I don't have a lot to add, but thank you for this big post regardless, OP.
I couldn't pinpoint when I passed by these three locks myself, but I would guarantee it happened in the last 8 years since Trump was elected. It was like I saw people who I trusted to play by the "rules of the game" suddenly started pulling knives while out in the field and trying to shank other players. It was very eye-opening.
I was raised Default Liberal, mostly (unsurprisingly) by a bleeding-heart Boomer feminist, so watching "my own side" suddenly decide that violence not only okay but justified was a bit of a shock. Trolling dumb gay Tumblrinas slowly morphed into recognizing a distinct psychological difference between me and them, and all the Gamergate stuff that had been ramping up basically catapulted me into where I am now. I'm a "blow up in anger to put it back where it was" kind of temper, and that third lock is basically all I have left.
People I've known since childhood are now just ideological enemies. I've seen their posts, read their letters, overheard their conversations. I feel like I'm surrounded by Pod People, and the moral and philosophical conundrum of old friends turning into dangerous enemies has been painful and upsetting. I just wanted to play video games, work an unambitious job, and be left alone. Now, I'll be sad if I don't get a history chapter written about me specifically.
I can't stress this enough. So much of the liberal philosophy is about the government forcibly inserting itself in your life; an omnipresent nanny state and moral busybody.
Look at England, and how they are now jailing people for wrongthink and letting actual criminals out to make room for them to see the insanity they are peddling.
When shit goes down it will likely be because enough people have just reach their limit and finally decided that it's so intolerable that they have to put a stop to it.
Its just like GG itself was: Absolutely nothing happens until the moment where a critical mass of people are so angry that they don't give a shit if they're the only one standing up, and they stand up. The magic happens when those people then look around and see all the others standing. Then they all click and the shit hits the fan.
I don't have a lot to add, but thank you for this big post regardless, OP.
I couldn't pinpoint when I passed by these three locks myself, but I would guarantee it happened in the last 8 years since Trump was elected. It was like I saw people who I trusted to play by the "rules of the game" suddenly started pulling knives while out in the field and trying to shank other players. It was very eye-opening.
I was raised Default Liberal, mostly (unsurprisingly) by a bleeding-heart Boomer feminist, so watching "my own side" suddenly decide that violence not only okay but justified was a bit of a shock. Trolling dumb gay Tumblrinas slowly morphed into recognizing a distinct psychological difference between me and them, and all the Gamergate stuff that had been ramping up basically catapulted me into where I am now. I'm a "blow up in anger to put it back where it was" kind of temper, and that third lock is basically all I have left.
People I've known since childhood are now just ideological enemies. I've seen their posts, read their letters, overheard their conversations. I feel like I'm surrounded by Pod People, and the moral and philosophical conundrum of old friends turning into dangerous enemies has been painful and upsetting. I just wanted to play video games, work an unambitious job, and be left alone. Now, I'll be sad if I don't get a history chapter written about me specifically.
I can't stress this enough. So much of the liberal philosophy is about the government forcibly inserting itself in your life; an omnipresent nanny state and moral busybody.
Look at England, and how they are now jailing people for wrongthink and letting actual criminals out to make room for them to see the insanity they are peddling.
When shit goes down it will likely be because enough people have just reach their limit and finally decided that it's so intolerable that they have to put a stop to it.
Its just like GG itself was: Absolutely nothing happens until the moment where a critical mass of people are so angry that they don't give a shit if they're the only one standing up, and they stand up. The magic happens when those people then look around and see all the others standing. Then they all click and the shit hits the fan.