@lauren I’m still working my way through it. Looking forward to the final section.
RE: https://hachyderm.io/@RichardBrockie/115988213915955595
I finished Alec's tour de force and gave myself time to mull it over a bit by heading out for a bicycle ride ( #cycling). @TechConnectify has helped me crystalize a train of thoughts that I've had since I moved to the US in late 1998.
For a nation formed in rebellion against lack of representation (in coincidentally, my home country), I've often observed a surprising passivity when it comes to the political situation. Over the years, I've had to resort to astonishment.
I recall first encountering this shortly after Columbine (within a year of me moving here). I recall commenting that allowing easy access to guns was a collective decision by the US citizenry. This was met with expressed helplessness with a sentiment along the lines of, "What can we do, nothing we do can influence the politicians?"
My response to that would now be, "In the past, your predecessors fought a revolution to have their own country, surely having some laws passed is significantly easier than that?"
Relatedly, mass shootings are routinely described as "tragedies." Where I come from a tragedy is something that cannot be escaped, no matter how hard you try. The very wording is acquiescing to helplessness. A more appropriate word is "atrocity." This implies that someone did something unspeakable, with the implication that we should do something about it. Let's do that!
And then there's the vernacular phrase used when someone half-asses something, "close enough for government work!" Show some fucking respect for, firstly, yourself and the work that you do, secondly, the people who have to use your work, and thirdly, the country you claim to love you that you are denigrating by suggesting that it accepts your crap!
Final point, since I've been able to vote in the US, I can proudly say that I've voted in every election I've been able to and have used the rubric advocated by @TechConnectify: I have voted against every Republican candidate I have had the opportunity to vote against.
