FAFO v. Empathy

[Jersey Girl]

I don't want you to say what you think I want to hear. I want you to say what you think.

As soon as I read this, I regretted my comment, thinking, That's true. Jersey Girl is like that.

I haven't even said what *I* think yet so please don't second guess me. If you want me to put my cards on the table first, I'm happy to do that.

I got cards. I got the best cards. Nobody's ever seen cards like I have.

Your OP seemed to come down on the side of empathy, but perhaps you have more to say.

Yeah. I like to think it comes down more on the side of wisdom of going for long term benefit.

I just made my reply. I did NOT read your posts before doing so.

[Jersey Girl]

"FAFO" = ?

Man, use your stupid googler.

[Jersey Girl]

"FAFO" = ?

F*ck Around and Find Out (Edit: "Celestial Kingdom" should be the letters "C" and "K," but 'tism gonna 'tism.)

In the past, it was kind of a general term for people who were feeling a bit too big for their britches, and tried to fight the wrong person only to get thoroughly man-handled. Now, it's largely adopted as a way to bypass empathy for all of the Trump supporters being directly harmed by his policies and actions. It's become shorthand for "I never thought the leopards would eat my face, when I voted for the leopard face-eating party."

The farmers who are losing their family farms, the small businesses not able to afford the tariffs, the federal employees losing their jobs, power bills skyrocketing, etc., that voted for Trump are generally just met with comments of "FAFO" instead of empathy.


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General thoughts on Empathy:

Even though "It's not a problem, unless it happens to me, and then how dare someone let it happen to me" is the basis of the Republican ethos, I don't think that means empathy should be abandoned. There's a wealth of research that Republican voters tend to be cognitively impaired and have lower IQs. People don't choose to be cognitively impaired, and I personally don't think joy in their self-induced misery is appropriate. This is one of the reasons I don't hate RFK. It's not his fault he's unable to understand even basic abstracts of studies. It's not his fault he doesn't have the ability to recognize he's incapable of understanding rudimentary medical science. It's also not the fault of people who aren't smart enough to realize he's a moron.

Golden. People who are hurting, suffering, or feeling shoved out to the margins of society are looking for a place to belong. Maybe their self image is shot to hell. Maybe they have no confidence. Maybe they were looking for leaders who sounded tougher than they believe that they are. Apparently the Republicans/Trump's messaging appealed to them even though I think much of it was base lies.

[Jersey Girl]

I got cards. I got the best cards. Nobody's ever seen cards like I have.

“Many people have approached me. ‘Sir’, they say, with tears in their eyes, ‘Sir, please show us your cards, sir … we hear that they are the best cards, the best that anyone has ever seen!’ … so many people, many people are saying that nobody has ever seen so many people say this.”

And then she played her hand.

[Jersey Girl]

So I guess I'll tell you what I think. I think some people need to suffer to learn because they suck at abstract thought. They have to viscerally experience pain to learn a lesson because they can't learn it through thought experiments.

I am completely reserving my empathy for Harris voters who will be the victims of American idiocy. Trump voters can suck an active tailpipe.

Yeah that's similar to what I said in my new reply. That change doesn't come from debate, it comes from experience. Something that hits home.

Agree.

[Jersey Girl]

I see two more posts I want to reply to. I gotta go for now though. I can only think about these things for so long before the toxcity of it all starts to creep in.

It's not you guys. It's me.

[dantana]

People don't choose to be cognitively impaired, and I personally don't think joy in their self-induced misery is appropriate. This is one of the reasons I don't hate RFK. It's not his fault he's unable to understand even basic abstracts of studies. It's not his fault he doesn't have the ability to recognize he's incapable of understanding rudimentary medical science. It's also not the fault of people who aren't smart enough to realize he's a moron.

I'm with you on that one Dr. Stu. Adopting that policy though does make it more difficult in figuring out who is eligible for ridicule. Since, as the saying goes - "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

So, is it stupidity or rottenness. Of the four pictured in the other thread, I don't know enough about Tulsi time to make a call. As to the other three bugbears though, I've got RFK. Jr. as rotten. For one, he has the pedigree for it. For another, serial adulterer. For another another, no one could actually be that stupid to believe the things he does so, it must be something other.

As to Muks, there certainly is a chance that he isn't just trying to enrich himself under the pretense of trying to fix the broken. I think it's possible his personality disorder has just gotten the best of him.

Trump, of course is both.

[Dr. Shades]

"FAFO" = ?

Man, use your stupid googler.

I used acronymfinder.com, but the closest match was "First and Final Offer." That didn't seem to fit very well, so I went to the source.

[Marcus]

Man, use your stupid googler.

I used acronymfinder.com, but the closest match was "First and Final Offer." That didn't seem to fit very well, so I went to the source.

That was your first mistake.
Get with the times.

[Some Schmo]

If we shut the door like some of us have, written people off even family members, then what is the profit to us in that?

Maintaining healthy boundaries.

And frankly, each individual citizen can do very little to correct the current situation, but one thing individuals can do is show their acquaintances, friends and family that their vote has immediate consequences in the form of being cut off from you who find what they did unforgivable. Because it is unforgivable.

How else do you convey just how stupid and malevolent you think a Trump vote was this last election? I would have thought they already knew how we felt. "Liberal tears" is a direct expression of that knowledge. So “F” 'em.

Empathy may come later, long after Trump is no longer a menace. For now, however, I have no energy or will to forgive any of these "F"s. I want them to suffer.

ETA: As I said when we first found out we were in for another 4 year nightmare: Americans aren't coming out of this unscathed, and we're going to have to go through massive growing pains to get past this. And what I mean by that is that Americans have to suffer to damned grow up. I don't see a way around that because on average, Americans are dumb compared to the rest of the world.