A reminder to hold yourself to high standards during times of stress or crisis. Control yourself.

You do not hold power. Your side does not even hold power; you are on the losing team. Heck, you are not even on the losing team, but on a fringe breakaway from the losing team that America as a nation holds in contempt. Remember that. Act accordingly.

True

It is a mark of our age’s boundless vulgarity and corruption that the "art" of memery has been permitted to flourish. The meme represents the triumph of base immediacy over prudent contemplation. Prior, the transmission of ideas was severely limited. Every idea's transmission was burdened by the necessary labor of its creator having to compose a coherent piece of writing and its recipient having to possess the patience and literacy to consume it. This friction acted as a salutary filter against the ceaseless tide of intellectual filth that sloshes within the common mind. But the meme, this crude pictograph so simple a child of modest wit can comprehend it, bypasses this process entirely. It allows the most wretched, idiotic notions to be packaged and transmitted with the speed of a plague, demanding nothing of the intellect from either its author or its observer, thus ensuring that the very worst expressions of the human Will can now propagate without impediment. The meme was a mistake.

“Decade-long!” Calmly understating the problem by about 4000%.

55 years ago, in the “Days of Rage” era, American hippies were setting off about a bomb a day. They didn’t stop because they “mellowed.” They stopped because they won.

And don’t even start me on the 17th century.

"This one may have been slightly over the line! Just one more incident like this and then we'll be really mad!"

If you're impotent, it's better not to posture as if you hold the guns. It only makes you look pathetic.

Our roofer brought us breakfast sandwiches. We are so back. (Going to have to come up with a good way to return the favor.)

I submit to you an alternative version. (The Dickinson one, I think, is a stretch in both images. Both would probably be better with a different choice. Part of this is because of his more minor role, part is because we just don't have anywhere near as many of his writings to pick from.)

Immanuel Kant. A murderer at your door. He asks if his quarry is inside your home. The modern mind offers a benevolent lie. Kant rejects that offer, pointing to a sacred, unconditional, and absolute duty: you will tell the truth, regardless of the consequences.

Now follow your duty to read. No exceptions; this imperative is categorical.

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Making a prediction:

History will march on. Cthulhu will continue to swim left. This is not a turning point.

It's the same sort of emotional stimulus that gets us to react again and again and again. We get angry. We throw a fit. Nothing changes, except that we are made worse by our outburst, and the system is fed by it.

I have a simple request for those unconvinced but who are willing to give this perspective seriousness: Mark this moment. Mark how strong it feels. Keep a record of it somewhere. Make a tangible, physical reminder. Attach that reminder to how strongly nearly everyone on the right is reacting. Look back at it in the future and reflect. Think about how much changed because of that anger. Consider whether it was productive or useless in retrospect. You're reacting now. Fine. But make yourself reflect later. If I'm wrong, things will look good for your emotism. If I'm correct, it will be obvious later that nothing productive resulted from it. All I'm asking is that you make yourself reflect on this later. I will do the same, and hope that I'm currently in error.