We DUers are hopelessy out of the US mainstream - fringe even!

[UdoKier]

No, no punchline, it's just the truth.

Does that mean we're wrong? No - hell no, but for all intents and purposes we may as well be those Heaven's Gate freaks. We speak a language the US mainstream does not get.

It's called reason and logic.

No, to be mainstream, you need to be up on your pop culture. You need to know what the gang on "Friends" (or whatever the in show is now) did last episode. You need to be able to keep up a conversation about last night's football game (which was pretty much like every other football game) or the Olsen Twins' eating disorders without getting BORED OUT OF YOUR SKULL. You have to nod in admiration as friends tell you EVERY banal technical detail about the new Plasma TV they got with surround sound or the new Lincoln Navigator they got with the built in DVD system and individual audio zones (Great for keeping the kids entertained!) and how they are having the kitchen redone but they're just not sure whether to go with the Pergo flooring or go all out with the terra cotta.

And you've got to meet them at AppleOliveChiliGardenLobsterBee's and eat a "Bloomin' Onion" and listen to the fascinating tales of their experience on Atkins and how South Beach is just SO MUCH BETTER!



Oh yeah. We're out of the mainstream of America. The mainstream of America is Prozac-poppin', button-bustin', endless-sprawlin' bugeyed NUTS!


If only there were a mother ship to take THEM away...

[RandomKoolzip]

1. Elitist. n/t

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

2. thank goodness

nice rant :-)

[njdemocrat106]

10. I second that "nice rant"

"Mainstream", Republican Americans really do live in their own world, where the situation in Iraq is pretty much non-existant, and where the economy is all fine and dandy.

[tandem5]

3. funny thing is they are waiting to be taken away too nt

[Be Brave]

4. So mainstream America is The Lounge?

:)

[PowerToThePeople]

5. mainstream USA

is just ME ME ME. Of course progressives are out of it. They think us us us, in society as a whole...

[alittlelark]

6. So sad.

what happened to our country?

[Buddyblazon]

7. No....

thats social skills.

It's tough for me too at times. Moved from Denver to LA to be near more culture...and for some stupid reason...MOVED BACK! Luckily most of my friends are artists and work in concert production.

Even then though...when meeting new people...I have to really focus on feigning interest. But I know if I can be friendly, that in the future I can get them to listen to what I have to say.

My only problem is...I can't slowly give people my views. I usually blow my wad as soon as I open my pie-hole. Not so bad when dealing with fellow liberals. Lousy when dealing with moderates and cons.

[Armstead]

8. Nah, we're out of touch with about half the mainstream

I think the "center" or mainstream is what is defined as the default position by the media and dominant politicians.

Most people aren't as pasionate about politics and current events as people who post on political message boards or are otehrwise political junkies or issue advocates.

But that doesn't mean they don't care on a gut level. A lot of it is fatalism. The attitude is "There's nothing we can do about it, so just let it go." Like a lot of people don't really like sprawl. But they just don't connect with the notion that it doesn't have to be that way. So they enjoy the benefits of shopping choices and shut out their worries about the effects.

The conservatives do have passion. We may think it's misguided, but it is their form of passion. And they have not had contrary views presented or supported by a mainstream political party in a long time. That's the failure of the Democrats.

IMO, it's a matter of making being liberal (progressive) more of a default position. That requires more of those in power validating what people are concerned about, and make it clear that they are not alone.

[UdoKier]

11. And yet, there is a fundamental difference.

I was NOT politically active at all before the theft in 2000. In fact, until the late 90s, when I got into reading Zinn and Chomsky, The Grapes of Wrath, etc, I considered myself pretty moderate, and would have conceivably voted for a McCain type - or a Clinton type.

Even back then, I could not get into the minutiae of consumer products and pop culture like a lot of these people do.

It's amazing how fascinated many people are by things that are so utterly, utterly BORING.

[Armstead]

15. Well the trappings are not what is important

I know what you mean. Sometimes with people who get into talking about their new car or whatever, I zone out.

But I also have my own little fetishes. I've bored my friends extolling the virtues of my forst Palm Pilot and Mp3 PLayer. And when I start a project like painting the kitchen, I briefly become like a male Martha Stuart -- or that guiy on This Old House.

I also love pop culture -- or at least some of it.

The personal interests are different strokes. But most people do have a political side, no mattr how lazy or hidden it is.

The problem is the otehr side have been able to appeal to the lazy version of political positions -- making them default. But in the past, liberalism was just as mainstream and default for many people, and human nature hasn't changed.

It's just a matter of finding the right way to get through the clutter, so that it becomes as easy to be a lazy liberal as a lazy conservative.

[wabeewoman]

9. I figured that out

after the election. I had told my sister Kerry was going to win and the American people would recognize bush for the fool he was. She thought I was crazy(even tho she agreed) and that's when I realized I was so far from mainstream I didn't even know what mainstream was.

[kodi]

12. only a small, dedicated group of people has ever changed the world

.

[UdoKier]

13. Thank you for that.

That actually was very encouraging.

[PowerToThePeople]

14. wow

Kodi, I know a girl with that exact saying on her voice-mail message...
Where is it from?

[bliss_eternal]

16. I sometimes wonder what's happening to me

I've always been very into pop culture, but still found it in my soul to give time and energy to world events and issues that mattered to me. I'm now just so sick of it all. I didn't watch the last big awards show. I don't care who won. I couldn't care less about Brad Pitt, or the Olsens' or ANY of it.

I think it's all insane and I'm disgusted with people that know more about this crap than they do about what's going on with the govt.

[More Than A Feeling]

17. None of these things is bad, in and of themselves

Except the Olsen twins thing. I HATE celebrity worship that invades their private lives and does nothing but trash minds. But everything else is more or less innocent. Except when people do these things to the exclusion of caring about their actual lives.

[Clark2008]

18. Other than Atkins and a bloomin onion

I don't think I understood a word you said.

Isn't Friends an old show now?

I like football, but that's old in 15 minutes.

WTF is Pergo? Terra cotta is earth tone (know that from foreign languages)... South Beach?

[UdoKier]

21. SEE!?

Yes, Friends is old, but I don't know what the new "Friends" is.

Pergo is a Sweedish company that makes laminate flooring. Kind of like linoleum, but nice. They do very attractive wood-veneers, etc. Terra cotta tile is authentic mexican sun-baked clay tiles. They have a very earthy, rustic feel and can be laid plain, or with a glossy sealant over them.

South Beach is a less extreme Lo-Carb diet than Atkins - very popular.

[OneBlueSky]

19. "Never doubt that a small group of committed people . . .

can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead

[Bigmack]

20. STUPID!

We may be out of the mainstream, but the mainstream sure inclues a lot of dumbshits.

See the below DU site about one of the best Guest Editorials you will ever read about the "Stupid Factor".

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x98797

[Solly Mack]

28. That was great! Thank you!

summed it up nicely!

[Kenneth ken]

22. some of us more than others

even at DU, I'm a fringe person. It takes almost no effort to find attacks on vegetarians, PeTA, mass-transit, and/or anti-corporatism.

There's a conseiderable number of DUers who are dedicated consumers, just left-leaning in their politics. Pro-sports fans, gotta-have-the-newest-hip-music fans, follow-the-latest-celeb-story fans.

That's all fine with me; I don't come here to argue, just to read up on news, and maybe form tenuous ether-connections with other people who can teach me something I might find useful.

[hfojvt]

23. It sorta reminds me of the movie "Harvey"

The Jimmy Stewart character was going to get a shot to make him normal, and the cab driver sums it up: "After this he will be a perfectly normal human being, and you know what stinkers they are."

[Swamp Rat]

24. I'm way out...

... past the Oort Cloud, eluding an alien lizard battle cruiser.

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[KG]

26. yes, you got it straight.

you are a brain dead sheep.

typical republican. :eyes:

[Blue_In_AK]

27. I'll go with the terra cotta, I believe. n/t

[sweetheart]

29. Real people are not stereotypes

I've been considering slate flooring with underfloor heating. :-)

There is no "mainstream". If somebody pulled the electricity plug out
for a month, the whole concept of mainstream would just evapourate
with the electrons of propaganda juice stopped up at their source.
Its a delusion, these thoughts, and there will always be thoughts
in every person's head.

What we all share universally is the ability to listen, whether it is
used or no... and the unity of decent people listening is the heart of
america, whether the blathering propagandists realize it or not.