Maybe I can find something else to be thankful for during this free stream of writing.
*****
One way that toxic people take control of situations is pitting people against each other.
A psychotic wench may triangulate and tell people around her lies. Maybe she'll tell her best friend that her boyfriend hits her. Maybe she tells her boyfriend that his best friend tried to have sex her.
She'll sit back and watch the ensuing chaos. This kind of crap is done to isolate the poor target and destroy his friendships. Her best friend will hate her boyfriend. If he believes the lie, he'll lose his best friend.
People like this are real. Domestic abusers play this game all the time. It's sad when I see it online or when someone will ask for relationship advice.
You can see where something is leading. It breaks your heart when weeks pass and they tell you that things blew up bigtime and they're embarrassed.
Sucky people follow the same patterns.
They do this as individuals on a micro level.
They do this on a macro level in groups.
The problem in groups is that, we have groupthink which causes the lack of reason to flow throughout the group. Also, we have the bystander effect: The more people involved in a problematic situation, the less likely someone will step up to fix it because no one person can be seen as accountable.
We see this in politics all the damn time.
We see political groups flinging crap on a wall to see what sticks.
The do it, in part, to keep people from focusing on the real problems. They also do it to try to discredit the other side.
For example....take the Russia hacking thing....
really?
How many of us have been hacked by Russians???? Or hackers using proxies that appear to come from Russia???
It happens to me all the damn time.
I'm no one special.
I know there is more. I'm too tired to play with it. If I can't sleep I'll come back and edit the post to give more examples.
These are diversions.
Every politican experiences this crap.
In my experience, the liberals are the first to threaten death.
I used to be a Democrat.
I deleted the anecdote about the politician allegedly murdered for failing to follow the dictates of his party. Let's just say after hearing that story, I left the party and spent a lot of time in hypnosis trying to rip that memory from my head.
I know countless Democrats threatened me with death.
They're pretty freaky that way.
I've never had a Republican threaten to cut my throat and murder my children.
The Republicans that know me know I carry.
The worst thing that happened with a Republican is that he rushed at a friend of mine who was giving a speech.
He didn't expect me to step in between them.
That was about four years ago.
This guy still avoids the crazy redheaded lady.
He's a little too passionate about politics. He once wanted to be called Benghazi.
He's a little nuts.
That's the problem.
Some people take the rhetoric a little bit too seriously.
That's how we wind up with deluded people shooting up baseball fields.
We should stop wagging the dog -
unstable people are watching.
People get too worked up over the rhetoric;
they believe that politicians are trying to prevent people from getting healthcare.
Come on......
really?
The primary mission of government is to grow itself and amass more power.
Imagine, if you will, how much power a government has over a populace if it controls healthcare.
Think about it.
A single payer system would put a lot more power into the hands of our government.
The problem is that insurance companies would have trouble raking in the same kind of money in a single payer system. That would harm the economy in the short term (not that increasing the costs as has been done isn't killing the economy now).
That would also harm the contributions that they make to politicians.
This is why we have to have a circus. We have to watch a show. We have to watch painful changes to our healthcare system so that the government can usher in single payer.
Why else would the politicians work so hard to gum up the works?
I honestly think that the sole purpose of the Affordable Care Act and Trump Care is too muddy up health care so damn much that even the conservatives will throw up their hands and usher in single payer.
Mark my words.
It's going to get far more painful before it gets better.
It's a shame so many people are suffering in the interim.
This is how politics works.
People are threatening to kill each other over it.
It's stupid.
I can go through many other national issues and tell you where we are headed. The rhetoric is so damn thick that it's hard to see past it.
I'll see if I can add more. I'm tired and frustrated. I saw a friend skewered in the editorial section of a local paper by people who are on his team.
Democrats shouldn't skewer other Democrats.
Muslims shouldn't publicly attack and threaten other Muslims. Right now, the anti-Islamic rhetoric is frightening.
I have never met a Muslim who has been nothing but thoughtful. Well...there was one kid who accidently hit me with a ball (a few times) but his aim got better.
That's probably the most violence I'd seen from a Muslim. He didn't do it more than three times as his throwing improved.
Threats....that gives the Islamophobes more reason to hate.
It's painful.
I don't know if I should waste my breath. There is a difference between religion and government. Governments have been known to twist theology to grow their power and control a populace.
The religion isn't the problem.
The Theocracies are.
These times call for education. There is a tremendous opportunity for these groups to take the controversy and educate the public.
There is too much anger.
I don't know if I can talk sense in situations where the rhetoric is too thick.
Maybe it's more that I don't see the point in talking to people too polarized to think.
When we become polarized.....
we give up our power....
to the game players.
When we find ourselves divided - we are soon conquered.
Love ya,
S.
