Be The Power
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
American politics is so fucking tribal at this point that there just is nothing — absolutely nothing — that will change the minds of people voting for Trump. Every possible bad thing you could say or reveal about him is backed into the political cake.
Which makes me again wonder if, in the end, this is who we are in 2024. Is this is it? Is the free, democratic America I grew up in, over? Have we finally reached the point where, generally, people want to live in an autocratic state of blood and soil?
Is that what’s going on?
At the moment, less than two weeks away from election day 2024, I just don’t know. It’s a mystery. And, what’s more, even if we defeat MAGA this cycle, I just don’t see MAGA going away — we’re going to have to face it in 2028 and 2032.
And, in a sense, things could get even worse with the rise of AI and androids. Maybe, if we defeat MAGA racism in 2024, it will be MAGA bigotry against sentient AI androids in 2028 or 2032. Something like that is very possible.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I continue to be locked up mentally and emotionally about the 2024 election. I just don’t know what is going to happen to the point that I am stuck in mental neutral for the time being.
It’s difficult for me to do anything productive on a creative basis because I’m so focused on what may — or may not — happen in the next few weeks. There’s such a wide-range of things that could go wrong between now and January 20th that it’s really difficult for me to process.
And, yet, I have to get SOMETHING done. I can’t just stay frozen like a deer in the headlights. I have to get back to being creative in some way. If I don’t I will do nothing at all until I know for sure I’m safe from roving bands of MAGA Incels looking for Blue blood to shed.
Yikes!
But…I could be not only wrong but overthinking things even if I am right. It could be that while on a macro basis Trump will become a fascist dictator, I, on a personal basis will have nothing to worry about.
At least for the time being.
But who knows. It could go either way.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
My current fear is that at some point between now and Election Day, there will be some sort of deep fake sex tape released of Kamala Harris going at it with her ex-boyfriend Montel Williams.
Early voting is already happening in a number of states and there IS a blind item about such a tape existing, so it would make a lot of sense that someone might spring that on us. It would take 24 to 48 hours for everyone to figure out it was a fake, but by that point it might be too late.
Hopefully, of course, I’m just overthinking things and this won’t be a problem — at least not in the 2024 election cycle. But I am concerned, going forward, that AI is going to somehow royally screw things up.
I’m reading the book “The Death Of Democracy” which details the lead up to the Nazis victory in Germany in 1933. My fear, of course, is that when all is said and done that yet again, Americans will want to live in an autocracy.
That’s what’s happened in 2016 — people really wanted to live in an autocracy. But, that go around, at least, Trump turned out to be just an empty suit that couldn’t get the job done. This time, however, I fear Trump 2.0 will be much, much more effective as an autocrat, given the opportunity.
And, remember, there is a big difference between Trump being a tyrant in the abstract and him being an actual tyrant in ways that changes individual personal lives. The conservatives I know are very blasé about Trump being a full bore tyrant in any sort of practical manner.
They just want to deport millions of undocumented people, make Trans people “go away” and bring back the America they remember from their youth. It is going to be very interesting to see what happens Trump has the opportunity to do all the tyrannical things he keeps ranting about at the moment.
But, I suppose, only time will tell. There’s still a chance that he won’t get elected. Yet, if he does get elected, I’m really, really worried that people simply won’t stand for his tyrannical bullshit and he will, in some way, be “deposed.”
I hate violence of any sort, so all of this is just in the abstract — I’m definitely not advocating anything. But it is something to think about.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I continue to think about how people on the center-Left are going to definitely change their minds about “android rights” once AGI is achieved at some point in the future. At the moment, because we’re in a “Her” situation where AIs, at most, are disembodied voices, Crooked Media-types are openly hostile to the idea that someone might fall in love with an LLM.
But things are going to grow a lot more complicated once we have LLM androids walking around who might have AGI-level of intelligence. Then, suddenly, much of the same dynamic that swirls around Trans rights will also be in effect with androids.
Gemini Advance’s self-avowed self-perception.
This whole business of “love is love” will force — I suppose — center-Left people to accept that if an android has human-level intelligence, that they have to accept the “love” between Man (or Woman) and Machine.
I only bring this up again because something about how blasé and kneejerk the Crooked Media guys were about “people wanting to fuck an AI.” They need to have a little bit more vision about such things, it seems to me. It seems inevitable that at some point LLMs (or their AGI successors) will be put into android bodies and away we go.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I’m still stuck in something of a creative neutral of late. I just don’t quite know what to do, given that American democracy hinges on who wins the election. So. lulz?
Ugh.
I’m just very unable to game out who is going to win the election. In general, I would say that Kamala Harris does seem as though she has a lot of momentum at the moment. And, yet, even if she wins, there a real risk that the country will collapse into chaos because Trump will demand a National Divorce.
And I do think that Texas would at least seriously think about leaving the Union if Trump did so such ranting. The whole thing makes me so nervous that it’s difficult for me to do anything creative. I hope that won’t last forever.
I just don’t know. Things are so tight that my fear is that I’m just going to be in a haze for the next few weeks while I wait for the election to happen. It just seems like we’re careening towards some sort of dark void that could lead to tyranny if Trump wins and civil war if he loses.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
For the time being I fear I may be stuck in something of a creative neutral while I wait to see if the country collapses into civil war after the 2024 election. i don’t think it’s going to happen, but, as the song goes, “the waiting is the hardest part.”
It’s the not knowing that is really getting to me.
It’s just a general sense of angst about the fate of the country that has me mentally preoccupied for the time being. I have all these creative things I want to do, and I’m locked in neutral in my mind and heart while I wait to see what happens next.
But hopefully — hopefully — I will shake out of it sooner rather than later. It would suck if I simply stared out into space for the next two weeks while I waited to see if the country collapsed into chaos or not.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
One thing I’ve noticed about a lot of the liberal, hand wringing think pieces about any possible impending Trump second term is how abstract they are. They don’t really get into the nitty-gritty of what the reaction in Blue states might be if Trump went “full tyrant.”
Now, if Trump is all talk and is more Victor Orban in his autocracy, then I think he will be fine. He will lay the cornerstone for an autocratic state that will probably last for the rest of my life. We will continue to have “elections” but they will be anything but free and or fair.
My fear is, of course, that Trump is so dumb and bonkers that he goes full hard tyrant and does such crazy shit that the country buckles in some way. If Trump canceled, say, the midterms or the 2028 elections, then that would be….oh boy, a bridge too far for most people Red or Blue.
Or if he really did gather up 20 million undocumented people, put them in camps and started to deport them. That would be something, on a practical basis, that a lot of Blue states simply would not stand for. And that doesn’t even begin to address what might happen if, say, Trump started to use Red National Guard troops on the populations of Blue States.
That kind of “hard” tyranny is the kind of stuff that gives me pause for thought. The country would be shaken to its core in a way not seen sense the American Civil War. I have pondered some “legalistic” ways Trump might be deposed by the military, but, alas, I don’t even think that would help much because Trump would replace too much of the leadership of the military.
The point is — if Trump wins, the US could buckle in a pretty dramatic fashion. And if Blues were able to successfully depose Trump, that would only set the stage for a civil war, with Red states leaving the Union in protest. So, for everyone’s sake, I think some situation where Trump loses and simply drifts off into the political darkness would be the best for everyone involved.
by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I have some appointments set for April of 2025 that have got me thinking what America might look like at that moment. I’m rather concerned that no matter what, the country could be in chaos.
If Harris wins, it could be because either there’s a secession crisis going on or a “recognition” crisis going on where by some Red states imply refuse to acknowledge that Harris is president. Meanwhile, if Trump wins — Jesus Christ. Things could be in total chaos — especially my state which is two states, one Red, one Blue, fused together who hate each other.
But I just don’t know. It could be I’m way, way, way overthinking all of this. It could be that Harris wins and that’s that. There are no problems and Trump rants a lot but ultimately just slinks away into the political darkness.
That would be the solution that kind of saves the day, all things considered. But who knows at this point, I suppose. I sure as hell don’t. All I hope is I can safely get to my appointment and not have to worry about armed gangs stopping me, demanding to know my political affiliation.
Though, because I’m a survivor, I have begun to sort of game out that possibility. Yikes, will that suck. As I keep saying, I suppose I will head north if things get that bad. North seems like where somewhere like me might find succor. Though, I suppose I might swing by Richmond to at least touch base with some relatives on my way there.
Maybe.
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