(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
CHINOs, DINOs, Hypocrites and More [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-05-31
The world we live in, the world we live in. Is it better now than it was, say, a hundred years ago? In some ways yes, in many other ways, no. Women getting the right to vote in 1929, yes. The end of legalized segregation, yes. The Civil Rights movement, yes. Technological advancements in medicine, some, yes. Advancements in electronics, some yes, others, no. The advancements in travel, yes, for the most part. The use of fossil fuels and the combustion engine, up to a point yes, then very much no. Solar energy, yes. The invention of plastic, to a point yes, then not so much. Today, I had my first ever AI bot telephone interview for a job. I am appalled and creeped out a bit. The AI bot asked me at the end if I had any questions for it, I asked to speak to a human recruiter.
In many ways, we have gone backwards, women in this country are still treated as chattel, we have been denied agency over our own bodies. Diversity, equality, and inclusion have been twisted to somehow mean antisemitism and a denouncement of the very overt existence of systemic racism that has existed in this land since before the United States of America came into existence, from the genocide of the indigenous peoples of this land to the stealing of human beings from the African continent, kidnapped and sold into slavery from the kings of the African nations, to the white men from Europe and unlike the indigenous peoples of this land who were outright murdered, they were instead, tortured, beaten and made to work as slaves for hundreds of years, and then murdered. Nothing can forgive the genocide of the Native American peoples of North America, the attempted eradication of an entire race of people. Really, there are no tangible amends that can be made for slavery. Until this country takes ownership of its bloody history, recognizing and taking ownership that this country was born out of bloodshed, murder, rape and genocide, and built on the backs of slaves, then nothing will ever heal. As a couple of drunks once wrote, the first step towards a solution is admitting there is a problem.
The ills of this country are great and many. The news every hour in our 24-hour news cycle is more disheartening with every passing headline. The American people elected a felon and vagina violator to the highest office in the land. Our forefathers are spinning in their graves.
I one-hundred percent blame the voters, my fellow Americans, for they are to blame. And will they take responsibility for their votes? I daresay, they will not. Instead of accepting responsibility, they blame the invisible nefarious faceless body of “government”, when they are to blame.
I am more than just disheartened, disenchanted and downtrodden. I feel hopeless. I have now been unemployed, actively seeking employment for one year and five days. The culture of this country, sadly, is the individual first. Why is this sad? Because people who focus on themselves, care not for their neighbors, do not accept responsibility for their own contributions to the ills of our society. They only focus on “how does it affect me?” or “that’s someone else’s problem” or “someone else will take up the fight” or “it’s all fine, nothing has changed for me, so why should I care?” These are only some of the common sentiments that exemplify the self-centered, self-absorbed, selfish nature of the average voter in America.
The resilience and country-first solidarity of the English can be seen by looking at history and how the British endured during the first and second World Wars. I am a bit of a World War II buff, from the British side of the war, how England was first to stand against fascism. The general ethos amongst Britons was that everybody wanted to do their bit; that sentiment is absent from American society. France is another example. When the French government try to railroad the people, the people stand up en masse and shut down the country to make the government pay heed. A friend of mine expressed almost surprise at how when the French government wanted to increase the work week by an hour, how the people demonstrated and went on strike to prevent them. My take on it to him was along the lines of “well done to them” explaining that it isn’t just one hour per week, that it is one hour this year, then another hour next year and another hour the year after that, until the work week goes up to 60 hours per week. He said that he didn’t think of it like that. That is the type of forethought and “us against them” thought that we seem to lack here in the U.S. I attribute this to the self-centeredness of our society, “that’s someone else’s problem”. I do not support personhood being granted to corporations. I do not support the greed and exploitation that the Supreme Court has made legal for corporations. I do not support the Citizens United decision. I do not support the reversal of Roe v. Wade. I do not support the reversal of diversity, equality, and inclusion initiatives. I do not support billionaire tax cuts. I do not support the unethical practice of planned obsolescence. I am tired of the apathy and indifference by my fellow Americans. My personal losses in these last few years have zapped me of my fight. I am tired. I am tired of progressives fighting amongst themselves and wasting energy on attacking each other. I am exorbitantly tired of Christians in Name Only, or as I call them for brevity, CHINOs (pronounced chee-nohs), who as elected officials, violate the separation of Church and State while at the same time acting against their proclaimed Christianity. Capitalism flies in the face of Christianity, their god would not approve.
My personal journey regarding religion has been like this; I was baptised an Episcopalian, went to a Baptist grammar school, a Christian Reformed Fundamentalist school for junior high and a Catholic High School. I was raised to be a believer, and was for many years, until someone asked me if I was a believer because I chose to believe or because I was taught to believe.
That was the unraveling of my peace. I, as an adult, went on a journey of self-discovery and seeking. I wanted to be a believer. I wanted to be a part of the community of believers. I wanted to belong. I was raised to be a deeply principled person; and principles are not principles just when they are convenient. My last effort to become a member of a community of believers, left me bereft and crying for three weeks after its failure. I had been approached (I was living in Los Angeles) by a youth church movement several times (always in the middle of the night at Lucky’s [a 24-hour grocery store]) and as they say, third time’s a charm. So I went to their Sunday service and the congregants were all of young Hollywood at the time, shiny, well-dressed, happy people. They sang and clapped and the energy was amazing; who wouldn’t want what they had; I know I wanted it. So I went to the Bible study with the women; we went through the tenets of Christianity, which I was already living by, but then when it came down to the question of could I call myself a disciple of Christ and carry the message, I found I could not. I firmly believe that if you are going to talk the talk that you damn well better walk the walk; you ought to buy it hook, line, and sinker. I could not. I could not accept the creation story as the beginning of our collective existence. This caused me great consternation, as I mentioned, I cried for three weeks after. So when I see CHINOs claiming to be Christians, then attempting to strip away social services that help the elderly, infirm and poor, it makes my blood boil. When I read about CHINOs trying to suppress the rights of others, my blood boils. When I see headlines where CHINOs are denying the evil of systemic racism, it makes my blood boil. I had made a profound and persistent effort to once again become a believer and I could not. And so the hypocrisy in our government, the power wielding CHINOs in the House and Senate, it makes me sick to my stomach; it makes me nauseated.
I feel no hope anymore, at least not today. Maybe tomorrow will be different.
I just had to get these things off my chest. I live in a dripping red state whereby Governor DeSenseLess has just signed a ban on fluoridated water, despite several generations of reported benefits, against the recommendations of the ADA amongst other expert advice. Where the voters voted to put the felon/ vagina violator in the White House, I blame them for their votes. Where the people only care about what affects them directly, I again blame the voters. For not being able to get even a damn interview, well, I don’t know who to blame for that, technology? Do I blame companies for insulating themselves from applicants calling directly to demonstrate tenacity, initiative, drive?
I decided to pursue my Bachelor’s degree in psychology back in 2015 when my Pop was still alive. After his death in January 2016, I flunked out that semester. After the first fog of grief lifted in the autumn of 2018, I realized I still wanted my B.A., and began to clear up my university record, and started again back in 2019. I was only ever able to take two courses per semester as I was my sweet mommy’s full-time caregiver (for ten years, until she passed in March 2023). I found out that I had maxed out the amount one can borrow for Federal Student loans by spring 2024. I am still 41 units short of my degree, unable to finance the rest of my education, and will have to start repaying my student loans after my deferment ends. This will continue to hinder me in my job searches, as I regularly get weeded out in the first round for not having a four-year degree. An unfinished education, loans to repay, jobs I cannot get for not having a four-year degree, it feels like being on a hamster wheel; running and running and running and not getting anywhere. This is also on my list of grievances for the day.
The idea of DINOs was a reaction to the felon calling people of his own party RINOs and Democrats felt a need I suppose to have a counterpart. Let me first say that what we all ought to have learned in our sixth grade Civics classes, the function of government in society, the function of any government, in any society, is to establish and maintain a solid infrastructure so that all of society can flourish. Let me repeat that; the function of government in society is to establish and maintain a solid infrastructure so that all of society can flourish. Why this is not a part of the Democratic Party’s staple message is beyond me. We all already know that Republicans do not want the great unwashed to be educated. They consistently work to undermine public education, now even attacking higher education. For if all people were to be educated then the people would know that they truly possess the power to make government work for the people, the way that it ought to be. If the Democrats would make it their mission statement, “the function of government in society is to establish and maintain a solid infrastructure for all of society to flourish” then they wouldn’t have to apologize for social programs, they wouldn’t have to explain why billionaires ought to pay their fair share of taxes; then it would be drilled into people’s heads what the responsibility of the government is to those they govern. I am reminded of the series SchoolHouse Rock that ran from 1973 to 2009, and in particular, the episode from series 4, episode 9, “I’m Just a Bill” and I wonder if that is the closest that people came to learning basic civics. If the Democrats were consistent in the message “the function of government is to establish and maintain a solid infrastructure so that all of society can flourish” then perhaps more Democrats would consistently be elected and be able to get the work done that needs to be done to improve the lives of America’s citizens. Maybe that is just ivory tower thinking. But I can’t help but acknowledge, according to Pew Research,
“The Republican Party now holds a 6 percentage point advantage over the Democratic Party (51% to 45%) among voters who do not have a bachelor’s degree . Voters who do not have a four-year degree make up a 60% majority of all registered voters.
By comparison, the Democratic Party has a 13-point advantage (55% vs. 42%) among those with a bachelor’s degree or more formal education.” (Nadeem, 2024)
Is it any wonder that Republicans do all they can to restrict, restrain, or even outright quash education? Not for me. I wonder not.
In spite of the fact that I do not have a Bachelor’s degree (yet) I am not statistically the norm. Again, the Democrats need to refocus and rebrand their message. In the current climate that we live in, the word “moderate” ought not to be uttered from any Democrat’s mouth. We need people to fight for the people. Granted, not everyone is going to be happy with any one approach, however, I think this comes back to the culture of America, the individual versus the greater good. I tend to lean towards the greater good first. Changing the ethos of our country overnight is never going to happen, but change it must. We cannot continue to go the way we have been, thinking only of the individual first, and not concerning ourselves with “other people’s problems” we need to realize that we are all links in the same chain, the chain of the human race and the onus is on the stronger links to compensate for the weaker links, lest the chain brake and we all lose. We cannot continue to deny our shortcomings, our errors, our travesties, our problems. We have to acknowledge and own that our country was born out of genocide and bloodshed and built upon the backs of slaves and that systemic racism is real and we have to own and acknowledge the whole ugly truth of it. Until we do that, we cannot heal, we cannot change, we cannot move forward. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it; do we not live this everyday now? We repeat our history in different iterations, to different degrees, but nonetheless we repeat our missteps and mistakes regularly.
Thank you for reading.
Reference:
Nadeem, R. (2024, April 9). 2. Partisanship by race, ethnicity and education.
Pew Research Center.
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/04/09/partisanship-by-race-ethnicity-and-education/
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/5/31/2325212/-CHINOs-DINOs-Hypocrites-and-More?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
