Hello everyone, Hello Mordaan!! I randomly reinstalled and visited the forums thursday, lol

Have been watching some of the developmental twitch streams from time to time over the years.

I did log-in ingame... have absolutely no recollection how to do anything 

Hope everyone is doing well.

*reads Rigwyn's sig...*

you been reading Scott Adams' blog?

http://blog.dilbert.com/post/156857834926/sam-harris-induces-cognitive-dissonance-in-ben

Better link, talks about magic too:

http://blog.dilbert.com/post/157277690511/how-to-persuade-the-other-party

*steps back in...

That was a good bit of reading! Enjoyed it too, somebody mentioned a few pages ago about this being a good political discussion... I tend to agree.

A few months down the road I guess my feelings are in the realm of "hoping for the best"... I did my 3rd party thing, but I think that I am glad that trump got in, regardless if he crashes and burns or not.

The way I see it is that our history got us to where we are... and where we are feels significant, the majority of the states felt that we are headed in a bad direction... and Hillary was a part of that history leading to here. If you are heading in a bad direction the only way to change course, I feel, is to take some risks. Trump is the risk... Hillary was staying on the same path... I hope the risk turns out good in the long run. I cannot predict what that will look like or how messy it'll be along the way.

I am ok with the US choosing the risky option to try and institute some change... it could turn out bad, as is part of a risk, but at this point, I still fear where we would have ended up had we stayed course... the reaction, I believe, would have been even more intense down the road. That scares me more than the risky choice we are dealing with right now.

deep down I think the current way of life is not going to stay no matter what choices are made, so we had better get started figuring out what the next is. Steady State Economics has recently peaked my interest, but I remain too ignorant. Adam Smith seemed to make it sound really bad but inevitable... some more modern writers seem more optimistic. I'll need to learn a lot more.

To me it kind of devalues the point up protesting and uprising... nothing has happened yet except some free speach words and an election... if trump does horrible things as president, ok, let's protest... but erm... nothing has happened yet but a bunch of campaign talk...

and the calls to recount... shattering the faith (however illusional it really is) but shattering it none the less by deligitimizing the results the states have made won't bode well for us in the long run.

This is what I really worry about, because both sides do the same when they lose...

pertinent Nov 2 post:

http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-last-gasp-of-american-dream.html

Pretty sure I agree with what  you are saying Rigwyn

Another reason I am game for voting 3rd party if I don't like one of the mains is that everyone complains about a two party system... winner takes all favors a two party system... I don't like it, you probably don't like it, others probably don't like it... unless you are in Congress.

But, how does that change? Complain too our representatives that we want them to overhaul this system that gives them a lot of power? Not gonna happen... Only way I see is... stick it to those who like things as they are... by voting for a spoiler... if a 3rd party screws up the elections often enough... say every time, every two years local and up... one of the major parties will get pissed... and then we can start talking about amending our voting system...

but, if we all fall in our proper line as good little piggies... they win, and things continue as is.

Not that I vote every single time, but willfully choosing not to vote seems silly, I certainly agree with that Rigwyn.

One of the problems that I see now is that there's a steep curve to understanding politics, and an even steeper one once you realize that there's no single source of information that is *correct*. Learning to research, question, and piece together biased information and to reorganize it into a coherent story that you *think* makes sense is a skill in itself.

This I struggle with... I think I have given up out of pure exhaustion... i try to look into different issues and form a real consensus, and it is nearly impossible to just figure out. There are so many scenarios and what-ifs and buts... And then there is the problem with really having no idea which candidate will be best to handle future situations that we don't even know about. Something could happen that clinton would be better, or trump, or johnson, or stein... who knows!

It's just easier to follow the consensus from your family... your church... your peer group... or just a party and be done with it.

That's what I am going to do... decide which party sounds the best to me... then vote party line, and if they put up a shitty candidate, or don't campaign enough... well they should try harder.

Unless it is like my local rep and I know that person is a jackass from interacting directly with them... otherwise it's all hearsay or bullshit.

from the above link... i think this sums up how we got to where we are:

American liberalism, as already mentioned, was a movement of the educated elite; it focused on helping the downtrodden rather than including them; and that approach increasingly ran into trouble as the downtrodden turned out to have ideas of their own that didn’t necessarily square with what liberals wanted to do for them.

[edit] hmmmm... wrong button... sorry for the dup