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Finding Out Who My Friends Are…
On the whole, I enjoyed college. I enjoyed football, I enjoyed track, and I enjoyed girls. I tolerated bookwork. I excelled at the first three, but struggled with the fourth. I would study in six- or eight-minute segments, for 14 hours at a time, because I hated it so much. But despite my difficulties with focus and memorization, I persevered and did well enough to get my Caucasian butt into medical school. So it all worked out.
Medical school was much worse. No football, no track, no girls. Only lots and lots of bookwork. It was absolutely horrible. I survived, but it was a miserable four years. Because I was so unhappy during that period of my life, I haven’t really kept in touch with any of my friends from that time. I don’t have a lot of doctor friends now, either, come to think of it. Doctors are sort of a weird group. They’re not all normal like me. But anyway, I haven’t kept in touch with my medical school friends as I should have.
After 25 years, I finally decided to reach out to one of my friends from that time. He included me in a running group text with me and him and a half dozen other classmates from my med school class. They text back and forth about football scores and funny memes and such. Nothing of any significance – just fun stuff – which was fine with me. And then one of them texted the following Tweet:
Another one of my friends responded with three laughing emojis. How clever!
I knew that I was probably the only conservative in the group. They were all leftists in school like they’re supposed to be. And I presumed that they all wanted to be perceived as open-minded and deep thinkers, so they would avoid any appearances of independent thought. They instinctively understand the Bernie Sanders rule of philosophy – the surest way to demonstrate original thinking is to never have an original thought during your entire life. And if you do, you never publicly admit it.
So I should probably let this slide, right?
Then, I thought, well, they haven’t spoken to me for 25 years. Who cares about the next 25? Right? So I responded to the Texas Tweet:
I suspect that the governors of Texas and California will be splitting the cost of putting that Tweet on billboards all over California, so that any Californians who have not yet moved to Texas might consider staying in California.
Worth a try. But it probably won’t work.
There was so much chatter on this group text for the past couple of weeks, I had to turn off the sound notifications because it was keeping me up at night. Now I haven’t gotten a new text in three days. I texted some stuff today about the Ohio State game, with no reply from anybody.
If my point is so wrong, you would think that all these smart guys would be jumping at the opportunity to explain to me what an idiot I am. But they didn’t even try. They just black-balled me.
Which I figured they might. And I guess I just didn’t care. They’re probably enjoying themselves more without my input. Which is fine by me. But not for them, if you think about it.
America has changed. Americans have changed. We choose a tribe, and our perceived value to society is determined not by our value to society, but rather by our loyalty to whatever tribe we chose. Friendship doesn’t matter. Our shared love of America doesn’t matter. Tolerance and empathy don’t matter. Only loyalty to whatever tribe you chose matters. Regardless of how dysfunctional your tribe is. Nothing else matters.
So you can’t be friends with anybody if you disagree with them about anything. What an empty existence it must be when you intentionally abandon everything that makes you human.
There is a reason that our society feels so foreign, and our politics seem so dysfunctional. America seems different. I miss it. I miss it a lot.
I miss my friends, too. But not as much. They chose their tribe. I chose them, but it didn’t matter. So I won’t lose any sleep over it.
But geez. I miss America. I really do…
Published in General
Sounds like what Dennis Prager used to say – and may still say – about Europe learning the wrong lesson from WW I and II: They didn’t learn to fight evil, they learned that fighting IS evil.
I don’t see this as having anything to do with Christian sacrifice, in fact quite the opposite. They treat their political thoughts as an opposing religion in itself.
They are free to think about it that way, but in fact their political thoughts have supplanted religion.
I think Skyler’s statement needs refined. Christianity teaches the nobleness of self-sacrifice in imitation of Christ.
Leftism expects others to sacrifice on the leftists’ (or their constituencies’) behalf. You take the jab for the collective’s benefit. You rich person pay more taxes to make up for those who can’t afford to pay. You should stop driving “gas-guzzlers” and take public transportation or buy an electric car you can’t afford to “save the planet.”
The Left is really the Borg. You will assimilate. Even though they mouth platitudes about “diversity,” the Left demands conformity. Burn the heretics!!
Mixing in a little from a long time ago, I think they can be turned from the dark side. They just need to see something that gives them a better explanation for their life.
No, they learned that they don’t have to pay for fighting.
(Shhh . . . Don’t tell anybody. It’s not noble.)
The mistaken ideal of “self-sacrifice” has had the consequence that many in our culture do think that sacrifice to others, even undiscerning sacrifice, is good and if some sacrifice is good, then a lot must be better; and if it’s that good then they need to make sure others sacrifice too. And then in come the politicians.
And that’s exactly how the communist movement has used BLM.
We might be even murdery than we already are if we stuck to principles we came up with as individuals.
An article from the Wapo about lefties moving to Texas had this quote:
“And Longley was pleasantly surprised that people in Texas talk about things other than politics.
“When you’re in that D.C. bubble, it seems like just everything’s on high alert in terms of political news all the time,” he said. “It weighs down my psyche.””
Even lefties know their obsessions are unhealthy.
the article was reprinted in the San Antonio Express-News today but I think it’s behind a paywall at both sites.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/texas-relocation-newcomers-politics/2021/09/14/bf759c40-0c21-11ec-aea1-42a8138f132a_story.html
There is nothing the devil can’t corrupt. Have you noticed?
Absolutely true. There can be no loyalty greater than that to the state. A family, a church, an ethnic group, these are all threatening to the state.
Absolutely true. There can be no loyalty greater than that to the state. A family, a church, an ethnic group, these are all threatening to the state.
One of the eleven football players from NC State who had his number retired . . .
See George Orwell’s 1984 and the concept of Doublethink: Your brother simultaneously knows both that the riots were peaceful and that the violence was real and laudable.
This is key. Just as you cannot wake a man who only pretends to sleep, you cannot convince those who argue nonsense with conviction. They know it is nonsense, and they rejected your argument before you began to speak.
“Define assault weapon” lol
They think that anger and “intimidation” makes up for data. lol
This graphic shows that the divide is mostly due to the Democrats’ shift to the left–even the far left.
One can also make a good case that conservatives’ shift to the right is largely in reaction to liberals’ growing intolerance and extremism. Remember this old quip? “Conservatives think liberals are well meaning but wrong, while liberals think conservatives are evil.” That is not as true as it used to be, for the aforementioned reason.
The postmodern left has dispensed with the need for evidence and logic.
There is nothing that humanity can’t corrupt. Lucifer has stop interfering with us since the binding of Isaac.
Doesn’t it? I mean in the real world?
We are not a nation of laws, we are a nation of political will. – Steve Deace
The Government Is Running Out Of Money™
Everything Moves Towards Communism All Of The Time™
Everything Moves Left All Of The Time™
The Purpose Of Education Is Indoctrination, And To Steal From The Parents, Students, And Taxpayers™
YES!
It’s a choice humans have — to be agents of God or agents of the devil, although the latter often don’t know who they’re working for. The devil’s greatest success is convincing people he doesn’t exist.
Or convincing a few that his way offers better temporal rewards.
Exactly.
On some social media, circa 2017 to 2019, I still saw the postings of people who had ended their friendships with me for my supporting racist Donald Trump.
Oh the posts they would make about how unfair it was that a woman with a crying baby was sitting at the border. And obviously the baby was crying as the child knew how that very awful Trump was out to make her momma’s life hard.
Any one of these women could have put together a collective and then gone as a group down to the border, and sponsored an immigrant momma and her babe. Trump was for ending open borders – he did not have the power, nor would he have sought it, to stop people from digging into their own pockets and bringing a family they selected into our nation, and then providing that family with housing, food, and help finding the adults jobs.
But the notion of promoting diversity as progressives view it is to instead have open borders, and to annually allow hundreds of thousands of people to enter California – a state that has had only 80% of the needed rental housing since 2008. And less water being made available than housing.
With housing vouchers, food stamps, free medical insurance made available. Also immigrant moms with kids have priority at public clinics over actual citizens. Plus free college at Univ of Calif schools, and more – all made available to the newly arrived courtesy of taxpayers’ dollars. The only requirement the progressives demand of themselves is memorizing the slogans that identify each other as part of being part of the “in” group.
Not at all. He said there were no riots. All that antifa stuff was made up, completely unreal.
That was a lot of unreal fire and burning buildings and stuff.
And better music.
But I am inclined to think he only said there were no riots–that in fact he knew perfectly well that there were riots and that leftists were the perpetrators. One of the pathologies of leftism is that one can simultaneously know something is true and passionately “know” that it is not true. See also Revolutionary Truth, etc.
I wouldn’t believe all of this except I have experienced it personally.
Alice in Wonderland was supposed to be a lighthearted fantasy.