Thread by @ElizabethleaVos

Opinion: The Death Of Hope And Why It Is Crucial For An American Awakening

disobedientmedia.com/2018/08/opinio…

"The death of hope can push us into a very dark place, but that darkness is the birth canal of real change."

"For some people, hope came in the form of a red hat, with stenciled letters embracing their foreheads promising to Make America Great Again. My hopes were pinned instead on #BernieSanders."

"My idealistic, naive trust was uniquely attached to the blue and white of the Bernie sticker I placed on the bumper of my car. Words can’t adequately describe the innocent hope I attached to those colors. "

"In September 2015, my week was made infinitely better when a fellow Bernie supporter left the above note anonymously on my windshield. For me, this was an example of a fellowship among those who supported Sanders: one based on positivity, inclusiveness and genuine hope."

"As a Sanders supporter, the dream didn’t die when he was cheated out of the Democratic nomination in the spring of 2016. It finally burned out only when Sanders refused to confront the rigging of the election by the DNC, and again when he endorsed the neo-Mccarthyist agenda..."

".... engineered to deflect from the election rigging that stole the nomination from him. This represented a betrayal of the millions of people who spent their food and rent money to raise more than $200 million in support of his campaign."

"Sanders didn’t stop at quietly allowing lies to circulate, he actively participated in perpetuating and endorsing them. His stance was not a simple betrayal of some abstract concept we label truth or justice."

"It represented a deep stab in the back of every person who donated to his cause, who believed in him and reflected that trust in their contribution and vote. It was a validation of the very corrupt forces Sanders spent his entire campaign railing against."

"His 180-degree turn was one that ran so deeply counter to the courage of the Sanders I supported in 2015 and early 2016, there was no possible way to reconcile the two. It was at this moment that the dream inspired by his campaign had to die, because it wasn’t based on reality."

"No matter how painful, this is the challenge facing all of us as we move forward – or refuse to – in a world that is continually lying to us and hooking into our emotions to do so."

"This is the case, whether in terms of @BernieSanders, Trump, #Qanon, @Ocasio2018, or anyone else who promises to buck the establishment while fully endorsing its harmful narratives."

https://twitter.com/Ocasio2018/status/1033538876370046977

"The focus on #Sanders in this article is entirely based on the fact that his campaign and his response to it being undermined by the DNC served as the impetus for this writer’s current understanding of the dangerous nature of misplaced hope."

"However, the basic premise is the same no matter who your savior is."

"Unfortunately, the more intensely we feel we cannot survive without the dreams we hold dearest, the more likely we are to refuse to let such hopes go when they fail to conform with reality as it is."

"The deeper the suffering we seek to hold at bay with misplaced hopes, the more cognitive dissonance is provoked when evidence challenges such dreams."

"The incomparable @caitoz has written eloquently about the way in which manipulators have harnessed our most cherished dreams in order to abuse us. As she points out, we must recognize that our ability to feel is viewed by the sociopathic and psychopathic among us as a weakness.

"As the plutocracy tightens its grip on the throat of the US public, demanding that people work themselves to death while barely able to avoid homelessness and hunger, justified misery will result in escalating desperation to find hope whether in an 8chan-persona (#Q), opioids.."

"Hope that things aren’t as bad as they seem. Hope that if we wait a little longer, the ‘storm will come‘ and the corrupt unelected power structure will be swept away. Hope that even for a short time we can escape reality."

"The deeper we sink into such unfathomable misery, the more desperate the public will be to believe in the promises of false saviors, no matter how obvious the sham is."

"This opinion is not a call for nihilism. It is intended to advocate that each of us realize our own power rather than handing it over to others. You the reader (yes I am referring specifically to you as a unique individual) are the only one that can change the world around you."

"This is the same exhortation I’ve expressed multiple times during the #Unity4J online vigils. You the reader are the ones who must act; you cannot merely watch a vigil, read an article, vote for a candidate... and hope that reality will change thanks to someone else’s action."

"Fully realizing your own power is the ultimate goal and outcome of letting go of hollow dreams."

"In summation: it is only when we let go of our heroes that we can begin to save ourselves."

"When we stop using false hopes to beat back the all-consuming darkness we sense around us, we are empowered to respond in a tangible way to the pain and suffering that exists. Only when we face reality as it is, is it possible for real change to start to unfold."

"Intentionally dousing a proverbial false light – no matter how reassuring – might seem ludicrous. Everything in our bodies screams at us that if we lose this source of comfort, we will be alone in the wilderness."

"However, it is only when we extinguish the flame that our eyes can adjust enough to see what is actually around us. Our sincere, dearly-held hopes and misplaced dreams figuratively blinded us to our real surroundings."

disobedientmedia.com/2018/08/opinio…

"Once we let go of the symbolic fire that we believed crucial to our survival, our adjusted vision enables us to become empowered as opposed to pacified. To find our own direction instead of interpreting the shadows on the wall thrown by the flame, to reference Plato’s cave..."

This incredible article by Chris Hedges helps to inform the context and impetus for many people seeking hope - on the left and right.

https://twitter.com/ChrisLynnHedges/status/1033926422459547649