I'm glad to hear that things are working out Shadowprophet. This probably isn't the politically correct thing to say, but personally I couldn't care less about somebody's sexual orientation or gender identity...and in my mind that's exactly correct: it's a non-issue and nobody should be treated differently over any of it. But that's also why I don't understand the emotional drama of the LGBTQ movement - why isn't it enough to just let everyone do their own thing? I'm all for human equality, but sometimes people expect us to be selectively deferential to their preferences, and I'm not going to do that, because no sexual or gender orientation makes anyone better than anyone else. Integrity is the only thing that sets one person above another, imo.
Anyway, I'm bewildered by the title of this thread "Hard times, The Modern progressive movement." I see "the progressive movement" and "the LGBTQ movement" as totally independent things. Nearly all of the politically progressive/leftist/liberal/whatever people I know, are focused almost exclusively on our rigged economy, the complete loss of political representation for the working class, the endless mass murder operations abroad, the industrial incarceration system, the insane and broken health insurance system, and the high cost of getting a higher education, among other issues of equal and pervasive import. On the rare occasions that the LGBTQ movement comes up, it's a short conversation that usually goes something like: "of course gay couples should have the right to get married, and be free from discrimination just like anyone else," and that's usually the end of it. Conflating "progressive" with "LGBTQ" just seems weird.
I've also noticed that the right-wing corporate freaks running the Democratic Party and by extension about 90% of the corporate news media, keep stealing all of the labels that left-leaning people keep coming up with in order to distinguish themselves from the revolting corporate collaborators running the Democratic Party. Before the Democratic Party completely betrayed the working class and sold them out to Wall Street and Walmart, when people wanted to let you know that they were left-wing, they just called themselves a "Democrat." But then the Democrats moved so far to the right that they're now Reagan-era Republicans, so left-leaning people started using "progressive" instead. Then all the right-wing corporate sociopaths like Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton and Neera Tanden started calling themselves "progressives" too, so people started calling themselves "leftists" to get away from the faux-liberal corporate Democrats. Naturally the corporatists are stealing that one now too.
Has anyone else noticed this? It really pisses me off. I think I'm going to try out "populist" for awhile, because the Democratic Party leadership seems to think that a government that responds to the people instead of just the plutocrats is a bad thing, so they haven't rubbed their taint all over it yet.
Anyway, I'm bewildered by the title of this thread "Hard times, The Modern progressive movement." I see "the progressive movement" and "the LGBTQ movement" as totally independent things. Nearly all of the politically progressive/leftist/liberal/whatever people I know, are focused almost exclusively on our rigged economy, the complete loss of political representation for the working class, the endless mass murder operations abroad, the industrial incarceration system, the insane and broken health insurance system, and the high cost of getting a higher education, among other issues of equal and pervasive import. On the rare occasions that the LGBTQ movement comes up, it's a short conversation that usually goes something like: "of course gay couples should have the right to get married, and be free from discrimination just like anyone else," and that's usually the end of it. Conflating "progressive" with "LGBTQ" just seems weird.
I've also noticed that the right-wing corporate freaks running the Democratic Party and by extension about 90% of the corporate news media, keep stealing all of the labels that left-leaning people keep coming up with in order to distinguish themselves from the revolting corporate collaborators running the Democratic Party. Before the Democratic Party completely betrayed the working class and sold them out to Wall Street and Walmart, when people wanted to let you know that they were left-wing, they just called themselves a "Democrat." But then the Democrats moved so far to the right that they're now Reagan-era Republicans, so left-leaning people started using "progressive" instead. Then all the right-wing corporate sociopaths like Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton and Neera Tanden started calling themselves "progressives" too, so people started calling themselves "leftists" to get away from the faux-liberal corporate Democrats. Naturally the corporatists are stealing that one now too.
Has anyone else noticed this? It really pisses me off. I think I'm going to try out "populist" for awhile, because the Democratic Party leadership seems to think that a government that responds to the people instead of just the plutocrats is a bad thing, so they haven't rubbed their taint all over it yet.