So, I was in bed last night, unable to sleep, and I started thinking...

The definition of everything is changing. There is a risk that each of us will be unwittingly pulled in a certain direction along with these changes.

Remember back when Putin and Russia went into Syria? It was like a "new reality", and suddenly we start looking at basic things like Russia's military capability, and poof! There's all this evidence that it's actually pretty good.

So, was it always there and we just didn't notice, or was it really a reality-splitting kind of thing? I guess in the end it doesn't really matter, as long as we pay attention to what is true right now, and not get stuck in the past...

Then Trump becomes president. The night (here) of the election, I went to bed totally depressed because Hillary was in for sure, and I had a pretty good idea of what that meant. I wake up the next morning, and poof! Trump is president.

Well, that was a bit of a shock. What does it mean? What will he do? Who knows?!

And now, today, I'm reading on FB especially about the conflict between "left and right". Suddenly, the "lefty liberals" are the spawn of satan, and they think that Trump and his "right-wing" crowd are the spawn of satan.

Previously, many of us probably would have classified ourselves as more "left-leaning", but naturally such categorizations are generally too blindly strict to adhere to religiously. For myself, I may have had more historically left-leaning views, but I never categorized myself with any crowd because that would be absurd... Mainly because that group of "Left" people have been ignoring 90% of reality for eons, just like the Right, the Center, and everybody else.

That's called: Life on Planet Earth - Isn't it Fun to be a Human? with your host, David Attenborough

So anyway, what I'm seeing in some cases is that some of us are condemning the "liberal left" with rather emotionally-charged language as if they are Untermensch.

Now, sure, it's pretty shocking. You've got a group of people who loved Obama, had NO idea what he was really doing, said nothing during "foreign interventions", said nothing when he bans immigration, cheered when he won a Nobel Peace Prize, etc. But when Trump does it, they call him Hitler. That's short-sighted at best.

However, IMO it's also totally short-sighted for us "formerly liberally lefty-leaning" types to go too far in the opposite direction, because THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT. That's how divide and conquer works.

There's nothing wrong with pointing out the absurdity of people, actions, and so on. That's what we're supposed to do. But when that "pointing out" starts to take on the flavor of NIGYYSOB (now I've got you, you son of a b*tch), then perhaps it's time to rein in the horsies and re-evaluate. If we don't do this, then we're contributing to the divide-and-conquer.

I will be the first to admit that I get pretty worked up about injustice, ignorance, contradictions, hypocrisy, etc. I'm not always successful at limiting its expression to my "safe circles" here, getting it out, and then posting something more balanced and fact-based publicly. But I try, and lately I'm trying harder because anything less is not good enough as a representative of this group.

And if I run off the rails emotionally and get caught up in the mayhem, I'm even going against my own being. And we know all too well what that generally leads too...

Right? Left? Center? Muslim? Christian? Man? Woman? HeWoman? SheMan? Gay? Straight? Diagonal?

Seriously, who cares? It all become meaningless in the current constantly changing reality, especially when it's only all about ME and MY IDENTITY and MY personal views. It's all being used to separate us from each other and to launch total chaos.

I mean, Muslim: There are mercenaries who pretend to be radical Muslims, and there are people like this Sheik on SOTT Radio yesterday who (regardless of your or my opinion of Islam) may very well be just good people trying to live their lives. There are Muslims who voted for Trump, and Muslims who didn't. And so on... The term is essentially meaningless in the big picture, because it means different things for different people, and at different times. The same is true of "Left" and "Right" and everything else. Especially now.

If you want someone to actually listen to what you say, you can't use derogatory terms to classify what comes out of their mouths. They will instantly shut down, classify you, you have just technically classified them, and nothing will get better because you just killed any possibility of that happening. Sure, you might feel better, but it accomplished nothing... In which case, it's still all about you, as with everyone else.

I think the best way to deal with this stuff is to post things WITHOUT directly addressing any person or group. Give data that contradicts something, and ask simple questions in an emotionally-neutral way so that MAYBE people will think. If not now, then the seed is planted for the future. Maybe...

That is the ONLY way I have ever found that actually works in the longer term.

Anyway, I suspect that more change is coming, which is the reason I'm saying all of this. There will be more "POOF!" events, and we all really need to keep our wits about us. We need to ride the ocean wave of change, not rant against it and beat it with a stick. If not, we risk falling off our surfboards and getting washed away. And then eaten by sharks.