Post Election Jitters

Currently at the 8th? day after the 2020 election. Lots of half thoughts spinning around.

Amongst my more ___ friends/coworkers/community is a sense of relief, “we are back to sanity now!”.

Except that.. there are so many people who did vote the other way. Why was that? What is in their belief system? What are their needs? How are you going to reach out and.. i don’t even know what? How can we live together? What do we believe in common? Where is the divisiveness coming from?

Amongst my more ___ friends/coworkers/community is a sense of “No worries. He will outsmart them after all. He had this planned. He’s 4 steps ahead of the game”.

I personally hope this is not true, because that would make him or his handlers more competent (than I thought). Also, I like my democracy, and I perceive him (his handlers) doing a straight up power grab.

Also, I think this comes down to a more fundamental thing that’s going on, that I can sometimes taste.

One viewpoint: Everything has been fine, Everything used to be good, we need to stick with those ways / work hard / keep your head down / authority is kind and knows what its doing / that’s the way to be / why do these people want to to destroy our country.

Other viewpoint: Things have been broken for a while, please can we fix it, the world is changing and needs different answers than what it has been, please can we fix it, look at all these other systems that could be better, please let us make it better for all. I do fall into this viewpoint; i do believe that automation and climate change are going to make fundamental shifts in so many things.

I think the conspiracy theory stuff comes from something like: Life is already so damned hard, its too hard to take in all the additional brokenness especially when it runs contrary to that-which-we-base-our-security-on, so .. double down, believe the weirdest angle to hang on to sense of reality.

A sad thing (from my viewpoint, there’s always a viewpoint) is that these folks, its like being in an abusive relationship, where you believe the abuser’s viewpoint on things. And there’s enough “others” to shift the blame to, that they get away with it.

So, yeah. This is what is stirring in my heart. I don’t think my little blog post will change anything, but at least I could get the words out. I want to love on my abused community. My heart sinks with the gravity of the stuff coming down the road that it doesn’t feel we are ready for. Covid was wake-up call. I wish we could figure out a way to do better safety nets for all because we’re going to need them, but somehow, that voice is lost on both sides, mostly because its not short term $$$.

Oh, and there’s the other problem that news is now an industry that requires eyeballs, which changes it from “level headed” to “appeal to emotion” the best two of which are anger and fear. I even helped them with that.. one of my work gigs was in the news industry. I got paid and it was a fun little project dealing with scaling elastic beanstalk stuff.

Levels of Being Freaked Out

flowchartoffreakedoutness2The events playing out at the airports freaked me out over the last few days.

I realized that my security instinct was kicking in – I’m not directly threatened – but my instinct is still kicking in.  Okay, acknowledged.

I started thinking about all the “threats” that my system was reacting to, and .. after sharing them with my sponsor, realized, I could zoom out and get a perspective.

Here is my perspective (click to zoom in):

 

 

Specifically, there are two sub-sections which I need to zoom in on:

image

This is the “well, either things will go to shire or they won’t, and as much as I can figure, I should take actions to affect the outcome, and me harm none.” branch.

Secondly:

image

This is the “catastrophic failure of society” branch.

I had to think pretty hard about the green arrow – this is related to me choosing to arm myself or not (in a way).  There’s a subset of “short term society crash” vs “long term society crash” where my answers are different – I think I would arm myself to “keep my peace and order” until society order is restored.  I don’t know about long term crash.

Okay, good.  I have a framework in which to rest my fear.

Now What?

Society hasn’t folded, so I guess I’m at “Discern Actions” stage.   There’s actually more to it than that:

Awareness

This is the tumultuous part.    This is when the inputs that are coming in the eyeballs cause discord in the brain.   Best thing I can do at this point:

  • Don’t shut down, let it in.  Need information for the next stage, knowledge of what is going on.
  • (at least not me) don’t react in indignation.  Indignation may be short term good for my emotions, but its not a long term strategy.   Good news: plenty of other people to carry the indignation immediate action torch for me.

Acceptance

  • This is the point where one has a decent enough perspective of what’s going on, that one understands the system that is in play.  Now the better vs worse actions are visible.

Action

  • Act without expecting outcomes.

 

Thats all I have for now.

Aftermath of an Election 2016

Been processing.  And .. here’s some interesting bits I’ve seen echoing.

CGP Grey Electoral College and other Voting System videos:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLej2SlXPEd37YwwEY7mm0WyZ8cfB1TxXa   This is a playlist with 17 videos; #7 & #8 are the key ones, however, they’re all excellent sources on how the process works.

But the best bit was his update here:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcZTTB10_Vo]
[UPDATED VERSION!] The Trouble With The Electoral College

Which leads us to The National Popular Vote initiative:

http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/  pasted from them, my emphasis added:

The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in the entire U.S. It has been enacted into law in 11 states with 165 electoral votes, and will take effect when enacted by states with 105 more. The bill has passed one chamber in 12 additional states with 96 electoral votes.  Most recently, the bill was passed by a bipartisan 40–16 vote in the Republican-controlled Arizona House, 28–18 in Republican-controlled Oklahoma Senate, 57–4 in Republican-controlled New York Senate, and 37–21 in Democratic-controlled Oregon House.

Link with graphic:  http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/written-explanation which has a lot more words.

And then there is FairVote:

http://www.fairvote.org/  which .. its not obvious, but its the STV system listed in Gray’s videos.  Or, better explained with a graphic:

image

This was a real ballot.  And Maine has now voted to make it state-wide.   Apparently they did that after a particularly horrible candidate got in due to the previous system.   Hopefully this system can grow to other states as well.

There is this note on violence:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abwc7AAXn3A]
A Breif, Personal Letter from America

A meaningful (for me) excerpt with my emphasis added:

“Not everyone who voted for Trump is a ___ … despite what filter bubbles would have you believe, uh, they’re not, but:  All the ___ voted for Trump.  And .. the trouble is that now the ____ think the country and the world agrees with them, so as it was with Brexit, the hatecrimes in the UK spiked, and .. no matter how many of his policies Trump actually gets to implement, that spike of intolerance, ____ is going to happen, and  I reckon its going to last longer.” 

I’m leaving out the word he used so that it doesn’t cause a stir; he didn’t mean it to cause a stir either.

The point being, the violence that will be broadcast… remember folks, its a bunch of deluded individuals.   I will hope that they are incorrect, and they will be relatively unsupported, and it will pass, as it did in the UK – its hard to find, but “The peak daily total between May and August was seen on 1 July, when 207 alleged race or religious hate crimes were recorded.” (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/brexit-hate-crimes-racism-eu-referendum-vote-attacks-increase-police-figures-official-a7358866.html)

How It Happened

This article is the best I’ve found on what happened:  http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-reasons-trumps-rise-that-no-one-talks-about/.  My takeaway is, there are people who have been ignored: Rural America.  And I don’t even like that word Rural there.  It almost sounds like “backward”.  What I mean is.. Small town, maybe?   I didn’t grow up there, but I have many friends who did.   And yeah, if they found somebody whom they resonated with, I could see the slight additional turnout on their side.

So, note to future leaders:  Please consider the needs of the non-city as well, as you go about your stuff.

OTOH, you can look at voter turnout (in k) – Registered, and Voted, and %:

image

(this is from an older version of the Wiki page:  https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Voter_turnout_in_the_United_States_presidential_elections&oldid=748821487 … the current one has no % for 2016 because numbers are still in flux.) 

And Neat Exit-Poll Breakdowns

http://college.usatoday.com/2016/11/09/how-we-voted-by-age-education-race-and-sexual-orientation/

(lots of cool charts)

Not Yet the Stage for a Woman President

My mom had an excellent point.  Even if H had won.. she would have been hamstrung by the republican controlled House and Senate.   And since everybody seems to blame the president for what everybody else does on their watch .. maybe not the most auspicious. 

And there’s the possibilities of change

https://assets.donaldjtrump.com/CONTRACT_FOR_THE_VOTER.pdf

Granted, likely none of the good stuff might happen.  However, term limits on Congress … I agree with that.    There’s a ton I don’t agree with, but there’s not a lot I can do about that, but that is one thing I do agree with.

However, reading through his 100 days thing – wow, yeah, terrifying.  Here’s a line by line analysis of the above:  http://www.npr.org/2016/11/10/501597652/fact-check-donald-trumps-first-100-days-action-plan

OTOH, maybe we need more pain before people can see the bigger picture.    Hope the planet survives.   And I hope people can see the bigger picture and not just scapegoat yet another thing.   Wait, I’m going negative, that’s not the intent here.

Ah well.    its going to be several interesting years.   

Hang in there folks.  And if you need a hug, just ask.  I give hugs freely, for all.  

Addendum:  reading up some “news” about the hate-speech going on ..  very sad.  Hate is so.. powerful an emotion.   So viral.  And to be on the receiving end of it .. to have that blanket of security ripped away from you .. it hurts.  I wish I knew how to love on people such that they didn’t need to hate anymore.

Voting 2016 (opinion)

I have a jumbled thread of stuff in my head, that .. maybe if I put it out as a post, I can clear my mind.   I would not normally make this post here; but as I think about it — this is definitely a good indicator of how I think.  This blog is about showcasing my strengths.  This is a strength.  So yes, I’ll post this here, and claim this part of myself as part of my public persona.

“Why are you always defending ____?”   asks my wife.  Resulted in a lot of internal conversation, which resulted in this post.   TLDR: I want to make gazoonkingly sure that I have opinions but don’t hate holders of the opposite opinion.  So I feed myself from both plates, make sure my emotions are stable, and then make a perspective choice, rather than an emotional one.

I don’t want to feed the craziness out there, I’d rather help bring unifying order.   Yet, I am not in control of other people.   However, someone I respect urged, if I don’t state my opinion, how can those who want to listen, listen?   Also hence this post.

As I expressed to a friend, if 51% of the country votes for Trump, even if I disagree am not in agreement with them, their group conscience has spoken.  If that does happen, I think it will be a spectacular 4 years, which will end in either “wow, we didn’t want to go here” unification, or, even more polarization.  At some point in time, with enough polarization, it might warrant a country-sized split.

My perception of Hillary

  • Takes lots of notes.
  • Listens very much.   Absorbs.  Understands.
  • Tries to find middle ground.
  • Very smart.
  • Well integrated into current system – for better or worse.
  • Does want to change things for the better, for such outcomes of better as are practical and possible.
  • Does not go for radical changes / that don’t have a high chance of success / unless personally held belief of moral ground makes this imperative.
  • Not inherently evil.
  • Very plugged in to surrounding system, and  thus any failures of that system could be laid at her feet, but that would also be incorrect.
  • Has to wear a large emotional protective barrier / thus can’t hang out, be personable, etc / unless you are allowed into her barrier / yielding the conflicting reports of “very warm” and “cold”.

The ickier perception.

How does one tell somebody, that I think they’re being take advantage of?    Maybe its not possible.  I’ll approach it from another angle.

That sets the background.   Then, enter this:

  • Ratings – http://www.people-press.org/2015/05/19/hillary-clinton-approval-timeline/
    • Specifically when she’s not running for something, its high, but if she’s applying for a job, [the spin cycle starts and] it dips low.   This was my first clue that maybe all the emotions that were being tapped about this candidate, might have been planted, and were not for warranted.  This is when I went looking for additional information to form my own opinion.

What I think is going on is, a pretty long-running campaign, that uses some cognitive viruses out there – tap on people’s emotions.  Once the emotions are tapped, folks’ minds close down.

There’s some reference to some of the .. crazy depths that this got to, here:  https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/10/13/remarks-president-ohio-democratic-party-dinner  (search for: “political expedience”).

Interestingly, any time somebody wants to bring “logic/reasoning” etc in to talk about stuff, there’s a programmed defense that the virality goes for: Call them “IYI”, intellectual-yet-idiot.  If you google that phrase, fun times.

So, summary –

  • for political expedience
  • viral memes have been fed to media to feed to people
  • this worked well for media because “flashy” sells better than “sensible”
    • and they are a business that needs to make profits
  • viral memes lead to polarization and self-agreement cliques
  • emotions have taken over
  • that’s that.

At this point, only the folks with something to sell, would benefit in this system.   Discourse is right out the door.

Also at this point, for anybody in the middle of such a system to risk entertaining any new thought – would be to risk cultural rejection of the culture that surrounds them – and just won’t happen.   The backlash would be too hard.

How did I change my mind?

I started off in another camp – I had several soundbites in my head, of how horrible HC was.    I decided to abandon them, and go searching for pro-candidate information for all the candidates in question at the time, which were Bernie, HC, DT.   I also went looking for stuff on GJ, I didn’t get a chance to research JS at the time.

The best piece I found on HC was this one:

Note, I would have been pro-Bernie, but I think they made the right choice.    I think his platform was too radically different, and thus change would have been much harder.

I did go looking for stuff on DT.  I wanted to find something that showed him as intelligent, thoughtful, concerned.     I couldn’t find it – most of the stuff that I found was using virality and emotions to effectively do a sales job.    I would LOVE to have found something where he was in a business meeting being very intelligent and being a good leader and directing people in a way that brought them up – that’s the leadership style I prefer – and I am biased and this is about me – and I couldn’t find that.

GJ – I liked what he _said_ he represented, however, I found him too easy to excite.    And at times, he seemed, well, stoned.   So while I agree with him on many points, not sure that he would be effective.   His running mate, on the other hand – amazing and wow.   Wish he would run.

JS – recently anyway, I didn’t look her up earlier –  I found her to not have an in-depth understanding of the details of issues, kinda waving her hands in the air, broad gestures.   I don’t think she would be effective.

Pro-DT Culture

I have several friends who are voting for the T.     Here’s what I perceive about them – this is also a bit of creative rambling, me casting things onto them, that’s probably more a reflection on me than them:

  • Love family.  (100% of them)
  • Country Music.  (several; related to: love of family).
  • The world has to do with several stages, that you pass through, one after the other, nostalgia, emotions, but the “way” is effectively set, there is strength in that knowledge, the way things should be, ought to be, is known.
    • Pretty danged close to classic Asian-Indian culture, btw.
  • Trust the system, because the system is part of the stages.
  • Love that which is known, ignore the stuff outside of it.

None of them are overtly racist.  None of them overtly hate.    And if you don’t get them, then they’ll nod, sigh, wish you got them, and then they move on, with their world, and you don’t matter to them.

I love them, and I get to honor them.  That’s the world they live in.

There might be other Pro-DT folks who are, shall I say, edgier, but in general, I don’t know / maintain relationships with / people who hate.

Splitting the Vote

Why not vote GJ instead of HC if I don’t agree with DT?

I often see this diagram in my head on this subject:

image

https://flowingdata.com/2016/08/02/small-percentage-of-americans-actually-picked-clinton-and-trump/

Granted this is about the primaries, and I think turnout is higher for the actual election, but the idea is that, if everybody actually turned out and voted, it would be very easy to get an independent elected.  So vote your conscience, vote independent.      That would work for me, IF I didn’t think that HC had some merit.  However, I DO think she has merit.    So, I’m –10 about trump, probably an 8 about HC and maybe a 6 about GJ.  Lets say I was a 10 about GJ.    I’d rather do an STV vote, and put GJ first, then HC, and just not include DT, to make sure he NEVER got my vote.

But we’re not in STV.     And I do think HC is more fit for the job than GJ, assuming that there’s support in the congress / senate, which is another beast entirely.

Conclusion

I think that’s about it.   I don’t think this would convince anybody about anything.    I am one small vote in a large sea of votes, and this is approximately how I reasoned my way to where I’m at now.

I would hope that the country I choose to call home will go for listening, acknowledging, lifting people up, but also not enabling dependent behavior.