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sparkleflit 76F
5205 posts
3/26/2019 11:50 pm
STOP TAKING THEIR BAIT



How to conquer right-wing bullies: It’s not a debate — so stop taking their bait

Yes, they’re whistling for racism, sexism, Islamophobia, homophobia, and antisocialism but those are just overtones. We shouldn’t be distracted by them. The whistle’s fundamental tune is simply “Join us. We’re Gods. No deed too dirty for us deities.”

The US has recently discovered its Achille’s heel and it’s in the same spot as it has been in every civilization, a weakness for tyrants, people who God, pretending they’re masters of reality instead of having to adapt to it.

The weakness is in each of us. Who wouldn’t want to be master of reality? Life is uncertain. There’s way too much world, especially now. It’s a relief to think you’ve finally found your infallible focus, a crusade in which you’re the solution.

Most of us know to exercise our appetite for self-deification in fantasy, for example, identifying with superheroes in fiction. But some don’t. They pretend in real life and soon end up with a following among those who can’t, won’t or think they needn’t distinguish fiction from reality.

We make a grave mistake in thinking the self-deifying have a mission. They’re convinced by the sound of their own stridency they care about making things better. The evidence is they don’t. Their crusades are just an excuse for playing god.

It’s the same mistake we make over and over. It’s a mistake to think Stalin or Mao were Communists, Hitler was a nationalist, Robespierre was a liberal or Trump is a conservative. Tyrants are just self-deifying. Though some for the mission they stay for the self-deification. They’re gloataholics, addicted to self-aggrandizement.

Self-deification is a drug. Its delivery system is righteous indignation; righteousness makes them feel like authorities on what warrants indignation, indignation enables them to forget their fallibility. Self-deification is like granting oneself a wild card and a trump card.

Wild-card: Because the solution, I can do anything I want. It’s all for “the cause”.

Trump card: What I do will always be smarter and better than anything. If I win a genius saint. If I lose, a genius saint martyr.

Playing god is so simple any idiot can do it: Never apologize, always out-scold anyone who questions you. The shy will shy away, the conscientious will get confused, the gullible will join you.

Self-deification is the cheap easy alternative to conscientiousness. Just pretend you’re at war, fighting for the ultimate good. If you’re fighting for the ultimate good, you’re free to do whatever’s necessary. Freer still, the self-deifying pretend they’re fighting for the ultimate good and do whatever they want.

MAGA is actually GAWA: Get Away With Anything. ’s Trump’s draw. His supporters don’t realize it but they’re just in it for the self-deification. They don’t just support Trump; they want to be him.

They think they care about making America great again. They’re really just addicted to righteous indignation. It’s obvious from the way they abandon supposed missions as soon as they’re unable to milk them for the gloataholic buzz.

They promise no promised land. You hear no vision for future American greatness. Getting there is the gloataholic’s fun, the idiot’s delight of wild card trumping.

Once hooked on self-deification, there’s no alternative to sticking with it. The crimes mount; the enemies gather. They can’t show weakness or their whole house of wild card/trump cards tumbles. The US is now being held hostage to leaders who know if they ever let down their posturing they’d spend the rest of their lives in jail. They’re just hoping to run out the clock.

We make a mistake taking their bait as though they care about their causes. We’ve got to stop projecting our concern about the future on them. For them, it’s a shortsighted addiction to declaring themselves victors. ’s what has us led by the nose into the weeds. To give their concerns the benefit of the doubt is as dangerous as taking a psychopath at his word.

We should focus instead on their whistles’ fundamental note. Expose their self-deification. Their only response would be more self-deification, proving our point.

The lesson to take from our country’s flirtation with tyranny is simple. We must guard against self-deification dressed in any mission – left, right, spiritual, religious, atheistic, philosophical, whatever. way we could get on with our adaptive lives and continue to god in fantasy without causing social cancers – righteously indignant wild card, trump card cults of whatever flavor pretending they deserve to rule reality instead of having to adapt to it.

by Jeremy E.Sherman from Alternet


sparkleflit 76F
10271 posts
3/26/2019 11:54 pm

...........


Katie_au_lait 78F
7026 posts
3/27/2019 2:16 am

!!!


LeafReport 73M

3/27/2019 2:18 am

I can only hope sanity prevails but I admit there's a significant degree of concern attached to the hope I feel that now makes it impossible for me to withdraw from a fight I feel just. America's lurking public alligator is now loose in the playpen and every hour now the danger is growing. I've tried every way I know how on this site to penetrate the consciousness of the 'deplorable' but it is difficult. The ones I've encountered here are incapable of comprehending this. But I'm not going to stop challenging them anyway. This is no garden variety pack of bullies...a cancer is spreading and frankly, the world does not grasp how this all began and who the architects were. It's not as obvious as one might seem. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, nor do I necessarily believe history is destined to repeat itself, but the lessons of history are essential to understanding how we become vulnerable in the first place.


Rentier2 79M
950 posts
3/27/2019 8:09 am

    Quoting LeafReport:
    I can only hope sanity prevails but I admit there's a significant degree of concern attached to the hope I feel that now makes it impossible for me to withdraw from a fight I feel just. America's lurking public alligator is now loose in the playpen and every hour now the danger is growing. I've tried every way I know how on this site to penetrate the consciousness of the 'deplorable' but it is difficult. The ones I've encountered here are incapable of comprehending this. But I'm not going to stop challenging them anyway. This is no garden variety pack of bullies...a cancer is spreading and frankly, the world does not grasp how this all began and who the architects were. It's not as obvious as one might seem. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, nor do I necessarily believe history is destined to repeat itself, but the lessons of history are essential to understanding how we become vulnerable in the first place.
I don't see sanity on the horizon for the USA.

One can only hope and pray,


leatherguytrike 67M

3/27/2019 8:43 am

All of you people are totally nuts!


jiminycricket1 73M
13732 posts
3/27/2019 9:44 am

Sparkle....great blog...It really helped me to understand...My thoughts about it.....

big.....For once we agree....Liberals aren't immune..

Leaf played right into it...The simple idea of opposition.....What type of opposition does one have?
Self-Deification comes in many forms....But the truth about God...is either in the goal or in the opposition.. The idea of God.. has become the idea of opposing that which is NOT Godly........,And NOT embracing the goal, the sacrifice. and THE LOVE
When simply GOD doesn't oppose anything...God doesn't NEED to OPPOSE anything. and NOTHING can oppose GOD..

It's ironic that this blog is posted at EASTER...

For sparkle and I.. there has always been this underlying misrepresentation by religion for 2000 years. It has been fostered and taught by Christianity since the Crucifixion.. Today, It has morphed into it's own Deity....of self righteousness, of righteous opposition, of righteous reprisal, retribution, retaliation, and revenge....of manipulation and control..and righteous indignation.
It's the cross THEY bear..But the crucifixion that THEY will NEVER allow to happen again. For if THEY were GOD that's not how it was SUPPOSE to end.

It was suppose to be the beginning of the beginning..... But THEY want to end it..
It's ironic, that the idea of "Second Coming" is simply the END of "the beginning". The "Second Coming" is only in the failure, and a start over, to begin the beginning again.. "So it is written and so it shall be done"...


jiminycricket1 73M
13732 posts
3/27/2019 10:32 am

Sparkle... please do not take my response as an absolute or defining.. I have no way to define it....it's entirely an analogy and metaphorical...no matter what you personally think.. you can make it fit...
In truth it's entirely about the FAILURE of RELIGION......It's about the faithful.....Who have NO faith
I have my "faith".. I have faith in comeuppance....I believe....Nobody "gets away" with anything in this life. Including ME...

Maybe I'm confused at their confusion..... Self-Deification is just a different a form of what i believe.......Without self-worth.. People are "worthless..."
Yet... self worth can define itself in different forms, one size doesn't fit all... The problem is... self worth can also be pseudonym., a "fake name" that defines itself with "fake news"

My opposition, I hope is warranted, and specific.... My philosophy makes it unnecessary to make it happen to provide retribution.. Because I know it's already happened..
But even so.. My opposition to Donald Trump, as he is the biggest "fake" of all.
I don't oppose him because of his lack of self-worth....And to create my own "fake" self worth.. I oppose him because I already have self worth.


sparkleflit 76F
10271 posts
3/27/2019 2:24 pm

    Quoting jiminycricket1:
    Sparkle... please do not take my response as an absolute or defining.. I have no way to define it....it's entirely an analogy and metaphorical...no matter what you personally think.. you can make it fit...
    In truth it's entirely about the FAILURE of RELIGION......It's about the faithful.....Who have NO faith
    I have my "faith".. I have faith in comeuppance....I believe....Nobody "gets away" with anything in this life. Including ME...

    Maybe I'm confused at their confusion..... Self-Deification is just a different a form of what i believe.......Without self-worth.. People are "worthless..."
    Yet... self worth can define itself in different forms, one size doesn't fit all... The problem is... self worth can also be pseudonym., a "fake name" that defines itself with "fake news"

    My opposition, I hope is warranted, and specific.... My philosophy makes it unnecessary to make it happen to provide retribution.. Because I know it's already happened..
    But even so.. My opposition to Donald Trump, as he is the biggest "fake" of all.
    I don't oppose him because of his lack of self-worth....And to create my own "fake" self worth.. I oppose him because I already have self worth.
Unlike those on here that post other people's words and totally agree with them, when I post another person's words, it is because I find the author's interpretation to have merit, I find it interesting, I think the author expressed his/her ideas well and so on..........These words don't represent me.......I find it powerful and well written and it makes me think about the situation in a unique way.........it isn't the same old regurgitated talking points.......a refreshing take.


mySeek19 80F

3/27/2019 4:27 pm

I call Jeremy E Sherman's words/thoughts bold and manipulative. "Follow me, and you are walking on the right side." This does not need much thinking about the real problems that transform the world and mankind. Why not discuss The UNESCO Global Education Plan? Or - 5G with all its health risks! That needs reading and thinking for oneself.


sparkleflit 76F
10271 posts
3/27/2019 5:21 pm

    Quoting mySeek19:
    I call Jeremy E Sherman's words/thoughts bold and manipulative. "Follow me, and you are walking on the right side." This does not need much thinking about the real problems that transform the world and mankind. Why not discuss The UNESCO Global Education Plan? Or - 5G with all its health risks! That needs reading and thinking for oneself.
People have different interests and areas of expertise.....If your interests are in UNESCO, you are free to pursue that.


mySeek19 80F

3/27/2019 6:27 pm

    Quoting sparkleflit:
    People have different interests and areas of expertise.....If your interests are in UNESCO, you are free to pursue that.
Sparkle, it is not new to me that people have different interests. Trump bashing is opportune and rather boring by now and praising the left ideas does not make life any better. One side is called ignorant, the other side takes the privilege of being knowledgeable. The global education plan means stultification of the whole society. Just let it go that way, right?!
Sorry, I am not mainstream.


sparkleflit 76F
10271 posts
3/27/2019 8:44 pm

    Quoting  :

Here you are whining on my blog about not being allowed to whine on my blog........I saw you do the same thing on someone else's blog yesterday.....that is really weird.


sparkleflit 76F
10271 posts
3/27/2019 8:48 pm

    Quoting mySeek19:
    Sparkle, it is not new to me that people have different interests. Trump bashing is opportune and rather boring by now and praising the left ideas does not make life any better. One side is called ignorant, the other side takes the privilege of being knowledgeable. The global education plan means stultification of the whole society. Just let it go that way, right?!
    Sorry, I am not mainstream.
So why are you telling people what they should be interested in?


sparkleflit 76F
10271 posts
3/27/2019 11:09 pm

    Quoting mySeek19:
    Sparkle, it is not new to me that people have different interests. Trump bashing is opportune and rather boring by now and praising the left ideas does not make life any better. One side is called ignorant, the other side takes the privilege of being knowledgeable. The global education plan means stultification of the whole society. Just let it go that way, right?!
    Sorry, I am not mainstream.
Why don't you have a blog?


LeafReport 73M

3/28/2019 1:46 am

    Quoting jiminycricket1:
    Sparkle....great blog...It really helped me to understand...My thoughts about it.....

    big.....For once we agree....Liberals aren't immune..

    Leaf played right into it...The simple idea of opposition.....What type of opposition does one have?
    Self-Deification comes in many forms....But the truth about God...is either in the goal or in the opposition.. The idea of God.. has become the idea of opposing that which is NOT Godly........,And NOT embracing the goal, the sacrifice. and THE LOVE
    When simply GOD doesn't oppose anything...God doesn't NEED to OPPOSE anything. and NOTHING can oppose GOD..

    It's ironic that this blog is posted at EASTER...

    For sparkle and I.. there has always been this underlying misrepresentation by religion for 2000 years. It has been fostered and taught by Christianity since the Crucifixion.. Today, It has morphed into it's own Deity....of self righteousness, of righteous opposition, of righteous reprisal, retribution, retaliation, and revenge....of manipulation and control..and righteous indignation.
    It's the cross THEY bear..But the crucifixion that THEY will NEVER allow to happen again. For if THEY were GOD that's not how it was SUPPOSE to end.

    It was suppose to be the beginning of the beginning..... But THEY want to end it..
    It's ironic, that the idea of "Second Coming" is simply the END of "the beginning". The "Second Coming" is only in the failure, and a start over, to begin the beginning again.. "So it is written and so it shall be done"...
You'll never grasp the truth Cricket until you uncover the 'motivation' for the invention of the wheel.


jiminycricket1 73M
13732 posts
3/28/2019 10:29 am

    Quoting mySeek19:
    Sparkle, it is not new to me that people have different interests. Trump bashing is opportune and rather boring by now and praising the left ideas does not make life any better. One side is called ignorant, the other side takes the privilege of being knowledgeable. The global education plan means stultification of the whole society. Just let it go that way, right?!
    Sorry, I am not mainstream.
I think you miss the idea of opposition...There is simply not enough "opposition' to create the fanfare....

It's the opposition that creates the deification.. The newer idea of deification needs to oppose something

The irony is that you see yourself outside the box....
when the truth is... you are one of the only ones inside the box..

You're not wrong.. You're the only one that's right.
It's not a single agreement to the policy you express...It's an agreement as to how you are expressing it.. There are many policies that can be expressed similarly.


jiminycricket1 73M
13732 posts
3/28/2019 11:59 am

    Quoting  :

well....You may be right..

But it seems to me... You have to fight ignorance where you find it..


Rentier2 79M
950 posts
3/30/2019 9:15 am

    Quoting  :

If I were you, I would have banned me too.

If I were a Real American I certainly would not want to see any that cast The Greatest Nation In The History Of The World in a bad light.

It's the jobs of Real Americans to slander other countries, not the other way around.


sparkleflit 76F
10271 posts
3/30/2019 9:34 pm

    Quoting  :

Wow......When I think your wilful ignorance has peaked......you come up with something like this....unfuckingbelievable.......