Thank you, Vera, for this detailed commentary.
I didn't see the ad you mentioned. I agree it was very stupid, indeed.

I continue to be concerned and will read articles which sound alarmist but make terrifying sense to me. I don't feel up to paraphrasing or commenting in detail.

Basically, it is how the Republican win has empowered incels but there are other articles which tell of the increase in aggressive and scary racist texts.
White supremacists back with a vengeance. Online and offline.

Women being taunted with "Your body, my choice. Forever.
We control your bodies. Guess what, guys win again, okay. Men win again … There will never ever be a female President. It’s over. Glass ceiling? It’s a ceiling made of fucking bricks.”

In an analysis published on Friday, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a thinktank focused on extremism, found “a 4,600% increase in mentions of the terms ‘your body, my choice’ and ‘get back in the kitchen’ on X”.

From: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/09/trump-your-body-my-choice

***

I am not happy with the effects on politics in the UK.
Starmer could have congratulated the Republican win without grovelling.

Starmer said: “Congratulations President-elect Trump on your historic election victory. I look forward to working with you in the years ahead. As the closest of allies, we stand shoulder to shoulder in defence of our shared values of freedom, democracy and enterprise.

“From growth and security to innovation and tech, I know that the UK-US special relationship will continue to prosper on both sides of the Atlantic for years to come.”

It looks like appeasement. How the hell do we have shared values with a...what did @180 Proof say...

corrupt, incompetent, con artist, racist, rapist, misogynist, nativist-xenophobe-isolationist, hyper-protectionist, insurrectionist, autocrat & convicted fraudster

And more could be added to the list.

This does not bode well...
Already we have this:
Boost UK defence spending to win Trump’s support, former navy chief urges Starmer
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/nov/09/uk-defence-spending-gdp-trump-britain-military-budget-gdp

***
Closer to home, I don't want to speculate on how this will affect Scotland.
A place dear to the tyrant and where he has family and business connections. He already created problems. He is bound to continue to meddle in affairs.

The US president mounted a lengthy challenge against plans for an 11-turbine scheme off the Aberdeenshire coast, claiming it would spoil the view from his Balmedie golf course.

President Trump has often criticised wind power in his political speeches. Trump has said windmills cause cancer, kill birds and prevent people from watching television when the wind is not blowing.

Trump's love of spending time playing golf is well known (REUTERS)

He appealed to the UK’s highest court after twice losing fights in Scottish courts, but judges there unanimously dismissed the case.

His wind farm opposition led to him giving evidence at the Scottish Parliament as a witness at a committee inquiry into the Scottish government’s renewable energy targets.

Asked to point to evidence wind farms will destroy tourism, Mr Trump said: “I am the evidence.

“I am an expert in tourism, I am considered a world-class expert in tourism so when you say ‘Where is the evidence?’ – I am the evidence.”
— Independent-

He is stronger now than then and the Scottish government weaker.
Time will tell.

I thought Canada would be the first domino, but it turned out to be Germany. How many more? They all have pressure from their own right wing and a common fear of Putin. A Trump-Putin alliance vs The EDu? I don't think Europe wins. I know the earth doesn't. Or the people.
But what we are in even more suspense about is whether JD adheres to the book he endorsed or morphs into yet another incarnation once DJ strokes out. I give him till March (in deference to a self-styled prophet we met in 2016: maybe he had the month right and just misread the year.)

Some days, it's a genuine privilege to be old.

Thanks for link. Project 2025 and how it is implemented makes for grim and terrifying reading. How can such plans be thwarted?

This from the Guardian:

Donald Trump’s advisers are evaluating methods to carry out the president-elect’s promised “largest deportation” in US history, the Wall Street Journal reports. 
Currently, the incoming administration is considering issuing a national emergency declaration, which could allow Trump to use Pentagon funds, military facilities for detention and military planes for deportations. The administration is reportedly also assessing ways to encourage immigrants to leave voluntarily, perhaps by waiving a 10-year bar on re-entry.

I note that there are already protests - ' Protect our Futures' - taking place in New York. But who will stand in the way of the police or military tasked with rounding up immigrants or the homeless or whoever the bullies pick on. This is brutal.

Some days, it's a genuine privilege to be old. — Vera Mont

I am tired and weary. I hope that others can withstand all that is coming down the line. I am nearer the end of my life and live in fortunate circumstances.
I am grateful for that but can't say I fought for it. Others before me did.
I will never forget. :flower:

This is a most awful turning point...

Ay-yup! Not entirely unforeseen or unpredicted: it's been hurtling down the track since 1972 - that I could see. Before that, I was a youthful optimist, going on peace marches, stuffing envelopes and making coffee for the Greenpeace boys - immediately after which experience, I became a feminist of sorts. Even for a while after, I still believed the course of history could be altered, if only enough of us progressives wanted it enough and worked hard enough. There were signs... yet disillusionment didn't land with the last decisive *thud* until the Reagan-Thatcher-Mulroney axis. From there, all our ill-wishers converged unerringly on this point. (and yet, and yet, we still hoped the train might slow down.... it can't)

Till next time.

Best wishes for future travels. :flower:

Till next time. — Paine

As ever :pray:

I'm not going anywhere. Here I sit and here I stay. It's not the worst place I could have ended up.

There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal. I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge even wisdom. Like art. — Toni Morrison

addendum to
https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/946060

:flower: Thank you.

Toni Morrison. This quote. So apt, not only at this time. I have to admit, again, of not reading her works.
I know that she is frequently quoted. A quick TPF search goes back 8yrs.

I agree that this is not a time for silence or fear. However, there can be a need to step back, breathe and remove oneself from the outpourings from all sides. The 'chaos' eventually clearing.

Language, speaking, writing, reading are used not just to heal but to harm. Words don't always come easy or gently but fly quick out of the barrel. Boom! Bang! You're dead. You get up, for more.

How best to respond can take practice. Typing here gives me that.
It is one of the reasons I started this thread. To think and write about how the 3 P's interact.
I can think of a lot more P's but that was for starters.

Making time, having the energy, the will to listen carefully to people, to look around at the environment, to learn from stories, past, present and future. That don't always come easy. For me, at least.

TPF is a special place for this. Observing and asking questions. Writing is what we do. Clarifying our thoughts and feelings. Through contact with others. Not only those who agree with us. Or are considered 'friends' - a band of buddies.

I have sometimes addressed a few as 'friend' - and yes, some are closer than others - I want to clarify that I view most participants, readers and writers as such. Where there is a genuine desire to meet the challenges of the mind and life, how can this not be helpful?

@180 Proof's quote was just what I needed. I looked for its origin. And found it in an article, here:

https://www.themarginalian.org/2016/11/15/toni-morrison-art-despair/

I was reading this when a pop-up appeared. A surprise gift of a poem.

But We Had Music - by Maria Popova.

Right this minute
across time zones and opinions
people are
making plans
making meals
making promises and poems

while

at the center of our galaxy
a black hole with the mass of
four billion suns
screams its open-mouth kiss
of oblivion.

Someday it will swallow
Euclid’s postulates and the Goldberg Variations,
swallow calculus and Leaves of Grass.

I know this.

And still
when the constellation of starlings
flickers across the evening sky,
it is enough

to stand here
for an irrevocable minute
agape with wonder.

It is eternity.


From: https://www.themarginalian.org/2024/04/06/but-we-had-music/

***

When sick - of politics or whatever - writers and poets can sing to us. Music is a universal language.
Story telling is what we do. To counter darkness with light. Through connection. Persevering. Fun :fire:

I hope that we will hear soon of TPF's annual serving - the December Fest of Writing?
@Jamal @fdrake @Baden et al.

I'm trying very hard to find a light, humorous, optimistic theme.
We have kittens...

I'm trying very hard to find a light, humorous, optimistic theme. — Vera Mont

What for? Writing a story for TPF?

We have kittens... — Vera Mont

There ya' go...

*sighs*
So much for my break. I've been dragged from the depths...

I've been dragged from the depths... — Amity

And there's so little sunshine on the surface at this time of year.
I can't stay down too long; I'd get the bends and I'm way too claustrophobic to go in the decompression tank. News blackout is a good start.

News blackout is a good start. — Vera Mont

Yup. I no longer watch or listen to it. I read an online newspaper with my eyes half-shut or half-open. Not for long.

Walking a little in the sunshine...and getting an outdoor key safe installed.
Better than driving around a loch a second time to hunt for house keys.
Then returning home in the failing light.
To find you hadn't even locked the bloody door!

I did say I was tired and weary, didn't I...
Time to hibernate :yawn:

If there is an upside to this is that those who oppose the MAGA movement will have to come to a better understanding of the majority and attempt to address their concerns in a meaningful way.

I'm trying very hard to find a light, humorous, optimistic theme. — Vera Mont

Sometimes it's all in the style, tone, or approach, rather than the theme. The theme can be serious or dark while the tone is light, playful, or optimistic. As a reader it's not themes I find life-affirming and intellectually or emotionally energizing; rather it's in the creativity itself. Sometimes it's obvious that the writer is having fun even when writing a tragedy.

Yes. A harsh lesson and wakeup call. But will it change anything.

How many fall for the promised land of gold. Saved by God.
In God We Trust.

This movement is not only in America. It's wherever might is right.
The wars continue. People are killed and worse.

A proud Liar holds his prize high. The Criminal set free to fulfil his plans.
Receiving Congratulations, and more, from world leaders.
Shame on them all.

Where is the humanity?

Sometimes it's all in the style, tone, or approach, rather than the theme. The theme can be serious or dark while the tone is light, playful, or optimistic. As a reader it's not themes I find life-affirming and intellectually or emotionally energizing; rather it's in the creativity itself. Sometimes it's obvious that the writer is having fun even when writing a tragedy. — Jamal

There's a deeper layer here too. Optimism is in a sense inhumane (it's hope that is humane), and there is no humour in success and contentedness

Sometimes it's obvious that the writer is having fun even when writing a tragedy. — Jamal

For good or ill, I can't do that. I get too involved in the story. I can't be jolly about a character I intend to kill off. I tried to write a Gothic once and everyone in it turned nice by Chapter 3, so I had to throw it away and start another project.

I don't agree. Imo, Trump won because too many Democratic voters preferred not to vote rather than vote for a woman president just like in 2016. Biden won 15 million more votes in 2020 than Clinton won in 2016 and 13 million more votes than Harris won this year; however, Trump received about 1 million less than he did in 2020, so the election turnout drop-off was on the Dems side. As far as I can tell, too many Americans are still not "ready" for a woman president. :brow: — 180 Proof

Not to take away from the misogyny amongst Democratic voters, but another commonality between Clinton and Harris was that the former ran within a deliberately uncompetitive primary and the latter didn't have a primary whatsoever. Personally, I think this is a stronger explanans than misogyny. Biden should have announced that he would not seek another term over a year ago so that the democrats could have an open primary. I believe whomever won that primary would have beaten Trump.

I tried to write a Gothic once and everyone in it turned nice by Chapter 3, so I had to throw it away and start another project. — Vera Mont

:lol:

I believe whomever won that primary would have beaten Trump. — Maw

I very much doubt that was uppermost in anyone's mind. More time would certainly have helped - if the strategy had not been so gender-weighted and more focused on the working class, rather than the middle. All the liberal parties these days buy into the fiction that everyone who isn't a billionaire identifies as middle class or aspires to be middle class: they've swept the working class under a big lumpy carpet that just won't lie still.

:up: :up:

From 2023 ...

Yeah, in 2024 that "1 way to lose" will be the same as 2016: HRC. The Dems don't learn new tricks often ... though maybe VP Harris :yikes: (if Biden drops out of the race and the Dems don't nominate e.g. Gov Newsom, Gov Whitmer, et al) – HRC redux. — 180 Proof

Yeah, in 2024 that "1 way to lose" will be the same as 2016: HRC. — 180 Proof

Hey guys. You make great points. Call me stupid but I don't know or have forgotten what HRC means. I'm guessing not Human Rights Commission.

How worthwhile is to revisit past speculations. And now, we have all the 'what if's' to play with.
It only matters if as @Fooloso4 suggests, it leads to:

... a better understanding of the majority and attempt to address their concerns in a meaningful way. — Fooloso4

How likely is that. How it is done is another matter. Perhaps involving a brain transplant or two.

If they say they will work for all of America. Then, there is a need to actively listening to all the people's stories - imagined and real. And not just to win at Election time. To work for real improvement in the lives of the ordinary. Seek out the unheard voices. Local communities. All year round.

Counter the growing anger and hatred by showing what is really going on. By whatever means that people will trust and not immediately go to 'fake' mode. Get real. Work hard and don't detach high above, safe and secure in your White House.

It might take the creatives to do this. By film or documentary. Whatever. Use the serious and humorous to relay the message you want to convey. Don't rely on celebrity endorsements and unhelpful advertisements. Billions spent. A tyrannical trillionaire in pocket. Take me to the moon, Musk.

Show the ridiculous clowns partying. The big red, white and blue balloons fattened, ready to burst or deflate. At whose expense?

I need to go now. Running late...

Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Will aim to make an announcement soon. :up:

It might take the creatives to do this. — Amity

I think that they play an important role. We are not so easily moved by statistics and theories. We are emotional beings. But this can be manipulated in different directions. Compassion, but also fear and hatred.

:up: :up:

It might take the creatives to do this.
— Amity

I think that they play an important role. We are not so easily moved by statistics and theories. We are emotional beings. But this can be manipulated in different directions. Compassion, but also fear and hatred. — Fooloso4

Yes. There are 'creatives' everywhere. Some create deliberate chaos and bring mayhem to the world.
As you say, by manipulating what people see as 'real' and messing with their emotions.
Multi-messaging, sowing seeds of hatred, fear and confusion. The underlying values or aims are not those of compassion or care for all but to enrich themselves financially and gain prestigious power. High wealth and influence - being 'winners' their core concern.

They create division and hierarchies where they are top dog. Dogs of war.
The phrase spoken by Mark Antony in Act 3, Scene 1, line 273 of English playwright William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: "Cry 'Havoc!', and let slip the dogs of war." So it goes.

It was ever thus. Men at war. Men loving war, aggression, taking and raping. And so on.
To take control of the world, the moon and everything. Or so the story goes.

But do we have to follow this narrative? Can't other 'creatives' change the story? Our ways of thinking of reacting? Of doing politics?

Where to begin? Well...at the beginning.
Perhaps with children who are our future. A change in education systems.

Not that I know about current education and its aims, either here, America or elsewhere. I do know that education especially for girls is seen as a threat and not allowed in the less civilised parts of the world.

Here is a man, a 'Sir' even, with ideas. Explaining intelligence and creativity with humour and stories. To re-think our conceptions. To enlarge and enrich human capacity. He has fun with university professors!

.

Writing creatively. For TPF Literature Event - or anywhere...

Sometimes it's all in the style, tone, or approach, rather than the theme. The theme can be serious or dark while the tone is light, playful, or optimistic. As a reader it's not themes I find life-affirming and intellectually or emotionally energizing; rather it's in the creativity itself. Sometimes it's obvious that the writer is having fun even when writing a tragedy.
— Jamal

There's a deeper layer here too. Optimism is in a sense inhumane (it's hope that is humane), and there is no humour in success and contentedness — Jamal

For good or ill, I can't do that. I get too involved in the story. I can't be jolly about a character I intend to kill off. I tried to write a Gothic once and everyone in it turned nice by Chapter 3, so I had to throw it away and start another project. — Vera Mont

I think it is possible to have fun with characters and situations, even where there is darkness.
Isn't there a need to explore all aspects of humans and their place in whatever worlds they find themselves in? The senses and spectrum of feelings, thoughts and actions. The contrasts.

Why would humour not exist in 'success and contentedness'?
Why would a writer need to feel 'jolly' about a character she meant to kill off?
Why is there a wish to kill? Who or what is being murdered? Deeper exploration of both dark and light?

How can 'optimism' be 'inhumane'?
How can 'hope' be 'humane'?

Here is a wonderful article about Creativity covering many aspects, including the philosophical ambivalence towards Hope. The different takes on the Pandora Myth.

Nietzsche's interpretation of the Pandora myth recalls Arthur Schopenhauer's descriptions of hope as "a folly of the heart". For him, hope is a delusion. In his essay Psychological Remarks (1851), he notes that the emotion "deranges the intellect's appreciation of probability" so that we neglect the likely outcomes of events, even when the odds are stacked against us. "A hopeless misfortune is like a quick death blow, whilst a hope that is always frustrated and constantly revived resembles a kind of slow death by prolonged torture."

[I can't remember if it was here, or somewhere else, that I came across the term 'toxic hope'.
I think it related to people being, or perceived as, over bright and 'jolly' - ? like Harris - irritating others, perhaps in a more depressed or angry state...perhaps I just made that up! And it was 'toxic positivity'? ]

The article is where I found the TED talk linked earlier.
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20210105-why-being-creative-is-good-for-you

And scrolling down, there is this:
In these times of cynicism and despair, is 'hopepunk' the perfect antidote? David Robson explores radical optimism, and why it matters.

But what could describe literature that instead focuses on our capacity for good? "The opposite of grimdark is hopepunk...defined as "a literary and artistic movement that celebrates the pursuit of positive aims in the face of adversity".

If I were a teacher of language, I would ask my students to write a poem each Friday. Doesn't matter the topic or type. Just to power up their creativity. I think it would be interesting to see if their imagination grows in the following weeks. — javi2541997

Hmm, yeah. I don't know. I understand what the aim is and applaud it.
But, for me, it sounds too prescriptive with the teacher still controlling. This is what we will do and this is when we will do it. Don't you think that creativity should start the day. Sparking the way forward.
Brighter and better learning in all subjects...listening and asking questions, all the better to know.

Once upon a time...the day started with 'Assembly'. At secondary school, it was compulsory to bring your New Testament along! This had been given to everyone on their first day.
( I often 'forgot' mine, and hurried in, head down, clutching my pocket French dictionary)

Language learning was for the most part rote. Not so much conversation but grammar.
Declensions an' all that. And what is it about labelling nouns and accompanying adjectives as female, male and neuter! Jeez :roll:

Edit: @javi2541997 - I see you have deleted your post. Why?