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Nevermark

I am learning whole new levels of not “caring”.

By which I mean, stoicism is really becoming a survival stance for me. And I recommend it for others.

Some people will retreat from the news, but that’s not me.

What is happening is going to cause a great deal of lasting mental hardships, as well as the practical damage.

Second tack: remember we are still in history. History has always been crazy, with only short periods of less crazy.

A third tack is considering how to support other people, instead of needing support.

Best to find a way to reliably maintain internal peace and health right now. Things are unlikely to stabilize soon, without a miracle. Or eventually bounce back. But that could take a long time. And this could just be the preamble for much worse disasters. Gulp.

At least, this is how I am prepping myself! Scary times.

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> Best to find a way to reliably maintain internal peace and health right now. Things are unlikely to stabilize soon, without a miracle. Or eventually bounce back. But that could take a long time. And this could just be the preamble for much worse disasters. Gulp.

This is woefully ignorant of the fact that some people will be thrown into an El Salvadorian prison, killed, disappeared, threatened, lose civil liberties, lose human rights, ect.

Must be nice to just put on some headphones and wait for it to all blow over. Unfortunately for many immigrants, LGBTQ members, activists, union members, government workers don't have that luxury. The news you're ignoring are their lives being shattered.

Stoicism isn't denial. It's just one mental discipline for dealing with harsh realities, in a way that makes it easier to remain clear and functional, and respond to difficult circumstances mindfully and actively, instead of reflexively and emotionally.

I made no implication that very bad things are not happening. Or that anyone is immune. Quite the opposite.

But I don't want to be afraid, regardless of what happens. Not the, "I can't sleep at night" afraid. Nor the, "I can't speak up and take action" afraid. That is quite literally what the main actors want.

People's ability to maintain their mental health is going to matter. There are so many ways to spiral, internally and externally, during traumatic times, and we all need to be at our best. For ourselves, for each other.

Now might be a good time to be generally supportive of each other. A systemic lack of tolerance for differences of thought is a prime contributor to the fiasco we are in.

I recommend reading A Refuge from Reality, à la Russe by Viv Groskop.

https://archive.ph/fkyDF

If there is one lesson you should take to heart, it is this: the later you act, the more impossible it will become.

Right now, at this moment, society has a small window of opportunity.

People cannot get rid of autocracy by themselves, they have become controlled resources. It took millions of free people to get rid of the Nazi's.

  Act now.

Act how?

Bottom up.

Have conversations with your friends, the grocery store owner.

Join grassroots organizations, or start a local one. Keep people accountable. Your local politician bends over because he is afraid of consequences. Now give people no way out but do the right thing. When people are transported to concentration camps, than such is not an act of God, but people doing unconstitutional things while not being held accountable.

Fascism is not Hitler. It is collective, sociological behavior. Trump is a nuisance. The problem is a society engineered to give consent to the .1%, the Dark Mirror tech bro's, the christian cultists.

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