WOOOOOO November 8, 2020 4:43 AM   Subscribe

ooooo​ooooooo​oooooo​oooooooo​oooooo​ooooooo​ooooooo​oooooo​ooooo​ooooo​oooooo​oooooo​ooooooo​oooooo​oooooo​oooooo​oooooo​ooooooo​oooooo!!!! This week's Metatalktails brought to you by Janelle Monáe. 🥂
posted by taz (staff) to MetaFilter-Related at 4:43 AM (40 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite

Thank you for that!
posted by mareli at 4:54 AM on November 8, 2020 [1 favorite]


My tear ducts are exhausted. I feel like I was at the bottom of the ocean, and now that I'm on the surface I still haven't adjusted to the lightness. I feel a little awkward and dizzy. But oh so happy. So full of joy. I know there's still work to do, and who knows what the fuck he'll do on the way out, but this weekend . . . this weekend has been a long time coming. I missed feeling hope. I'm glad it's home again. Welcome home hope.
posted by Stanczyk at 5:52 AM on November 8, 2020 [7 favorites]


Joe announced his first bid on June 9, 1987. Testament to the power of persistence.
posted by sammyo at 6:15 AM on November 8, 2020 [4 favorites]


I am genuinely, enthusiastically, dance-in-the-streets-level excited about changing the names on my protest signs.
posted by eotvos at 6:43 AM on November 8, 2020 [22 favorites]


Relieved to be able to return to low-level whinging about my broken knee again.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:48 AM on November 8, 2020 [4 favorites]


My eyes are sore from constantly welling up with tears throughout the day yesterday. Whether it was seeing people cheering passing USPS trucks or ridiculous Philly memes involving Gritty it was too much for me to take.

Much like Stanczyk there has been a weight lifted from my soul. One so deeply buried I did not realize its extent. But now? Now it is gone. I know there is much still to be done but now I can see things getting better rather than the slow slide into fascism and environmental destruction.

It is a beautiful day.
posted by nolnacs at 7:51 AM on November 8, 2020 [4 favorites]


I did almost nothing but drink, eat ice cream, and watch videos of dancing in the streets yesterday. Then it snowed overnight, turning the world into a bright clean canvas. Things could be worse.
posted by HotToddy at 8:43 AM on November 8, 2020 [5 favorites]


I've been on the verge of tears and feeling exhausted since I woke up this morning. As I was puzzling these feelings over (in addition to a Biden win it turns out that my red kitty is astonishingly healthy for almost 19 and just needs to stay on the antibiotics for the RSV and gain a couple of pounds) it hit me that the last time I felt like this was after I rage-quit an incredibly toxic job nine years ago.

Relief.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 9:06 AM on November 8, 2020 [4 favorites]


late to the party and all, but I have only just been listening to Janelle Monae this past year and I have to say I have become a big fan (Dirty Computer has been part of my 2020 soundtrack). she is just completely amazing and that video is fantastic. thanks!!!
posted by supermedusa at 9:09 AM on November 8, 2020 [3 favorites]


HotToddy I had champagne and ice cream for dinner last night. so good! I haven't been this happy in four years :)
posted by supermedusa at 9:11 AM on November 8, 2020 [2 favorites]


I liked the video of the crowds lining the streets as the Presidential motorcade passed: low-level BOOO, overtaken by joyous shouts of BYEEE...

Restive heart reserves joy for much later, when the lunatic has his icy hands pried off the reins of power. Trepidation reigns until then. The inevitably fading release gives way to mourning for the damage. The dead. The wounded. Uncounted, uncountable. Can U Ignore 70 Million Zombies Left Wandering The Streets? Can't jam the demons back under the rocks. Oh, please, please, let me not run out of metaphors.

So much to look forward to: We cheer at each new Cabinet Appointment--I shall grow hoarse from shouting Don't let the door hit you in the ass (i.e., De Vos), but I want Barr to stick around for the House Inquiries.

No. I'll gloat with carefully rationed measures of grace, on my patio, celebratory glass of wine, looking forward to indictments that may never come, but still, I will dream.
posted by mule98J at 9:22 AM on November 8, 2020 [3 favorites]


His misery brings me so much joy.
posted by bondcliff at 9:51 AM on November 8, 2020 [11 favorites]


So, there are a few posts I've seen on social media encouraging Biden supporters to reach out to Trump supporters, and be the bigger person and make nice. "Think back to how you felt in 2016," they say. "That's how they feel now. This is your chance to empathize with them."

Here's the thing though.

This sounds EXACTLY like the kind of thing that everyone told me as a bullied child. "They only bully you because they're jealous of you/they have problems of their own. You shouldn't hold it against them." Which, while that may have been true, COMPLETELY IGNORED the damage I had suffered FROM being bullied MYSELF. Those kind of statements didn't teach me empathy - they taught me that "your feelings don't actually matter as much as your bully's feelings do."

FUCK. THAT.

...I am also reminded of an anecdote I heard about a renowned Rabbi who was on a speaking tour. During one of his travel legs he went by train, and for comfort he was dressed casually, like in a track suit or something. He had some notes he wanted to review on the train. But he was stuck sitting next to this super-douchey business bro who also spread his own papers out all over the place and was talking on his cell phone the whole way. When the rabbi politely asked if he could speak just a BIT more quietly so he could review his own notes, the dude blew him off.

As it turned out they both got off at the same stop. There was a whole group of people there to meet the rabbi and welcome him - and when the dudebro saw that, he realized who the rabbi was and ran over to apologize and beg forgiveness. But the rabbi just said "no, I don't forgive you" and walked away.

His welcoming team was shocked and asked him what that was all about. He told them what had happened. "But why didn't you forgive him? He apologized!" they asked.

"He didn't apologize to the right man," the rabbi explained. "He apologized to the famous rabbi. On the train, though, I wasn't 'the famous rabbi', I was just an ordinary dude. That ordinary dude is the one the guy offended. He needs to find that ordinary dude he thought I was and apologize to HIM."

The people asking me to empathize with the Trump supporters now are talking to the wrong person. They're talking to "the winners of the 2020 election." They need to go find the 2016 version of me, the one that they screamed "fuck your feelings" at, and go ask HER to empathize with them.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:06 AM on November 8, 2020 [144 favorites]


Mind you, this doesn't mean I'm gonna gloat. (...much.) I'm just not going to make any kind of fence-mending gesture, because the way we were treated in 2016 waives us of any responsibility to be the one to make the first move, in my opinion.

I'll be civil, of course. But I'll be REALLY guarded, until I get a sense that they've had the LEAST inkling of self-awareness that "hey, maybe we treated Hillary supporters way shitty and we shouldn't have done that because that wasn't cool."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:18 AM on November 8, 2020 [6 favorites]


Empress ARGH!! its right up there with asking people (often POC) to forgive the racist murderer who killed their family and friends and neighbors. NO. its not the same. the fear that I felt, that so many felt, 4 years ago, the TERROR, this is not what they are feeling. they just hate losing, they hate us. THEY HATE. I'm not going to hate back but I'm not making nice-nice either.
posted by supermedusa at 10:39 AM on November 8, 2020 [14 favorites]


I'm so glad things went the right way with this election and that the jerks are not going to be empowered and platformed in the same way anymore. But those jerks, and those who were willing to benefit from them are still out there.

One of my key lessons from the last few years has been that making nice with assholes is pointless. Any Trump supporter who wants anything more than icy civility from me is going to have to convince me that they deserve it.
posted by rpfields at 2:21 PM on November 8, 2020 [1 favorite]


72 days (& change) to go!
posted by Going To Maine at 2:43 PM on November 8, 2020


Hope is audacious once again
posted by mightshould at 3:04 PM on November 8, 2020


One of the only things I still use Facebook for is the memories function. It's a fun way to be reminded of where I was, what I was thinking, however many years ago on this date.

This morning, it's four years since the 2016 election, and I teared up reading what I'd written, and honestly, the pain is still there, still incredibly fresh. I'd had such hope, such faith in my country to not do the obviously terrible, obviously destructive thing, and I was so totally wrong. I don't think I'm alone in saying that it was one of the worst days I've ever experienced. One of the things I wrote was that, somehow, I had to pull myself together and get one of my EFL students ready for a prefectural speech contest, where she was using Obama's inaugural speech, with its discussion of the moral arc of history, and I wasn't sure if I could do it. In the end, I asked her if it would be okay to wait a day, because I just wasn't up for hearing that speech, on that day.

I ended up leaving teaching at the end of that school year, partly from burn out, but also from a personal belief that teachers have to believe that what they do has meaning, that preparing students for the future, and that, having no hope, I honestly wasn't the person students needed to hear from.

I'm back at teaching because, shit, what else am I going to do in Japan these days, but honestly, I'm looking forward to this week, to the rest of this term, and the year ahead after that. I'm not going to suddenly start spewing hope and sunshine, but compared to how I felt four years ago, I'll take this any day.
posted by Ghidorah at 3:12 PM on November 8, 2020 [13 favorites]


I went camping this weekend and had no connectivity at the campground. Saturday morning we did the battlefield hike at Appomattox. Sometime around 11:30 AM I felt my phone vibrate, so I stopped to look. While I was answering a text my son checked Twitter to see if civilization had collapsed while we were offline. We were standing in the field where Lee made his last (failed) attack on the morning of April 9, 1865, when we saw the news.
posted by COD at 4:15 PM on November 8, 2020 [12 favorites]


Friday morning, off work for the day, I puttered around cleaning house, and checked Twitter just before 9. I was standing in my kitchen, halfway through a cup of coffee, when I saw this tweet from Decision Desk HQ:

"Decision Desk HQ projects that @JoeBiden has won Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral college votes for a total of 273.

"Joe Biden has been elected the 46th President of the United States of America.

"Race called at 11-06 08:50 AM EST"

and I wept for joy. I took a picture of my own face, so I'd remember the feeling of relief, belief, hope, and joy all at the same moment, and the way they flooded in and drove out my four-year-long soul despair, the way the waves of fear and sorrow and outrage receded and the first feeling of serenity I've had in a long, long time emerged. I believed. Was I relieved when the networks called it? Of course. But that feeling of peace, of knowing in my heart, carried me through until then.

I still have the poster I carried at the D.C. Women's March in 2017. I still have the poster my daughter made at home that day ("Don't Be an Asshole. Love Is Love." with a big rainbow), because she couldn't come with me. I'm ready to let go of those things now. I kept them as promises of a better time. It's coming. I hope and believe.
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:51 PM on November 8, 2020 [2 favorites]


Without any bidding from melodramatic me, a sensible friend of mine described the election as a "successful exorcism." I feel as though a huge dark cloud has parted and is on its way out of the sky.
posted by Sheydem-tants at 5:16 PM on November 8, 2020 [2 favorites]


I’ve been describing the feeling as like being in a bombed out city that has found out its country won the war. The bombing is done, and that’s an incalculable relief, but the work to repair the damage it has done has only just begun.

I’ll take that relief, though. I’ll take it for sure.
posted by ocherdraco at 5:27 PM on November 8, 2020 [11 favorites]


There's a distinction to be drawn between 'being empathetic' and 'being nice'; empathy is only the ability to discern others' emotional states, identify with the sensation, and understand why they feel that way, it doesn't imply any required behaviour in response, good or bad.

Losing an election is shitty! It feels horrible, because it's a rewriting of reality by the community as a whole, and if your views are repudiated, it sucks. Of course it stings, that's the point! It's good and desirable that it should!
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 5:48 PM on November 8, 2020 [2 favorites]


supermedusa: the fear that I felt, that so many felt, 4 years ago, the TERROR, this is not what they are feeling. they just hate losing, they hate us.

Are you sure, though? It looks to me (as an outsider) that they've been taught to fear you. Hasn't Fox et al been teaching them that for years and years? Isn't hate or anger often the public face of fear? Fear, after all, isn't manly... so it's better to disguise it as anger.

Mind you, I'm not trying to tell anyone how to behave or feel towards Trumpists. I just think that they generally may be feeling fear.
posted by Too-Ticky at 1:20 AM on November 9, 2020 [6 favorites]


So, you know how we usually ask "no politics please" in Metatalktail threads? Well, we couldn't say that on this one, but there are US politics threads in the blue for politics as usual. This wasn't meant to be a thread for more fighting with each other, but just for once being happy and supportive together about one positive thing that happened because of a whole lot of people working toward a common goal of helping to turn the tables. This is about feeling stronger and renewed and rededicated going forward together into that future.
posted by taz (staff) at 4:42 AM on November 9, 2020 [3 favorites]


Hey everybody, this is silly but would make me feel really good —

Please send any luck, prayers, good vibes that you can spare my way? I am taking a section of the CPA exam this morning (AUD, for anyone else who has had the pleasure...). If I keep my wits about me, I will pass. But I’m nervous as hell and your well wishes would mean a lot!
posted by rue72 at 7:29 AM on November 9, 2020 [18 favorites]


Good luck, rue72!
posted by blurker at 8:34 AM on November 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


I refuse to be PTSD'd out of my joy, regardless of the lame duck blowhard in chief.
posted by Oyéah at 8:46 AM on November 9, 2020 [2 favorites]


sending lots of good thoughts for your exam!
posted by brilliantine at 9:12 AM on November 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


you've got this rue72!!!
posted by supermedusa at 11:07 AM on November 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


Weds and Th I refreshed pages, admired the popular vote, read twitter, and had MeFi pages open, all the stuff I do when I'm stressed and know I have no control, but want the illusion of control. A newspaper in Northern Maine called it in their Friday morning edition, pretty impressed they were willing to take the risk. Then it all came together, and I cried. Still tear up at every Kamala post, because it's been a long time coming, and we're not all the way there. The women's movement is at an ebb; I hope this will renew it. My grandkids can grow up knowing this is a thing women do. There was a rowdy impromptu parade of cars downtown, so much joy. My favorite Biden photos are of pool, parties he holds for staffers, squirt gun fights, silly fun. It's been such a grim, angry, vindictive 4 years, and maybe there can be a collective lightening up, a little camaraderie, we're all in this together. Happy I had MeFites to wait with.
posted by theora55 at 12:57 PM on November 9, 2020 [2 favorites]


Guess what we are?
posted by Splunge at 2:18 PM on November 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


Heh. I swear I included the below in one of the billion political threads going on right now, and it was probably outside of the scope of that particular thread.

But, since this is a rare condoned time to talk politics, in MetaTalk... :

"My dream scenario:

01/20/2021 12:15 p.m. Biden is giving his inaugural address.

Biden: "Thank you all for this victory that we are celebrating today. Many times over the course of the campaign and in the months between election day and today, I have promised to work with Republicans in a bipartisan matter for the benefit of the United States of America.

"I will keep that promise... as a statesman. I hold in my hand my resignation."

(Biden scrawls signature.)

"It is my distinct honor to now introduce the 47th President of the United States of America... President Kamala Harris!"

President Harris: "Thank you, Joe. It has been a pleasure to serve with you. It is amazing what positive things you have accomplished in your tenure as President. It almost feels like you have accomplished more than some did in a full four year term.

"To all gathered: I, too, will fight for a more United America. Many have called Donald a loser. They say he lost the popular vote in 2016. They say he lost both popular and electoral vote in 2020. Trump did not carry any battleground states and lost traditional Republican stronghold states.

"But, let's not look at Trump as a loser. Let us look at how he helped unite America in 2020. Trump is truly responsible for not one, but two Democratic Presidents, which shows how he could bring people from all parties together.

"Having been sworn in as your current president, my first duty is to appoint my Vice President. I am humbly honored that Senator Elizabeth Warren has accepted this position."

Cue one week of total gridlock on the legislative side as new Senators need to be appointed for Harris and Warren as well getting the Dem Georgia Senators seated. In this time, Harris and Warren make short shrift of removing all interims, etc in order to have a working, non-corrupt government.

One week later, with McConnell no longer Sen Majority Leader, President Harris focuses her litigation skills on removing all the illegatility that happened between 2016-2020 while V.P. Warren works with the Lege to pass as many Leftist ideas as possible.

(I told you it was a dream.)
"
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 7:47 PM on November 9, 2020 [4 favorites]


I dream and ache for a future where we live in a land where everyone is secure, healthy and happy enough that we finally discard the shackles of the power structures of states and governments themselves as well as the threats or use of force and violence. A future where these things were considered to barbarically unnecessary and the brutality of capitalism is as archaic and reviled as slavery.

In this dreamscape we all live our best, most true lives, eat fine food from the bounties of our gardens, spend our time inventing new forms of art and science and endlessly enjoy each other's priceless company and cherish the value of our human relationships.

It is a nice dream.
posted by loquacious at 10:37 AM on November 10, 2020 [4 favorites]


Thank you, everybody! The exam went alright...the multiple-choice questions were killer, but the problem sets were pretty good. I have no idea if I passed or failed. But at least the exam is officially taken!
posted by rue72 at 1:23 PM on November 10, 2020 [7 favorites]


We gots vallhund puppies. Seven of 'em. Born Monday so just little squirmy otters now. When they're annoyed they sound like baby alligators.

Their official due date was today, Veteran's/Armistice Day, so their temp names are the NATO alphabet, Alfa through Golf. I might urge that whoever tastes my blood first get promoted to Snafu or Fubar.

There'll be some sort of puppycam later; I'll post it somewhere here.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 12:55 PM on November 11, 2020 [9 favorites]


puppycam

It'll be sporadically active
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 10:27 AM on November 13, 2020 [3 favorites]


Red    -- Alfa
Orange -- Bravo
Yellow -- Charlie
Green  -- Delta
Blue   -- Echo
Violet -- Foxtrot
Pink   -- Golf
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 10:47 AM on November 13, 2020 [2 favorites]


Bye, Dom! Byeeeeeeee.
posted by HandfulOfDust at 12:27 PM on November 13, 2020


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