[Awen Moonshine]

As a non-American this has been keeping even me awake with stress and anxiety last night. My other half hasn't been helping and actually set of an anxiety attack when he reacted to the news that Trump has won... :(

I guess we all knew that it was going to happen, I just really wish it hadn't... I'd rather have Obama come back and do even just an emergency term while some more suitable candidates were found as I don't see this ending well as is...

The results also make me worry about my small business as most of sales are to America at present. The Brexit crap has already caused massive upheaval for me as supplies for my store have been getting more expensive and harder to get hold of :(

I just hope that his posturing and temperamental nature don't lead the US into another war...

[Fulkth]

My husband stayed up until 2 in the morning because he couldn't sleep until he knew the results. He also drank a few glasses of wine to help him relax.

I never really liked Trump even before he ran for president because of the way he cheated on his wives and traded them in for newer, younger models.

He's also a pervert and a lecher. I said to my husband, If I had a daughter, I would not trust her to be in the same room as him.

[Coda]

I think what we're really looking at here is a large group of people getting tired of the namecalling that has been so prevalent and going for the guy who didn't let it stop him. People dissatisfied with the state of the world, desperate for change at any cost, and damn the consequences.

They voted for the candidate that said he was going to do something, instead of the one that was saying everything was fine.

[Awen Moonshine]

It sucks that they felt they had to vote that way, but surely they are just trading one evil for another in doing so, Coda? I honestly don't see Trump doing anything to help those that voted for him if it is something that won't help his own agendas...

I think this year has just been a giant fuck up of colossal proportions by all accounts and we need to do a hard reset...

[Coda]

We knew it was going to be picking the lesser of two evils from the moment the candidates were announced. It was a question about which evils could be tolerated and which evils were intolerable, and the country was pretty evenly split on that, but in the end, the scales tipped towards tolerating a guy that acts like a college jock over tolerating a woman that insults people that disagree with her.

[Buschbabe]

Social Media has been on fire today. Yes, Trump won, but I also agree on keeping quiet and seeing just what he will do.

[Tohopekaliga]

On the plus side, Florida passed legalizing medical marijuana and rejected power companies getting more money out of solar power users. :)

[Coda]

Several states passed their marijuana referenda, actually! That's good news; the stupid war on drugs is hurting more than it helps over something that really isn't as bad as the stuff that's already legal.

[Tohopekaliga]

Indeed! I think I read only one marijuana vote failed yesterday.

[Coda]

Also good about the solar. Solar is expensive enough to install already. It's not going to derive any ROI if the usage cost goes up. And if it's not economically feasible to install solar in the long term, alternative energy is going to suffer.

[Tohopekaliga]

Naturally, the ballot did not phrase it the way I phrased it. It said something like, "guarantee the rights of customers to install solar panels..." and made no mention at all of what the actual purpose of it was.

It got 50% of the vote. Luckily, amendments require 60%.

[Coda]

Well, naturally. That's what research is for, and why anti-intellectualism pisses me off so much.

[Potironette]

What's anti-intellectualism?

[Tohopekaliga]

It's the trend in politics to demonize educated positions. "It's bad because the intellectuals say it's good."

Basically pretending like scientific studies are, in fact, just political opinion pieces.

[Potironette]

Ohh, so that's why the ballot phrased it the way it did. I was reading over the thread and getting really confused at the end ^^;;

Google said something about mistrusting "intellectuals," but I didn't really get what that meant.

[Coda]

To the people who themselves are anti-intellectualist (though most don't actually call themselves that) their position is based on a fear that scientists and drug companies and politicians are trying to manipulate the public by using their position as "smart" people to claim authority and get their way. To them, their existing beliefs are "common sense" or "faith" and they don't like being made to feel stupid.

At the most extreme end of this viewpoint you get the Flat Earth Society. Less extreme (and therefore more sympathetic) includes several kinds of alternative medicine.