the stupid will out-breed the smart and it will eat itself.

I'm just living my life as best that I can and occasionally looking at the clock as it edges closes to the above.

(this is dry humor btw)

I adopted a similar mindset when I was at my darkest point. I decided to keep going largely out of spite against everything that was weighing me down.



 

Who was it that said "you can't argue with stupid"?

"Gloom, despair and agony on me
Deep dark depression, excessive misery
If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all
Gloom despair and agony on me."

If you accept that what is going on is the same ol' thing that has been going on for thousands of years, then you begin to realize that maybe it is not so bad.

Live your life like you want and do what you can to change the world to what you think it should be.

Just remember that everyone else is doing the same thing.

I don't wallow in a bottomless pit of misery and self-loathing.  

Despair?  If you've given up that's your own damn fault for being a weak-minded coward.

"If I'm gonna get my balls blown off for a word...that word is poontang"

I just keep shrinking my sphere of "give a fuck".  

I'm 54 and just got divorced a couple of years ago.

I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Wow a thread that requires a pallet of Lexapro. I can understand not getting the scrip in this day and age if you want to keep your guns.

Good support guys!  Thanks

Def some like minds in here. I appreciate it.

I'm 60.  I am closer to the end than the beginning.  I have accepted that and will live the rest of my life in contentment and thankfulness.

I would not like to be a young person these days.

Not giving a fuck is very freeing, all your pressure and tenion just disappears

I drink have lots of sex and buy ammo

I fight the battles I can, take care of my family and keep the black

Flag at half mast


Free

This. Things outside of your sphere of influence don't warrant your time to be upset about them. When I find something that effects me and I can do something about, I do it. When I find a way to not feed the beast (pay $$ to the Gov) I do it and I concentrate my efforts winning those small battles. I enjoy life whether they want me to or not because FUCK THEM.

Here are some words from Solomon. Several thousand years ago. Things don't change much.

The Wise and the Foolish

12 So I decided to compare wisdom with foolishness and madness (for who can do this better than I, the king?[a]). 13 I thought, “Wisdom is better than foolishness, just as light is better than darkness. 14 For the wise can see where they are going, but fools walk in the dark.” Yet I saw that the wise and the foolish share the same fate. 15 Both will die. So I said to myself, “Since I will end up the same as the fool, what’s the value of all my wisdom? This is all so meaningless!” 16 For the wise and the foolish both die. The wise will not be remembered any longer than the fool. In the days to come, both will be forgotten.

17 So I came to hate life because everything done here under the sun is so troubling. Everything is meaningless—like chasing the wind.


The Injustices of Life

16 I also noticed that under the sun there is evil in the courtroom. Yes, even the courts of law are corrupt! 17 I said to myself, “In due season God will judge everyone, both good and bad, for all their deeds.”

Read the whole book of Ecclesiastes and you will see things are same as it ever was.

Resistance if futile.  At this point, I'm just trying to keep from being assimilated.

One of the best arf posts ever.

despair?

I feel no despair. I reject your premise, this isn't that much of a deal (yet).

"....and the meek shall inherit the earth......"

There's something very troubling about these words

people get into verbal fights, but they get distracted from arguments.  an argument has a structure and parts--clearly ascertaining this structure is the most important part of any productive discussion.  socrates still has the best method for dealing with this kind of thing--you have to summarize their argument first:

"so what i think you're saying is [their claim], due to premise A, B, and C.  is that what you are arguing?"

until you can state their argument in a way that they'll agree with, you're going nowhere--it's just making noise.  that's what the rush limbaugh comment is--trying to shortcut the argumentation process.  "rush is wrong because of these irrelevant statements over here".  

if you want to keep your sanity (not to mention arguing more effectively), you have to truly understand the argument that the other person i trying to make.  the only way to understand it is to summarize it before digging into it.

Just remember, some Jewish people knew better than what the sheep were being fed. Those jews survived, the others no so much.

Why would anyone on the left be concerned about "net neutrality"?

The echo chamber of their propaganda & their raison d'être abides...their critics silenced....they have great cause to celebrate.....imo

I tell them it's really about the government trying to shut down sites like Amazon and usually my lies win them over :D

I'm just sticking around long enough to make some money and then retire early to a beach in Albania, where the government is too weak, disorganized, and corrupt to be a problem. Laws there are "suggestions" and dollars fix things that would be unfixable here. I could probably buy M855 there, too.

Basically this.

I'm getting too old and too tired of politics to purposely get into an argument with idiots.

No one is going to get their mind changed and you have to listen to tons of inane babble about why you're an idiot and why you're wrong and why people like you are "what's wrong with the country". I don't suffer such BS well and I have better things to do than engage them in a conversation I really don't want to have.

I just smile and nod and thank God that the morons out themselves anymore. It helps me choose who to talk to and who to associate with.

I am not hopeful about the future.   I do not optimistically look forward to growing old.

I am left wondering if I will be able to retire and live comfortably or if it is more realistic to just settle into the very realistic notion of having to work til I die.

What pisses me off is that my "privilege" is the excuse they use to hit me with all kinds of asinine arguments about why I should just bend over and take it.   I can show you examples of what feats people are capable of when everything has been taken from them to include a persons dignity.    Whether it the vindictive ex-wife set on ruining her ex-husband or the government set on making good honest people into criminals while they progressively redefine what it is to be "American."

At what point do I decide that I do not wish to participate anymore?

For various reasons am already coming to grips with the notion of dying alone.   At least I can hopefully do it on my own terms while left with my dignity.  Done with thinking I can change the world.   Not going to swim up stream against the current.  Not going to go with the flow.  Just gonna cling to the side and watch from the shore.   Done with voting.  If this crap is going to run off the tracks then let us get it over with.   Dont care about the news be it local, national, or world.   Hate politicians of both sides and generally dont want to hear the opposing view points of others anymore.  I am done with compromise and the social justice minded twist of the counter argument.   Paint me a closed minded angry person.  Dont care, it is the truth.

I will continue to work and pay for my toys and live in a responsible manner as it pertains to my own life.  But I am not sharing with anyone or going to allow anyone to have anything.

Pretty awesome life attitude to have at 37 years old.   I am a regular sarcastic bundle of joy.

Gotta face the facts that this isn't the same country you grew up in. When I grew up people were ashamed to be on food stamps, now it is a badge of honor. Instead of hard work, the vast majority would rather take from others.

When I grew up I never dreamed almost 50% of this country would have a positive view of socialism. That was a dirty word back then.

The liberals played the long game and it's paying off. They stacked the schools and universities, the media and Hollywood with progressives. It has taken decades to bear fruit but today we are starting to see their efforts pay off for them.

Alinskys rules for radicals had much to do with it. When you have something as awesome as the Constitution, discredit it by saying the people who wrote it were racist slave owners. Despicable tactics like this.....work. Of course it takes a sycophant media to get away with it.

It's sickening watching politicians take their oaths of office and swear to protect and defend the Constitution, as they go on to destroy it.

We most likely are a full blown socialist quasi police state now. Today. I see communism as the inevitable end game in this country.

lol

Yep. Crazy.

Dont dispair anymore, I look out for #1. Its apparent the majority wants to go down hill, I'll just watch.

Listen to this song a few times and you'll feel better about Obama being the president.

This is a awesome thread; much wisdom here and rules to live by ................

This is good stuff.

Who's this "we" and why does it make us responsible for what grown-up gangs far away do? I'm sure as hell not responsible for my rulers. Even the people who like the system don't claim that a few thousand votes make any difference.

The founders designed the system to shorten perspective and diffuse responsibility among the masses, displacing it from ruler to ruled, and they produced that result. If you want a responsible executive branch, live in a monarchy.

"The only hope you have is to accept the fact that you're already dead.  The sooner you accept that, the sooner you'll be able to function as a soldier is supposed to function: without mercy, without compassion, without remorse.  All war depends upon it." - Lieutenant Ronald Speirs



Seriously, I understand.  And the first thing you have to do is accept that humans are humans.  We overwhelmingly want the easy road, the comfy bed, the satisfying meal - and especially the lack of fear and worry that comes from attaining those things.  Most of us enjoy a pleasant walk over a murderous hike so don't judge.  The difference comes when you're asked to pay for that mildness with something of value - tangible things like fees and taxes or intangible things like individual choices and the right to be who you are.  Then you see some serious divisions - and there are a LOT of people who fall on the "Well, I wasn't really using those rights/dollars anyway, soooo...."

Don't hate them.  Don't get frustrated.  Accept that they are different than you and what's obvious to you isn't to them. In some cases, it's even threatening to their reality.

If you still want to talk, ask them why they support what they do.  When you hear things that are wrong ("Net neutrality was because Comcast throttled Netflix!"), ask if they knew their statement wasn't accurate and offer evidence (keep it simple - "Actually, Netflix's president acknowledged it was their network guys.  There never was any throttling.  It's on C-NET's website.").  You're undercutting a belief system so go gently or you'll meet knee-jerk resistance and they'll stop listening.  Just offer.  Don't attack the what, erode the why.  Do it well enough and the what will collapse under its own weight.

If the conversation goes any further and they don't just shut down, see if they recognize that they're selling your "something of value" as well as their own to gain something for themselves and see if they're okay with that.  Because that's what it comes down to.  My favorite line (though the conversations themselves are rarely successful) is, "If you feel uncomfortable asking me, right here and now, for money to pay for your 'x', why is it okay to have some third party take it from me against my will - so they can give it to you to pay for your 'x'?"  If they see it and simply don't care, nothing you ever say will persuade them because they're completely selfish.  But if they never saw it that way, get them to see it and they may come around on their own.  Wherever they go in the conversation, bring it back there without anger or judgement - "But you're still asking them to take it from me.  They want to do it anyway but you're giving them an excuse, because they're saying it's for you.  You're enabling them."

As others have said, this is the world.  It's foolish to despair.  Just fight the battles you can win, try not to stress over things you can't influence, enjoy your life while you have it, and think about how to circumvent the effect of things that are going badly.

While you're in your basement drinking your piss, I'm going to actually enjoy life.  Living your life in fear and defeat isn't living.  What is this?  Amateur hour?   No wonder you hard core "patriots" are losing.  lol!!!

Im doing the best I can to stay in the game,  be alive long enough to watch it all burn, and be slightly ahead of most when the time comes.