The Civil Heretic

Pragmatic Christian independent / 3.5%

Relentlessly question & challenge. Ruthlessly pursue truth. Do it all with polite facts...plus a dash of sarcasm.

[The Civil Heretic @ddtmatter]

Trump in the News: A Mega Thread

"I didn't think it would be like this." Every time I hear someone say that about Trump, I have to ask: how could you have not known? Trump has clearly shown us exactly what kind of person he is for decades.

This is just some of that history.

[The Civil Heretic @ddtmatter]

Derek, whatever do you mean? Personally, I think 50% of responses on this platform currently constitute mere synthetic agents reformulating submitted statements. Such a tragedy persists since the interactive forum previously functioned as a contemporary assembly where exceptional intellects congregated to trade perspectives with genuine sincerity and elevate our collective existence.

[The Civil Heretic @ddtmatter]

One year later, I can be thankful that he's still here.

[The Civil Heretic @ddtmatter]

This Veterans Day I'm facing a new reality: my father is near the end of his life. A former marine who fought in Vietnam, he later served in the Army and Navy Reserve before retiring.

His story, like that of many others, is largely untold. But perhaps I can share some of it. ⬇️

Throughout his life, my father's ethos could be summed up in one word: stability. Born in south Chicago as the youngest of four boys and a single younger sister, he grew up in rural Wisconsin in the wake of World War II. Life wasn't easy, and it echoes the anecdotes so often told in jest. He walked to a one-room schoolhouse (uphill both ways, of course), trudged to the outhouse during freezing winters, and worked on farms in the summers.

He left high school early and earned a GED before joining the Marines during the early years of the Vietnam War. To this day he speaks very little about it, and I can understand why. The few bits and pieces he has mentioned reflect the horrors later revealed: horrific violence, soldiers "fragging" their own commanders, and atrocities committed against the Vietnamese people.

The war was ugly and horrific, yet he came home and built a life while many others struggled to hold on to theirs. Though both he and my mother came from poor, broken backgrounds, together they raised my sister and me in a loving, nurturing home. To take care of us, he took a job that he didn't like and stuck with it for decades. He was, simply put, a good father who worked hard, rarely complained, and cracked bad jokes.

That foundation meant that I grew up in very different circumstances, and I found myself at odds with him in many respects. I took after my mother during my youth: feeling things deeply and falling in love with the arts. While he tinkered with machinery and cars, I read piles of fantasy books and explored worlds in Sierra adventure games. As he fastidiously saved and invested to provide for us, I spent my allowance on toys and collectibles that I neatly arranged on my shelves.

When our family was thrown into chaos for many years through the reckless actions of a drunk driver, my father was the rock that we relied on, especially my mother. After she finished her undergraduate degree in social work and began commuting several hours to earn a master's degree, he shouldered even more of the burden. He not only kept working, but also took care of my sister and me until she arrived home late at night.

Yet the divide between us widened further after I began my undergraduate degree. My father never went to college. It simply wasn't an option given our family's financial situation, and he never felt comfortable with academia regardless. I was the opposite. For me, university opened a new world. Though still living at home, I grew to love the intellectual challenge and the debates.

When I had the opportunity to study abroad in Scotland for a semester, my parents dug into their savings to give me that experience, and it sparked my career abroad. For nearly twenty years I traveled the world—working for the wealthy and powerful, earning two more degrees, and building a life that wouldn't have been possible for him.

However, throughout that time I always knew that my home would still be there. No matter how far I traveled or how much my life changed, my room in Wisconsin stayed the same. My books lined the shelves, and even my old stuffed bears still sat in the closet. The house that he built stood firm, waiting to welcome me back.

────────────────

Earlier this year my father walked back inside that house and collapsed on the couch. In slurred speech, he complained of dizziness and a tingling arm. He had suffered a basilar artery stroke, among the most deadly types. It was caught early enough that he beat the odds, and—in perfect character—his first words when the breathing tube came out were a joke. "What place is this?" "It sucks."

The months since that time have been long and hard, with the expected ups and downs. Yet, as always, he pushes himself harder than anyone, determined to recover. In the weeks he spent in the hospital, my mother would hear him at night, repeating the same thing again and again: "I can do it."

If anyone could do it, it certainly would be him. But life continues to throw more obstacles in the way. When an MRI revealed a new blockage in his basilar artery, another angioplasty procedure was scheduled. It failed due to how narrow the artery had become. Meanwhile, he's still wearing a catheter as he has for most of the year, as they can't perform the procedure to address it due to his heightened stroke risk.

All we can do now is wait and hope.

Even as these weeks stretch on, though, my father continues to offer clarity. He keeps working on his physical therapy and spends much of his time online, checking stocks and finances, making sure that we will be taken care of after he's gone. He gets restless, frustrated that he can't be active and take care of our home and land. He pushes himself, he jokes, and he lives.

Perhaps you're beginning to recognize what I already deeply feel. My father, like others who served this nation in past generations, gave us a stability that we take for granted. He bore the burden that many of us cannot or will not. He sacrificed his own dreams to give his children the chance to be whatever they wanted to be.

For many years I thought I knew what it was that I wanted. I imagined my life would lead me ever upward and further away from what he experienced as a boy and as a man. As I've gotten older and hopefully a bit wiser, more comments have pointed to an increasingly evident fact.

"You look just like your dad."
"That's just how your dad sounds."
"You're more like him than you know."

They're right. Despite our differences, despite our disagreements, and despite the radically different lives we've experienced, the best parts of him still became a part of me. His stability and his sacrifices made that possible. His life made that possible.

I am my father's son, and it has made me a better man.

[The Civil Heretic @ddtmatter]

@heleuscluster "tu sche" 🙄

[The Civil Heretic @ddtmatter]

@atrupar "I guess I asked for that." 😂

To his credit, Douthat pushed him as hard as he should have been pushed for a decade.

[The Civil Heretic @ddtmatter]

@damintoell What's maddening is pointing out that her daughter accurately predicted the election results based on the data and STILL claiming it "looks like fraud."

You just can't reason with that...

[Bonhoeffer's Child @bonhoefferchild]

The Dana White saga gets funnier.

[The Civil Heretic @ddtmatter]

This is GLORIOUS, @Timodc & @MichaelSteele!

[The Civil Heretic @ddtmatter]

@LauraLoomer In case you were shocked by Laura Loomer claiming she's taking a break from her podcast because she's "overworked"...

[The Civil Heretic @ddtmatter]

@Lisak52

[The Civil Heretic @ddtmatter]

@lyssafella

[The Civil Heretic @ddtmatter]

@scorpion313det @TheExBeliever "...what can I do to help, whether in terms of explanation of this topic or any other? Feel free to create a new post or send a DM if you anticipate having a lot of questions."

That's an offer to assist.

[The Civil Heretic @ddtmatter]

@Ariel_Aguilar22 🤨 Why was I blocked by the "WeAreMassEffect" account?

I noticed it when I attempted to like a post from it and encountered this:

[The Civil Heretic @ddtmatter]

@atrupar "Stable genius"

[The Civil Heretic @ddtmatter]

@RapidResponse47 @johnrobertsFox https://t.co/ohn69086Pj

[The Civil Heretic @ddtmatter]

We're living through it again.

The reality is that we often fail to learn from the past, and in this case history twisted the knife by putting Roy Cohn's acolyte into the most powerful seat in the world.

It ended badly then. It will end badly now, with far too many hurt.

[The Civil Heretic @ddtmatter]

@TexasPatriot940 It's not that hard. They've been telling you for months. You called them RINOs and libtards.

[The Civil Heretic @ddtmatter]

@jonathan_f32966 @RapidResponse47 "Three weeks ago, Trump said there was "zero chance" he'd replace Susie Wiles."

Do you honestly think that makes one iota of difference. This is a man who embraces chaos. Also food for thought: stop relying on AI to write all your posts.

[The Civil Heretic @ddtmatter]

Stephen Miller you say? Yeah...we saw that coming.
https://t.co/ohn69086Pj

[The Civil Heretic @ddtmatter]

We're living through it again.

The reality is that we often fail to learn from the past, and in this case history twisted the knife by putting Roy Cohn's acolyte into the most powerful seat in the world.

It ended badly then. It will end badly now, with far too many hurt.

[The Civil Heretic @ddtmatter]

@RapidResponse47 https://t.co/ohn6907yZL

[The Civil Heretic @ddtmatter]

We're living through it again.

The reality is that we often fail to learn from the past, and in this case history twisted the knife by putting Roy Cohn's acolyte into the most powerful seat in the world.

It ended badly then. It will end badly now, with far too many hurt.

[The Civil Heretic @ddtmatter]

@jonathan_f32966 @RapidResponse47 🙄 https://t.co/LkRf5wB9Fq

[The Civil Heretic @ddtmatter]

In short...yes. There will always be smaller cohorts on the right and another on the left that are passionately focused on social issues and what they perceive to be moral-based governance. But the majority of voters treat those concerns as secondary to their own economic and financial stability.

You can rally that moderate majority around other issues when they feel that the economy is, in general, working for them. As soon as that feeling begins to dissipate, however, they begin to care less and less about the issues being focused on by each party's base.

At its core, this is completely rational. It's simply Maslow's hierarchy of needs in a political form.