Beyond Thunderdome
Watching politics evolve (or devolve) over the past few decades has been an out of body experience. Of course, social media has been made a lot of this easier to see than before, but it isn’t the cause of any of this. The seeds have always been there.
Two things on social media brought this to a head this week for me. One was a church sign that said that faith trumps facts. I’m paraphrasing there, but that was the basic message. We’ve been in a fact free environment for quite awhile, but the difference is pretty clear. It’s not that we can’t agree on policy. That’s as old as time itself. It’s not even that we can’t agree on facts. That’s more recent, but it has been going on for awhile. It’s that we can’t even seem to discuss issues that most people would agree are real issues.
The state of Texas has been ground zero for this phenomenon longer than most of the country. We’ve passed looser gun laws seemingly every term. We’ve protected girls in bathrooms. We’ve banned transgender kids from playing sports. We’ve passed stiffer and stiffer abortion laws. It isn’t so much that these policies are wrong (which they are). It’s that they don’t have any impact on 99 percent of the people. Bad policy is bad policy. These policies are a waste of everyone’s time.
It is disheartening to not only lose a debate over a key issue, but to fail to have the issue addressed at all. Three years ago I was diagnosed with diabetes. Since then I’ve spent time with six different doctors to manage the impacts of that disease. I’m not sure if single payer really is better than a private/public mixture of insurance. I certainly think after dealing with my own stuff that I’d prefer single payer. I don’t mind opposition. I mind not even having the conversation.
The same is true for the infrastructure in the state. Is is better to have highways that stretch across 20 lanes or is it better to have a robust public transportation system that includes buses, commuter trains, light rail, and other options? Again, it isn’t that some have differing opinions. It is that we can’t seem to have the conversation.
Another couple of memes brought this home. One had someone question the CDC and asked why we don’t do our own research. Another seemed to indicate that progressives were somehow ushering in the beginning of fascism. We could be having a robust debate about how to properly implement the CDC’s recommendations. Instead, we have Earle doing a Google search and declaring himself smarter than the people that have studied disease and its spread patterns for their entire lives.
I’ve spent time here on education and matters of faith. It’s frustrating for some, but at least there are conversations. We can’t fix the problems of the 21st century without conversations. We can’t debate the environment, education, safety protocols, infrastructure, or anything else if we can’t even acknowledge that they are issues. When did this all happen because I don’t remember it always being this way?
Thanks for raising this, Nick! This country is in a sorry state.
And in your first sentence, did you mean “out-of-body experience”? That’d make more sense than “outer body experience.”
1I’m from not Texas. When the topic is, I must stand quietly off to the side. I seek the voice of other minds to my own advantage with useful thoughts, analogies, etc. A Search is your own education and explanation.
One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.
~ Carl Sagan
2Maybe we can’t think because religion blocks critical thinking?
And maybe people who think that’s not a causative factor can’t think?
And maybe “agreeing only to disagree” kills all the “conversations”?
Your first paragraph needs editing.
3“out of body…”
But you’re right: This is apparently a gift from social media. Time to break up and regulate all of it.
4It’s sad to be witnessing the demise of a once-great democracy. We had a pretty good run of 240 years. Getting steeper and steeper downhill since 2016.
5It may even go beyond belief vs facts.
Perhaps it’s opinion vs facts.
Opinion requires almost no study, no knowledge of the topic. A person puts little effort into forming their opinion, and deep down they know that, which is why they’ll do so little to change their opinion. They know it’s almost worthless, but it’s theirs and no ones gonna take it away from them.
Someone who researches a topic does so because they wish to learn more, the effects, complexities, and changes that can occur. In many cases that involvement helps them continue learning more, with a willingness to change their view when new information is discovered.
6It started with Newt Gingrich. He preached that the opposition, the Democrats, should be vilified at every opportunity. Not just opposed, but made to be seen as the enemy, even moreso than Russia, China, or aliens from outer space hellbent on eradicating all of humanity. He would now be considered a centrist moderate in the Republican Party.
7This first blow was the scrapping of the Fairness Doctrine at the FCC. This opened the door for single viewpoint networks. Enter Roger Ailes, backed by Rupert Murdoch, and Newt Gingrich/Tom Delay circa 1985. It’s been downhill ever since.
8Newt definitely started the slide down the hill where truth is irrelevant in the repugnantican party. Since 2015 and the rise of the trumpf cult, it’s been in a free fall. The next two elections will tell how far we will fall or if there’s a chance for change towards democracy. It’s going to take some real change and leadership in the Democratic Party. I’m concerned about that. Is someone going to step up soon?
9I read Sarah Palin is considering running for congress and mt greene is exploring running for president. How’s that for 2 people where truth doesn’t come out of their mouths, ever.
The Moment Lindsey Graham Caught Covid
10Edit: Manchin said he did not have a party, instead saying, “When you say party, there’s no parties, basically there’s gatherings we have on ‘Almost Heaven’ (houseboat)… so we know each other and talk to each other.”
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I want a new drug: Huey Lewis and the News.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PhqlB-uTX8
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Edit: (Pardon our snorts) Jayar Jackson and Wosny Lambre unpack the probabilities of what a party is or isn’t. video:
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#TheDamageReport #JohnIadarola #TheYoung
Turks
video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxa5lDDfqns
…these truths to be self-evident… No, really!
~ Spreadneck Heaven ~
~There’s a place for us (Somewhere a place for us)
lyrics:chew carefully.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlbJ-y3TxKY
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Edit: ’Councilwoman Lisa Clancy of the St. Louis County Council was breastfeeding her 8-week-old son while she virtually attended a meeting on Tuesday night as a series of unreasoning anti-maskers some call “spreadnecks”
Edit: “Pretty much, you see me moving my screen angle up and you just see the top of my head, that means I’m nursing.”
full article:Re-Edit
11https://www.thedailybeast.com/lisa-clancy-the-st-louis-mom-fighting-anti-maskers-raving-about-filthy-tyranny
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I heard a Walgreen’s clerk in Ashland WI complain that she didn’t know she would have to wear a mask after she was vaccinated. When I tried to explain the advantages of vaccination, her response was, “I wouldn’t have gotten the vaccine if I knew I would still have to wear a mask.”
That’s an East Texas level of stupidity.
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