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Carol Ann Meme's avatar

Thanks, James. That was the most inspirational thing I have read all week.

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Lee's avatar

Thank you we need all the hope and encouragement we can get.

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Alice Broscheid's avatar

Thank you. Never thought I would live in such evil times. I'm visiting BC next week. Is the proper etiquette to apologize to every person I encounter?

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Robert Fine's avatar

After spending most of the summer in Newfoundland and some in Nova Scotia, the answer is no. They will reach out to you to commiserate. The Canadians love us, as we do them, and they separate the Orange Shitgibbon and his crew from normal Americans. Unless, of course, you meet one of the few and far between right wing nuts that exist up there. Believe me, you'll be able to tell the difference.

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Janice Edwards's avatar

Nope! Just smile & say hi.

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Shannon Maher's avatar

Lovely words - I would like to lift a little higher by saying - the consensus is that sexism and racism are NOT INNATE, but learned. And can be unlearned. I think the one word left out of your explanation (also learned, not innate, I believe) is GREED and the bullshit belief that GREED IS GOOD. Greed is a shitty way to be part of any community. Thanks for writing!! I’ll be fighting with you.

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Donald Sinclair Richardson's avatar

Great analogy and quotes, especially Dr Seuss’s.

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Nicole Heilman Grissom's avatar

That's one of my favorite quotes.

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JJ-TaxNinny's avatar

This broke me:

The only hope for the future is if you behave as though there is hope for the future.

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Ann Bennington's avatar

The Fanta Menace 😂🤣🤣 I'm totally gonna steal that (probably just personally not for published writing) - hope that's okay 😁

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chris lemon's avatar

Cheeto Jesus is also catchy.

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W. Michael Johnson's avatar

I'm gonna steal it for writing. I'll credit you the first couple of times.

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Pamela Caehill's avatar

Have you heard "metamucillini"? Saw it in a comment on Joe.My.God. 😂

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JJ-TaxNinny's avatar

Count of Mostly Crisco is another good one I saw. I illustrated it for the original poster. A girl has to have hobbies.

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Pamela Caehill's avatar

Can you share your illustration? I'll understand if not.

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JJ-TaxNinny's avatar

It won't let me attach an image. Lemme see if I can post it as a note. I may have already (lol).

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Brook Fuller's avatar

I just crashed into a sea of my own tears. Thanks, James.

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Ashlee Berry's avatar

Thank you for this James, I needed to read this at this exact moment. Every day I get *this close to giving up because what's going to be left to enjoy anyway? But it's true- when the good people give up, the bad people win, and I'll be damned if I give them one inch toward their goal. So I will continue fighting and keep hoping that there is something left to enjoy at the end of this.

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Beverley Wood's avatar

It's not "Aircraft Earth". It's "Aircraft USA". The rest of the world will have to deal with the debris, and we'll have to dig in and get through this with 'elbows up', but just to be clear. You won't be taking us with you.

We hope you make it. So many of you are lovely wonderful people. But I am afraid you are going to have to storm the cockpit.

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Sopraltotude's avatar

Excellent post, James. The pilot story reminds me of the pilot who landed the plane on the Hudson River some years ago. I don't know how true the movie was to what really happened, but what stuck with me was, when the copilot kept telling him what systems they'd lost, he said "don't tell me what we don't have, tell me what we do have." I think this is going to be an important attitude to take as the world awaits the end of Trump's term. (Hopefully there actually will be an end, because he's been talking like there won't be.)

The only Varley novel I have is Steel Beach, which I love. I'm going to have to hunt down more of his work, by the sounds of it.

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James Fell's avatar

You gotta read The Golden Globe as a follow up to Steel Beach.

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Taryn Korody's avatar

Why did James Fell make me cry on a Friday morning?

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Lance Linebaugh's avatar

It is getting progressively harder to hold fast yet I truly believe the death knell for us will be the loss of hope.

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Lois Henry's avatar

I have your book. Somehow I have not been able to bring myself to read it though. What reading I do outside of substack seems to consist entirely of Terry Pratchett Disc World stories. My life expectancy is about 2 years and I want to go out knowing as much as I can cram into the gray matter - just because it’s there to know - but I have to escape lately. Am I a quitter? I don’t really know.

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Sue Munda's avatar

Wow! I just started all the discworld books again, too.

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Pamela Caehill's avatar

I get that racism became hard-wired after generations of repetition, in that millennia after millennia folks found that other folks outside their tribe might be untrustworthy and dangerous. But sexism? That was scattered around the world for awhile, with some tribes matrimonial and others patriarchal. Why did patriarchy get the upper hand as time went on? Is testosterone the only explanation?

Even in Celtic tradition, men were usually leaders, but the line passed through the sister's son because you had no way of verifying the dad, but siblings conformable. objectively confirmable.

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Pamela Caehill's avatar

Matricentric not matrimonial. Fuck.

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Pamela Caehill's avatar

"Were generally objectively confirmable" instead of whatever the he'll I just wrote.

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