FIGHTING FOR THE FUTURE: Seattle middle and high school students take to the streets.

Comments

1
Don't forget Woody Guthrie also wrote a song Old Man Trump about his evil landlord, The Donald's father
2
Thank you, Stranger Staff, for keeping us sane during this bizarre moment in history. Stay focused on these issues. Keep speaking to the truth about this. Keep it in print. It helps keep us vigilant and engaged. We must. Fix. This.
3
Ugh, another "Stranger" screed.

Do you fancy yourselves to be Henry the V giving his St. Crispin's Day speech? Or maybe Mario Savio shouting as he's dragged off the Greek Theater's stage?

Did you intentionally reference a Philip novel in your subtitle, because it's about an alternate history where anti-Semite Charles Lindbergh beats FDR, just to seem like clever intellectuals? Have you no inkling of understanding that it's that kind of move that turned off Joe and Jane American from even considering how progressive values might benefit them these last several years?

How about, instead of a self-important locker room speech exhorting us to action, you publish a humble apology for all the ways you and similar publications approached the election wrong? Dan can start by apologizing for talking down to Jill Stein supporters in some of the rudest language I've ever seen in this publication. I didn't vote for her once, but even I got my hackles up at that alienating approach. And that's just left-on-left infighting! Imagine if you'd spent more time sympathetically reaching out to potential Trump voters, instead of sending reporters to his rallies to file hipster anthropological reports...
5
@4 How'd that attitude work out for us when November 8th rolled around?
6
@3: The anti-intellectualism in middle America needs to stop. Smart people don't need to quit being smart.
7
@4 "Fuck the lot of them." - So what's your solution? Civil war perhaps? Personally I think we can turn around a lot of people who will soon realize that they've been swindled (again) and their outllook isn't doing them any good. The "fuck 'em all" approach is indeed an option I guess but it's usually a lot bloodier and doesn't always work.
8
"We will do this from America's cities, because the cities are where most of us who voted against Trump reside."

Bullshit. That is how we got here. The line should be "First we take Manhattan, then we take Topeka". We already have the cities. Pull you head out of your ass. NOW.
9
@8: Someone needs to tell the liberal establishment media outlets that garnering another million or so votes in deep blue enclaves is not going to help them win national elections.

The popular vote doesn't matter. You may not like it, but you better get used to it.
10
What gives me hope is remembering that we've recently been in dire straits before -- in 2002 and 2004 -- and we managed to turn it around in 2006 and 2008.

Low turn out screwed us this year, so our number one goal has to be getting our family, friends, and allies to vote in 2018 and 2020.
11
@6 "Smart people don't need to quit being smart."

Nope, but you're not smart if you read what I wrote and thought, "He's saying we should start being dumb! Dumbity-Dumb Dumb! We should walk into walls, just like Trump voters do every day! (Have you seen the emergency room statistics? It's staggering!) We should wear headphones all the time that blast loud noises randomly, like in "Harrison Bergeron," so our thoughts don't get too high-falutin!"

"Anti-Intellectualism..." Give me a break. I'm as intellectual as they come. How many others here caught that (intentional or not) Philip Roth echo? Speaking of, I remember sitting on a bench in a park overlooking the Puget Sound soon after graduating from college, reading his first novel "Letting Go," while periodically tooting on a harmonica that I'd just bought at a pawn shop. Here' a quote from Wikipedia about the first section of that novel: "...this is the beginning of the [sic] several instances where they begin to imagine the life of the other and believe that they understand it completely based on very little actual evidence."

See how I seemed to detour aimlessly, but then -- like the whipsmart intellectual that I am! -- I thread that needle right backatcha and poke you in the eye!

To sum up, for those who condemn "anti-intellectualism" but are actually themselves dumb: It's not the CONTENT of the modern left's message (as in "The Stranger"'s in the run-up to the election), but the FORM and TONE with which it puts it out there. (And I didn't even end that sentence with "... puts it out to Middle America," because I don't think that kind of outreach happened at all -- It's all just a lefty room of mirrors, only we don't have a Bruce Lee to break it down).
13
Eli did a good job. The rest of the staffers slipped into hyperbole and torpedoed their own arguments.
14
Well, we certainly relish the prospect of seeing Donald pull Zillion$ of Federal funding away from the Sanctuary Shitties….
15
We get Folk Music but we didn't see Pot in there.
Is Pot part of The Resistance?

Pot and Folk Music will bring the Racist Fascists to their knees, for sure.

That, and blocking traffic in the cities.
Urban gridlock really teaches the hicks a lesson….
16
If you really wanted to do something about Racism instead of marching in the streets or baying at the moon or other meaningless public feel-good exhibitions you could hold your own schools accountable for the way they cruelly fail black students.

Physician, Heal Thyself….

17
This election has caused the left's mask to fall in ways never thought possible. You really are the most reactionary, sheltered, hysterical pussies that have ever walked the earth.

Just remember:
1. Denial and isolation
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance
18
Meanwhile, Eli and Dan have secretly perfected their Death City weapon….

"This city is now the ultimate power in the universe!" Eli squeaks.
" I suggest we use it."

"Cities have the power.
Unleash its full measure.
Now…." Darth Dan commands.
19
My favorite Bob Dylan song is the one about bake sales and car washes: "Darkness at the break of dawn, the cookies bakin' and the wash signs drawn..." Like the article, powerful and righteous stuff.

20
If Trump is literally Hitler -- like Danny-boy, Charles in Charge, and (Bern)Eli Sanders suggest -- maybe you would like some of that ol' 2nd Amendment protection right about now, huh?
22
Thank you, Stranger Staff, for another right spot on article.
Let's gut the electoral college, and take big money altogether out of politics.
I am just stumped by the reasons people have for supporting a xenophobic,
misogynist, narcissist bigot.
When these ill-informed voters find out they have been screwed yet again by the
GOP, it won't be my fault.
23
Millennials----the time is now to speak out and get active (I am in my 50's, have attended rallies, protests, attended City Hall meetings and other civic events).
Anyone 18+ can VOTE! Register now. The future depends on us--all of us.
24
dear auntie grizelda: The time to speak out has passed. The future is already here. Rallies and protests and meetings are futile. The ill-informed that stump you don't care. They have the power now. Nothing depends on you or us. A mouse that roars is still a mouse. And will be ignored.
25
Article brought to you by George Soros. Keeping the sheep divided and confused so he can profit off the resulting chaos. 'Stranger' has suddenly become a very apt name for this 'newspaper'.
26
My advice is don't be out there protesting the election of Trump. That was the work of the voters, and it's over and done. Stay vigilant, and protest when he actually does something egregious. Protest what he does, not what he says. Given developments so far, we won't have long to wait.
28
The Stranger doesn't even care enough to ban the racist deplorable trolls here. If they're not willing to stand up to this shit on their own site, seems hypocritical to give anyone else advice.
29
When the system is rigged against you, then what?

https://www.thenation.com/article/the-go…

30
We don't have to persuade the people who voted for trump to change their vote next election. Either they come to their senses or they don't, trump did not expand the republican electorate. We need to persuade the people who voted for Obama who sat this one out to vote. That is an important distinction that influences what we do going forward.
31
Such a hard choice...which of these gatherings is guaranteed to be seattle's absolute best WwwwAAAAHHHHHHHhhhhh FEST??? So many choices, so little time.
34
Man, I cannot believe how many smug, Breitbart style (gleeful in their assholism) assholes these articles brought out here in the comments. The anger and nastiness - no surprise, given who is President Elect.

Thank you, Stranger writers, for trying to prop us all up, though I'm always a bit annoyed that you assume only city dwellers vote liberal and have brains and hearts. Please, please remember, just once, that all of New England (save sometimes for New Hampshire) consistently votes blue, and other than Boston, this is a largely rural region. Please don't lump us in with backwoods Alabama.

As far as the election, I have to say I feel nothing but despair, horror, dread, and a shitty, dark fear. I still can't fucking believe it, actually. For anyone comparing this with the last most-hopeless election ie 2004, there ain't no comparison, I mean, come on. This election was a national emergency, and yet so fucking many of my fellow Americans, as usual, couldn't bother to go out and vote, or get their ID's in line despite how much press the 'voter ID' thing has gotten the past few years. This is what is meant by, as the saying goes, "In a democracy, the people usually get the goverment they deserve". Our inaction caused this. Certainly our extraordinary misogyny. Fear of 'the other', so easily drummed up. Never underestimate the laziness and so-easy-to-trick-and-distract and blatantly lie-to idiot electorate. It's hard to escape feelings of disgust over this. 1.5 million more votes doesn't mean shit, does it? We did this to ourselves. Maddening. Sickening. Tragic.

What is especially tragic is that, given how much Trump has egged on the Isis types, I genuinely think we all need to prepare for a major terrorist attack within the first year or two. Another 9/11 is surely on their agenda - it's going to happen. Such events have the added "benefit", from the perspective of the GOP/POTUS, of the sheep rallying around their Prez like never before as people did around W back in the day, and the resulting war that the majority will support.

I will do what I can - I will stand up and defend women, Planned Parenthood (to which I've been a contributor for years), visible minorities, gays, jews, Muslims, anyone who fucking needs it. I will and have called my senators. Underneath it all, however, I feel utterly defeated. I can't escape the sense of "Christ, enough - I give up, already. Fuck you, America. Just fuck you."

35
@34: Yeah, other than Boston, Springfield, New Haven, Hartford, Bridgeport, Burlington, Portland, Providence, Worcester, Manchester, Cambridge, Stamford, Lowell, Waterbury, Fall River, Amherst, Pawtucket, Brattleboro, Nashua, and all of their surrounding suburbs, New England is totally a rural area.
36
"It means we must now commit to defending basic things: Liberty. Equality. Community."

I'd add "private property".
Trump wants to take YOURS.
37
I'm sick. I live in Birmingham. I'm a 67 year old Democrat from New Jersey. How's that for culture shock! I fought for women's rights in the 60's and 70's and I've been involved with Planned Parenthood in the 27 years I've been down here. We got to keep fighting and get through to 2020 so we can get this fool out of office before he can destroy too much. I will fight to my last dying breath for issues I hold dear especially women's rights and climate change.

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