There’s skepticism, there’s cynicism, and there’s defeatism.
Skepticism is nearly always healthy. Cynicism much less so. Defeatism guarantees a whole range of bad outcomes, especially those of the self-fulfilling prophecy kind.
The level of defeatism here at FR gets pretty thick at times.
And if you feel like insulting me for this view, be advised I’m going to give you back 10x what you gave me. Don’t tell me I’m a cockeyed optimist or some naïve, wet-behind-the-ears kid. I was a reporter and editor for 25 years, so I think I have at least a little bit of news judgment left in the tank.
It’s not in our power to predict the future. But we’ve never had a president like Donald Trump before. I’m keeping my eye on the news, my mind open, and hope in my heart.
Lord, protect Your American people.
I like to think I am more cynical regarding this than defeatist.
I am pushing 60 years old. I have been waiting to see the mighty and powerful pay for their disgressions since long before OJ — a very high powered black celebrity — walked for cold-blooded pre-meditated murder.
I am still waiting. I mean, if you can throw 10 or 20 examples of justice where the high and mighty were prosecuted and sentenced to what the rest of us would receive, then I am all years.
Meanhile, a first offender with 6 oz of pot gets mandatory jail time in some jurisdictions.
After 60 years of seeing the high and mighty held to a different, lenient standard than the rest of us, you can bet I’ve become skeptical regarding this issue. My cynicism came after Barr refused to indict Comey on lying to the FBI and Congress, and then refused AGAIN to indict Comey on leaking classified information to the press.
That is the basis for my cynicism.
Add that to my previous almost 60 years of watching the high and mighty get away with murder, often literally and is it any wonder I have become like flea in a Flea Circus regarding our 3-tiered justice system where the high and mighty almost always get of Scott Free. I can only beat my head so many decades on the lid of that jar before I learn to quit jumping that high.
Nobody attacked you for your opinions. I don’t get why you have to label dozens of people with a broad brush just because they believe differently than you. I respect your hopeful opinion, but I don’t respect your putting down a bunch of people for disagreeing with you — oh and meanwhile the track record is 99.5% in their favor.
What is that definition of insanity? Doing the same thing and expecting a different result.
I like that Barr hired Durham. That has given me a miniscule shard of hope that somebody goes to jail over this and the coup is fully exposed. But don’t blame because I expect this to go the way the last 10,000 episodes went — with the High and Mighty getting off Scott Free.
If some of these conspirators go to jail, I will be celebrating right there with you. Nothing would please me more than to read your post “I told you so!” That crow would taste like beef wellington to me.
Do folks here follow Brian Cates at Epoch Times much? He is real good at staving off defeatism with his carefully researched work, which he often posts as Twitter threads. He predicts that the hammer will drop on the coup plotters when Barr and Durham have their evidence gathered and iron-clad cases prepared. In any case, well before the 2020 election. I followed his work closely on Twitter until my account was permanently suspended last week for hurting progressive feelings.
Good post. I suspect most people who bring a defeatist attitude to FR today spent most of the 2016 campaign telling us that Trump should drop out of the race because he didn’t have a chance in hell of winning.
Lighten up. We’re on the same team.
Cynicism much less so. Defeatism guarantees a whole range of bad outcomes...
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Full disclosure of the TMI sort: I’m a Q follower*. And sure, anyone wanting to can hold that against me. Free country and all, somewhat at least still.
*follower meaning I try to keep up with the research and digs for info. Not a blind worshiper sort like some try to paint us.
But to the cynicism and defeatism...
With what’s gone on for the last handful of decades, those are very natural positions to take, really.
We’ve watched our country turn into a soup sandwich right before our eyes. We’ve heard those wanting our votes promise this that and the other over and over and deliver us nothing. We’ve watched the GOP turn into Dem minions. We’ve watched the systematic destruction of our culture and society.
And every time we’ve elected people to stop it, reverse it and/or fix it, they’ve immediately shown themselves to be part of it.
So the cynicism and defeatism are both learned behaviors and a form of psychological self protection. Dashed hope hurts. A lot. And now, asking some folks to have faith that something is actually being done is, to them, asking them to put their hand on a red hot stove again. And they’re saying “nope. It burns. Learned that long ago already”.
So, personally, and not that it matters at all in the bigger picture, I don’t hold cynicism or defeatism against anyone. Btdt myself. I got over it but don’t expect everyone to do so. That’d be silly.
So, as someone who tries to keep up with the research, I’ve come to the opinion that Civil War 2.0 isn’t something that *will* be fought, it’s something that *is* being fought right now. It’s just being fought outside public view in a low intensity manner but there is blood being shed between the good and bad guys. We see low order episodes in clashes between Antifa and Proud Boys and other anti commiescum volunteers that march out to meet and do battle against them.
The investigations are happening, just not as quickly as we would like. There’s a whole lot of evil that has to be cut out of all the institutions before anything can be brought forward else all would just be sabotaged by the minions of the DS in the mid ranks of every office of enforcement and the DOJ. They’ve had decades to stack the deck. That can’t be cleaned out with the wave of the hand or an imperial decree. But the process has been ongoing and is nearly complete.
And things have been happening. Fractures are appearing in the ranks of the evil.
I do believe we’re winning but there’s no bar graph on this game User Interface to tell us in a plain and easily view-able manner just how much progress is being made.
Maybe your commendable neutrality as a reporter and editor for 25 years has somewhat blurred your reality vision.
Within in minutes of their posting they were proven fake!
Excellent.