November New Media; The End of the World

[kungfuwaynewho]

TV
167. The Walking Dead - 7x03 - “The Cell.”  11-6.
168. The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story - 1x01 - “From the Ashes of Tragedy.”  11-8.
169. The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story - 1x02 - “The Run of His Life.”  11-8.
170. The Walking Dead - 7x04 - “Service.”  11-13.
171. Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 4x06 - “Monster in the Closet.”  11-18.
172. Bob’s Burgers - 7x04 - “They Serve Horses, Don’t They?”  11-18.
173. The Last Man on Earth - 2x16 - “Falling Slowly.”  11-18.
174. The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story - 1x03 - “The Dream Team.”  11-19.
175. Bob’s Burgers - 7x05 - “Larger Brother, Where Fart Thou?”  11-20.
176. The Walking Dead - 7x05 - “Go Getters.”  11-20.
177. Bob’s Burgers - 7x06 - “The Quirkducers.”  11-21.
178. The Last Man on Earth - 2x17 - “Smart and Stupid.”  11-23.
179. The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story - 1x04 - “100 Percent Not Guilty.”  11-24.
180. The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story - 1x05 - “The Race Card.”  11-24.
181. The Last Man on Earth - 2x18 - “30 Years of Science Down the Tubes.” 11-25.
182. Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 4x07 - “Mr. Santiago.”  11-26.
183. The Last Man on Earth - 3x01 - “General Breast Theme With Cobras.”  11-26.
184. Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 4x08 - “Skyfire Cycle.”  11-30.

Movies
23. Hamilton’s America (2016).  11-2.
24. The Legend of Tarzan (2016).  11-17.
25. Doctor Strange (2016).  11-20.

Books
21. The Sunset Gang, Warren Adler.  11-14.
22. Mind War, Douglas E. Richards.  11-19.

I've thought up a hundred different LJ posts the last three weeks, but haven't been able to make myself actually sit down and type anything up.  I managed 15k words this NaNo, almost all written prior to November 9th.  Day to day, I'll find myself doing okay, then remembering that there's a black hole on the horizon, ready to swallow us all whole.  Expect to see TV watching continue to go up and up for me, as I retreat into the warm comfort of escapism.

Comments

[cath822.livejournal.com]

Oof. Yeah. It's been rough.

I know we've avoided talking politics in the past, and you certainly don't have to if you don't want to, but I'd be interested to hear your thoughts, no judgment. I infer from this that you are like most of my Republican friends and family who think that PEOTUS is a terrifying dumpster fire, although some reluctantly supported him out of a "big picture" political mentality and/or a passionate dislike for Hillary. There were plenty of Republican candidates I disagreed with, but still thought were decent, normal people, but OMG WTF is even happening.

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

Nah, if I ever was a Republican, it's because I grew up in Kansas and my parents were Republicans and I never gave it much thought. I'm straight-up a screaming leftist socialist feminist liberal these days, but I can't even pinpoint when exactly that happened? Like, literally the cliché of "such and such happened so slowly I didn't even notice."

Like, I think definitely over the course of Obama's two terms, it became more and more obvious that the Republican party is a fucking monster. They lie, they project, they destroy, and when they're called on it, they literally blame Democrats. (See: Mitch McConnell blaming Obama after they overrode his veto, because he didn't do enough to explain that they are complete fucking sacks of stupid shit.) Unfortunately, I think there is an ethos that can and perhaps should exist in politics, that actually practices fiscal responsibility, but the Rs aren't it - that's just spin these days, as anymore they're the opposite of that. It's just this starve the beast thing that people keep falling for.

So, like, T***p? I can't even get into it right now, haha. I am only still up trying to buy an NES Classic on Urban Outfitters, but it doesn't look like they're going up tonight, so off I go to bed. I will definitely type something up tomorrow, if you're interested. Basically, I'm to the point where I honestly don't know which I'd prefer: that he die, that he get impeached, or that he rage-quit like the thin-skinned, tiny-handed baby he is.

(OMG, though, we really must not have talked politics in like fifteen years at least. I feel dirty that you think I'm a Republican, haha I'm not joking.)

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

I feel like I should quickly add that I don't blame individual civilian Republicans for this, if this comes off as particularly vitriolic. (I am made of vitriol these days, tho.) I can be disappointed and frustrated that so many people voted for That Man, but honestly? They were brainwashed. That is my sincere belief. Close to thirty years of right-wing propaganda echo chambers, sowing an ever-thickening fog of distrust of any other media source. You can't convince me that any "passionate dislike" of Hillary could come from anything else, because that lady is boring. She's the definition of a policy wonk. But when you have crazies literally shooting up pizza parlors because of the fake news they get from their extreme right-wing propaganda news sites, you have to ask how informed these people really are, you know?

[cath822.livejournal.com]

Ha! I mean, okay, I know that you used to refer to yourself as Republican, but I also knew that you're feminist and educated and support gay marriage and things like that, so I figured you probably didn't like Trumpster Fire. I think the last time we talked politics was 2008, probably during the whole Sarah Palin thing. If anything, I kind of had you pegged as a moderate libertarian, but I knew we hadn't discussed it in a while and I really didn't give it much thought.

The thing is, I have many friends and family members who are Republican. Some of them fall into the category of "people with whom I disagree, but can have a civil, fact-based conversation with," and you definitely fell into that category. (Also, most of them think Trump is a dangerous maniac.) The others are just brainwashed ideologues who live in a horrific echo chamber of misinformation and hate speech, and those tended to be the people who supported Trump. I've pretty much cut most of those people out of my life (or, really, just Facebook, because that was the only place I "saw" them), although a couple of them are in my extended family, so I'll just be avoiding the topic over Christmas.

Honestly, while I've been politically active (voting, donating, calling my representative, etc.), I've kind of avoided talking politics with entire groups of people. Like, I can be pretty sure my colleagues in my department of immigrants, foreign language teachers, and humanities Ph.Ds are liberal, but I live in a red state, my students largely come from the South, and I was a pretty active member of the church back when I was in Michigan, so I probably know quite a few Trump supporters. And even if I had started the conversation, maybe I could have swayed a couple of reluctant supporters, but I don't know that it would have been worth it.

The thing is, and the reason I even brought it up, I don't think this election was about Democrats versus Republicans. It was about sane, informed people battling misinformation and half-truths. My mom, for example, is extremely liberal, and she was all about Bernie Sanders. (So was I, for the record, but he lost the primary, so back to reality, oops, there goes gravity.) However, she went into a total Facebook meltdown, posting 30-40 times a day over the course of months about the DNC rigging the election and how Bernie was the only one who could save us, and Hillary is a dangerous lying war-hawk. She was sharing and posting a lot of the same crap that the Trump supporters were, like the PizzaGate stuff. I mean, not specifically that, but she definitely shared that "Hillary defended a child rapist and then laughed about it" story more than once. And this is a person who used to tell her sister to check Snopes before posting stories. She's alienated a lot of people, and after pleading with her several times to stop regurgitating this shit to our friends and family, I finally just blocked her.

Anyway, it's really terrifying. The whole rise of the alt-right and how they're emboldening hate crimes, discrediting the press, and now have a narcissistic spokesperson who likes anyone who praises him and won't speak out against the KKK, but will tweet about SNL (a show he *hosted*) every week? God. It's pretty fucking grim.