You're young. It's always been terrible. I remember the '80 debates. They were terrible. I've studied elections back to Andrew Fucking Jackson. It's always been terrible. People who think this shitshow is somehow in any way new aren't idealists with their dreams being crushed, they're naifs that haven't paid attention their entire lives. NOBODY should be surprised by any of this.
So...what's the point? We're going to burn this planet to the ground before my generation or the following is able to do enough about it. None of these candidates on either side of the aisle are talking about climate. Sorry, I'm kind of in a shit mood, and following this election isn't making it any better. Turning off the YouTube for the night.
I'm in a shit mood, too. There's a passage in Omnivore's Dilemma where Pollan and Salatin are slaughtering chickens and Pollan observes something like how easy it is to do evil when you're surrounded by people who think it's normal. Salatin points out that there's a reason they only slaughter two days a month; nobody should do too much killin' in a row. It's a terrible system. It has many flaws. And if you opt out of it, the people who think it's GRRRRREAT!!!!!! get to call the shots. A couple days a month, you have to kill chickens. The rest of the time you eschew evil. There are more people in DC than there are in Wyoming. Wyoming has two senators and a rep; DC has fuckall. There are more people in Puerto Rico than there are in Iowa. Iowa has two senators and four reps; Puerto Rico has none. But as of tonight, there are about a million more eligible democrats in Florida and I'm not sure the racist wins four years from now. California was red for decades. Environment? Yeah, that one scares me, too. I've been pondering lately if Washington real estate is going through the roof because the winters are milder than they used to be. And I'm trying to talk a friend of mine up by the Canadian border into opening a vineyard. And eventually, all these old fuckers are going to die, and then they're going to have a hard time voting for coal. Take your victories where you get them.
I know you're right, but Jesus man, I can't help but be frustrated over the, admittedly imperfect, ballot initiatives such as the carbon tax and grocery loophole...mostly because of the fuck ton of money spent by industry PACs persuading voters. WA state is frustrating (and I'm preaching to the choir) when literally we get what we pay for and it's regressive as shit without a state income tax but the amount of "no new taxes" and implicit fucking racism I've seen in the past three weeks has me disgusted and wanting to scream.