Very true. I was a freshmen in high school when the clusterfuck that was the W v Gore election. Which was basically the first election I kind of followed with the new interest of someone that would be able to vote the next time. And of course 9/11 and Iraq were very big moments to see happening. They were the points in my youth where picking a side kind of mattered. Seeing the massive shift from blind support (which hit lots of us) to the massive condemnations of what the results were. Seeing the very people that were so "USA USA #1!!!" tripping over themselves to send people to die, then turn into smug fucks about how stupid the Republicans are and getting photo-ops to be seen as "anti-war."

Then 2008 shit really hit hard. The system was beginning to show even more of us in my age range the grift it was. Seeing so many peoples' lives fucked up, and seeing how just getting gas with my part-time minimum wage jobs would take so much while in school (I am forever grateful and lucky that I have the family help I had even though my parents were working class). But even after the massive protests over the wars and the financial crash, the same assholes just let the ones that created and directly aided the rich fucks that made it happen were let off. We have so many people that get life or even the death penalty for so much less harm. But these rich fucks and their paid for politicians just don't even try anymore. And we are groomed to just give up after maybe some large marches and speeches. To not push farther with demands, and if we start to they do a full push to present only out of the way and per-approved "peaceful protests" as "valid" and "correct."

Every election since the 2000 elections has been presented as life and death. It is always "too important a cycle" to be "allowed" to voice support of third parties. Abortion was always on the line. Civil rights movements from the past had their guts removed and whitewashed to fit the narrative of liberalism and even super right of centre conservatives. And yet the liberals/centrists after gaslighting about how "important" the shit was, then immediately won't shut the fuck up about how "important" bipartisan shit is and why they aren't putting any fight to protect those same things they yelled at us about. So are the conservatives/Republicans fascists that WILL take away all our freedoms? Or are they "really nice people" that make bipartisanship so fucking "important?"

Now that abortion and the civil rights of LGBTQIA+ folks were not protected, AND we are seeing more and more kids in cages along with a fucking genocide. We are STILL being told that the Blue Team is somehow the "good guys" and that the Republicans are the ones that WILL do all those same fucking things...but worse. It is infuriating that they are still trying to push the voters to just STFU and go with it instead of doing what voters are demanding. They act like the election is next week or something without time to change course. We are already being called "Trump supporters" for speaking our minds when there is literally so much fucking time to win votes. They only know how to be the "victims" and fake concerns for media spots, and are furious it isn't just working. Fuck all of them!