Consumerism in Politics

The following sentiment is heard from someone in our circles most every day:

When will they get rid of this horrid incompetent asshole?

Even aside from the civics naiveté, this represents the very worst of America at this moment.

Starting six months after we opened, lapsed regulars began to pipe up on Chowhound to complain about the poor posting quality. My suggestion was always the same: Post more! Make it better by contributing good stuff! Also: encourage the good posters, so their participation increases! The community is what you make of it! You do not play a passive role! But it was comical to observe their inability to see their own role in the problem - i.e. that they actually were the problem. By taking themselves out of the mix, they'd ceded to the idiots, and they blamed us for it! In their entitled consumerist minds, they were passively viewing a TV station, when they were actually program directors. So their reaction was entirely infantile: somebody fix this. Make everything better so I like it more!

We had an election. Most people didn't vote. Many who did opted for third party crackpots. And many Bernie people showered maximal scorn on Clinton long after her nomination was locked in, even fully recognizing who/what Donald Trump was. That election was where the problem happened. It was us. We had one task to do. Not to endlessly bitch on social media about the results, but to play an actual active role, and most of us blew it off or messed it up. And yet those same people flail at imaginary program directors, like the entitled American consumers they are, demanding everything be made better so they like it more, pronto.

How many of these people will vote in the 2018 midterms? Very, very few of them, that's who. But we'll continue to endure their loudmouthed pique and umbrage.