The Voices of Opposition Arise in The Strangest Places.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

I live in a very small, sonambulent town on the Delaware River in NJ. It is 1.3 square miles of mind-numbing quietude. The only action in this town, outside of working on a drinking problem at the choleric local bar(If you fell down in the place, they would have to chisel you off the floor and take you to the hospital for a series of inoculations...) that sits right on a tributary stream that runs through the town, or The American Legion, for cut-rate cirrhosis and not-so-witty bandinage. The only other thing to do does not start until April: Shad Season. Followed by Stripers, Smallmouths, Walleyes, catfish and whatever else. Right now, it is simply cold, and then there is the weather.

I do fish. I do not drink. So, I play Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. Far, far too much. Oh my god, way too much. If I didn't have that, I would sit, staring at a wall, drooling and soiling myself.

ET is an online war game, where one trundles out of a place called "spawn" with one's chosen weapon, and proceeds to messily kill a lot of folks. Or be killed. You die, then you spawn again. All wars should be fought like this. After all, it is only pixels.

The server where I play hosts an international selection of incredibly good players, people with a remarkable and non-portable talent to exploit every last advantage of the physics of the game and rack up huge scores. Said server also offers a little service called "Teamspeak" where one, through the use of a soundcard and a headset, can join in conversation with the other players. I leave it to psychologists to plumb the deep symbolisms of male bonding through pixelated death. I will instead lay a goomba on someone I am talking to.

Interestingly, most, but not all of the players are older and well-employed. Certainly not losers and out of work, so critics can stuff that argument up their noses.

Last night, in Teamspeak, one of the players, someone we will call "Smell" brought up the subject of the coronation. EEK!, thought I, here it comes: A War Clan celebration of all that is American and Anacephalic. I braced myself for what was to come and steeled myself to keep my goddamn bleeding-heart liberal yap shut. You pick your fights, their time and their place, you know.

Boy, I didn't know shit about these guys.

What followed was about 5 minutes of some of the most incredible rants about the follies of Bush, the follies of war, the follies of the young people buying into his bullshit and general pithy and incisive commentary on the state of the nation, war and politics. Here I was, listening to Bloodthirsty Virtual Deathmongers shred the events of yesterday and what is surely to come. They did as good a job of it as any I have heard. I couldn't believe what I was hearing and where I was hearing it. Their insights were clear, concise and incisive.

When we sit at our computers and commiserate amongst ourselves, here at DU, we sometime lose sight of the fact that there is a larger world out there that may just not hold the views we are being lead to believe they are, by the MSM. That they have not eaten them lotuses. That people do get it and that they do speak up. We better not forget that. Those are OUR people. Now, how do we marshal their energies into a cogent opposition for the next four years?

=PoW=, you guys surprised the pants off of me. Strange where you find kindred spirits.

[BlueEyedSon]

1. Two ideas:

1. Mention DU to them.

2. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=167&topic_id=1172&mesg_id=1172

[Jacobin]

2. I have a similar story from last week

I met a couple of 50ish guys from Dallas for a business dinner in a small city in Mississippi. Another guy from a small town in Louisiana and one from Atlanta joined us.

After business was discussed, someone brought up Bush/Iraq/Mess, and I held my breath, as you did, not wanting to inject my thoughts into the conversation, considering the demographics. I was getting ready to excuse myself for a walk, so I didn't blow a gasket trying to keep quiet.

The guy from Louisiana starts off predictably, giving Bush faint praise, testing the waters for a reaction. One of the guys from Dallas asks him: "Did you know that the U.S. supported the Taliban and Osama during the 1980's in Afghanistan against the USSR?" He says no, it gets quiet at the table and I'm still trying to keep a straight face. He then says, "Did you know that the bin Laden family is in business with the Bush Family and that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11?"

Well the floodgates opened...turns out both guys from Dallas were Vietnam vets and were extremely well informed of world events and the entire table spent the next hour excoriating the Chimp.

You never know. YOu just never know.

[coffeenap]

3. Cool--this is exactly why

if we can get the person-to-person communication going (as the repugs did) we can win back the power positions in this country.

[annabanana]

4. Truly our name is Legion!

The DU is an excellent place for us to find each other. This is why it is important NOT to keep our yaps shut when we assume we are in enemy territory.

[Jacobin]

5. -

:kick: