Hey sL..

I've been told by people in the past you're very passionate about your political views and may not take kindly to any other views expressed. Maybe I'm lucky we're posting here, or maybe they were just feeling scorned. I think we've always gotten along, so while I've been trying hard to bite my political tongue, I wanted to respond.

Don't be so sure about the conservative-liberal thing. Even at that time many of us noticed that those conservatives had some strange bedfellows agreeing with them, and I know that I was saying it at the time. It was feminists, who in my opinion have been lording over the liberal Left for quite some time now, who agreed with them for their own crazy beliefs... that Man-Girl love is just another form of patriarchy, that it was just another power trip by males over people younger, smaller, and more naive. Not to mention that one kooky assertion that ALL male-female sex is rape. If that's not bonkers, I dunno what is.

It's sad, because I believe in female empowerment to the extent that being a feminine female or a masculine male is not attacked as something terrible. Others may have their own beliefs on that. I've got mine. And it's those parts of feminism that make me believe that not only is child love not compatible with feminist dictates, but especially the form that I identify with, the kind that exists between a hetero man and a biological girl. And I still believe we will be targeted.

I think all we're really witnessing is just a different side wielding power now as compared to back then. And if you really believe one side had all the fascism and the other side will wield their power benevolently, then I think you're going to find out fairly quickly whether that's actually true. I want to believe your optimism.

There are power hungry nutters on all sides, with no self-control, who will always overplay their hand the instant they get a taste of that power.
Add to that how the school system has been failing young people for many years now, who have absolutely no civics intelligence, no clue why censorship is bad even when it's only against the people you disagree with. All they've been getting taught is racism is everywhere and multiculturalism must exist, but only in the West. They haven't been educated about why this or that power in history failed or brought abject poverty or stifling tyranny upon itself, or how crafty individuals managed to do it, or the process they used for takeovers. They don't have a freakin clue about any of that anymore, which leaves them at the mercy of their passions of the moment. Whatever it takes to win, to get control, just do it.

There's also a lot of nihilists out there, and people who just hate everything and want it all to burn. That's not me. What I want to burn is a corrupt government with both sides forever doing whatever it takes to protect their own gravy train at the expense of not listening to the public. That's the real problem, to me anyway.

And now they all see the disaster (social, financial..) they've made of things, and now they believe extreme control over the public is the only way to keep that power. The reality is, the US and the West in general are frighteningly weak, and there are foreign state actors licking their chops so loud that those who actually stop sparring to listen for a moment can hear it louder than ever.

I'm typing along to a train of thought here, so some things may not seem to fit perfectly. I clearly am digesting a lot of events of the last year or few years as we all are, sorry.

I think you get it by your last statements.. it's not fun for us no matter who's got the power, as long as those in power still believe we have nothing good to contribute to kids or society.