meta
Fuck Off, Lose the Label
Just kidding. But I do want to step down as Facilitator and just write for awhile. In case you didn’t notice, I haven’t been around the last few weeks. There’s been so little activity I figured nobody would mind. In the meantime, I’ve been watching the election, writing, recording some music and taking better care of myself. It’s been good for me, and I’ve decided this is a path I need to follow.
X
Facilitator means being some schmo banging two rocks together trying to make sparks. Judging from the lack of comments, blogs and traffic the last few days I’m doing a shitty job of it. It’s not what I or anyone else who signed onto this project envisioned.
But I’m not going to give up because I still believe in the ideas and energy that started this. There’s too much potential good that could come of it. Until I’m convinced otherwise, I’ll be here, banging rocks together and hoping for the best.
Suggestions Open Thread
Please post any thoughts you have about LtL. Ideas, concerns, suggestions, critiques, etc.
Meta --- site changes
My Chargers won today, we're going up against the Patriots on Sunday. Pissed off CBS bad, I bet; they wanted Colts-Pats cause that would have been huge ratings. HA
Anyway, I was poking around the site and decided to change the blogs system. I think you'll like this. When you go to the Soapbox and look at the description, it's gonna say:
A blog is a bunch of words with a point. All blogs go to the Soapbox. If you want it to be on the front page, leave a comment at the bottom or your post saying so. If a registered user seconds it (gives it a 2 or a 4), it goes to the front page.
Good change, right?
So how it works is, you post a blog, and leave 1 comment at the bottom if you want it on the front page. If another LtL'er rates your blog a 4 or a 2, that means it'll move on to the front page.
Election 2008: Iowa, New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama....... and us
So Hillary beat Obama 39-37 tonight. Stunning upset. Hats off. But there's one demographic she can't seem to reach: us. As in, ages 18-24. Every other age bracket, she's doing fine.
According to CNN exit polls, we broke 60-22 in favor of Obama. That's on top of Iowa where the entrance polls said ages 17-29 went 57-11 in favor of Obama. Those are outright landslides. And boy does it matter --- turnout is up, WAY UP. New Hampshire --- youth turnout DOUBLES. Iowa --- youth turnout TRIPLES. So we have what amounts to a tidal wave of millennial support for Obama; we're seriously the backbone of this guy's campaign right now. How come? There's gotta be a damn good reason, right?
It's because we want change. Yeah, I know, no fuckin duh. There's been a lot of cranky debate about what exactly "change" is lately. Well, I'll take a stab at it: change means not having a Bush or a Clinton in the White House. For example, I was born in 1985, so that means the last time a Bush or Clinton wasn't my president, I was in preschool. Some of you guys around here are '87 and '88 babies... You were in DIAPERS!
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META.end.of.07
Here's a list of things I think we should do in January.
1) Give the textbook boycott a chance. Remaining questions are how to do it, when to launch it and who to target.
2) Change from daily to weekly open threads. Most of my daily ones aren't getting comments/..and are therefore useless.
3) Establish a schedule for front page posts. Not necessarily a full weekly rotation, but just enough to make sure there's something fresh every couple days. We did OK in November.
4) Have 2 or 3 meetings.
5) Outreach. Nothing fancy... just posting links to our front page blog posts within relevant Facebook groups. Also, recruiting for the textbook boycott group.
6) T-shirt contest legality. We should get through the obstacle of legality questions so we can A) launch it in February, or B) scrap it.
Thoughts? Additions? Subtractions?
Apathy is the New Fascism
The United States is the most powerful country on Earth. Our military is huge and our politicians send it anywhere they please. Our corporations are some of the largest private companies to exist in all human history. Some of the greatest artists, scientists, writers, musicians and inventors of all time are Americans. We were the first colony to rip off the chains of imperialism.
We now place the same chains on others.
The United States of today perpetrates the same crimes on the rest of the world as the Europe of centuries ago. We’re ruled by a partnership of corporations and politicians willing to destroy liberties and lives in order to maintain their power. How long we’ve been this way is unclear, but when I look at the things we’ve done lately --- like choosing to topple a sovereign government in Iraq, eagerly purchasing mass goods made by sweatshop labor in the Third World, blocking action on global warming --- I see a nation that’s completely betrayed its founding ideals. We do to the rest of the world what the British did to us: exploit without shame.
The Politics of Apathy
Barack Obama talks about the politics of hope. But isn't it funny how 'the politics of being a corporate asshole' seem to be leading the polls right now?
I want to talk about a different kind of politics, a colder, more depressing type, one that's not speculative or optimistic, a kind that no candidate in his right mind would dare try to articulate: the politics of apathy. It's how Bush stumbled into the White House. It's what got us stuck in Iraq. It's what lets prisoners at Guantanamo get tortured.
Simply put, we have poor leaders because we're poor citizens; the reason politicians treat you like shit is they don't respect you. And why should they? They've forgotten what real democracy feels like (and so have we). They don't fear their constituents because they know they can manipulate us so easily. All you have to do is raise a bunch of money to run a slick campaign. No surprise that's what their main goal is nowadays: fundraising, so they can buy those ads to convince you they're NOT incompetent shitheads who create more problems than they solve---no, no, no, they're on your side, they always have been, and they always will be. And the lie wins most every time, aided by the facts that most congressional districts are unfairly drawn to favor incumbents and that most people just don't care much about politics.