Fault Lines
We were able to complete one of our bucket list items this past week when the family and I took an Alaskan cruise and were gone nearly ten days total. There are a few things we all learned along the way. The first thing we learned is that relocating to avoid the current state of our politics would be more difficult than we imagined. The cost of living in British Columbia (Victoria) was a little out of our price range and probably that of most people. The same is likely true for Alaska.
We saw the impacts of climate change first hand. The ship was able to go further and faster than in past decades due to the erosion of glaciers and icebergs. We went to the Mendenhall Glacier where we saw the dramatic effects of global warming first hand. People were able to walk on that glacier just 20 years ago. Now, we could see it from a distance. Additionally, there were all kinds of markers on the trails to denote where the ice had been in years past.
Yet, this screed is not about any of this. This is stuff we already know and really hasn’t changed. When you share a boat with 3000 other people you learn a few sobering ideas about yourself and others. There are just some really not nice people in the world. They are rude. They are mean. They are petty and the very sad thing is that I’m describing people I know in addition to strangers. So, I have to provide a shout out to people in that industry. They have to deal with the worst of us when we are at our worst and they do it with a smile on their face.
There are real things that divide us. These real things are ultimately discounted when we frame the world into a left vs. right world. We have honest people and dishonest people. We have nice people and mean people. We have caring people and we have narcissists. We have humanitarians and we have grifters. The most sobering (because this hits so very close to home) thing is that we have snipers and we have fixers.
Snipers are people that would rather complain about a problem than actually do anything about it. Mind you we aren’t even talking politics right now. It could be something as simple as not having any dinner rolls or being out of water or tea. Snipers will just complain. Fixers will take steps to fix the problem. They will talk to wait staff to get more water or a refill on rolls. Their immediate focus is just on fixing the problem and moving on.
In this world, we are led to believe that the main fault line is between left and right. I learned something very valuable this week. Granted, this is something we all instinctively knew before. The main divide isn’t left vs. right. What makes MAGA so dangerous and so disheartening is that it has given people on the opposite side of every other divide cover to behave badly. More than left vs. right, they are the dishonest, they are the rude, they are the not nice, and they are the petty. MAGA just gave them a cover to be the self-actualized versions of themselves. Ultimately, the decent and considerate people of this world have to bound together against the indecent and inconsiderate people. We have to find a way to form coalitions on specific issues where we naturally agree. We have to ignore the fact that we might disagree on 100 other issues. We have to cobble those coalitions together on the fly to make our world a better place to live. The alternative is to watch it all melt away.
What you are seeing is devolution, and you are correct that it is much larger than the Republican Party, even though they set it in motion and have derived large factional gain from it.
1I will go back to finish reading this is a minute, but I’m sorry you didn’t tell us you were coming to Juneau. I live very close to the glacier and would have enjoyed meeting you and being your informal tour guide for the day.
2Nick, you and probably others in this joint may find it hard to believe this, but when talking sincerely about issues and concepts with folks I try to avoid the snark.
I’m not saying I always succeed.
And there’s always exceptions to the rule.
So I guess this is one of them exceptions.
“What makes MAGA so dangerous and disheartening is that it has given people on the opposite side of every divide cover to behave badly.”
So here goes.
Welcome to the WMDBS.
Nothing but love brother.
3In the meantime everyone can ramp up small things like making eye contact, offer a smile, and say good morning, good afternoon. Say please and thank you. Hold a door open for the person coming behind you. Diffuse an over emotional conversation by using phrases such as “it may be that…, it occurred to me that…” Anything to softening a conversation. This is a difficult time and everyone is way more stressed out than they realize. And remember to tell your spouse and your children thank you for small things. Everyone needs more positive recognition. This may be too “Pollyanna” but it will have a ripple effect.
4I’m sorry Lynne. I should have mentioned something. Juneau is a beautiful city. We enjoyed Skagway as well. I definitely see the appeal of living up there. A part of the hesitation is that I was describing people I know who were also on the trip. While they aren’t MAGA or GOP, they definitely fit some of those less positive groups I was listing. Of course others would say I do too sometimes.
5Question for P.P. What is WMDBS? The only two things that leap to mind are Waste Management Data Base System and
6World’s Most Dangerous Bible Study. I have some casual acquaintance with both.
I was lucky enough to go on several cruises with my wife years ago (and kids once- Disney). Luckily I didn’t experience what you described in some people on these cruises (it’s been over 20 years ago). The current climate of politics has made it almost normal to be obnoxious in public and social media. Was this guy on your cruise? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9qAFp4tDaHU&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
7Very close. World’s Most Dangerous Beauty Salon.
8The biggest problem the human race has is the giant mass of a$$ho**s. MAGA has told them that it’s good to be that way, and that it’s good for the nation for them to be what they are. It’s not, but they’re such a$$ho**s that they’ll never believe it.
9Yup. Mom was right about birds of a feather flocking together. Inasmuch as MAGAs do so, I have to recognize that folks unlike MAGAs do this sort of thiing as well and with a much more positive result for the planet. Thank goodness!
10I think we have been living in a consequence free zone for some time now. Clinton was called on having an affair with an intern, was impeached and the whole family had to get over that embarrassment. Trump flaunts having sex with any woman who will hold still long enough – and MAGAs don’t care. I heard a lecture given by the retired head of the Rice religion department. This was when Obama and McCain were facing off and he said we had never had a President who wasn’t a MEMBER of a Christian church. McCain never joined a church, Obama won – make what you want of that. But Trump – he never joined any church and I’m not sure he could spell church, yet people are crazy for him because he promotes no consequences.
11It’s basic identity politics. You cannot sway them because their opinion isn’t based on ideology (which is why left vs. right is NOT the main divide in this country). Their allegiance is much more personal. He hates who they hate. He’s an asshole. They are assholes. He says what they long to say. What’s entertaining is watching them contort themselves into knots to justify the allegiance. They develop memes with Trump in soldier gear. They somehow convince themselves that he is both a populist and a Christian. They make excuses for the same behavior they used to decry.
In short, to challenge Trump or ridicule Trump is to ridicule them. No one likes being ridiculed or to be made less than anyone else. It’s why so many people flock to Q. It makes them feel important. I don’t know the answer to this riddle. Somehow you have to find a way to separate them from that allegiance.
12The identity politics thing… anecdotal no doubt, I have a number of friends from my school days, as far back as 65 years now. I simply can’t imagine where they got their attitudes. But I have one in particular for whom identity politics is especially apparent. This person has had a rather tumultuous life, never really learned a trade or had a way to make a contemporary living. Married and divorced several times, at about 68 yo lives with a disabled person as a caretaker. Well, the point is that she needs to use various “social safety net” functions to stay alive, yet is an avid trumpet! Also, yet, can’t explain a single thing that attracts her to the dark side other than that her father was a dark sider, and her brother was a dark sider, so she’s a dark sider. She appears to think that it’s a club. It is in fact her only identity, of course, she carries a gun, etc. She’s fascinated with that ugly attitude thing that makes certain people so unpleasant to be around. Well, I’m sure you get the idea, that’s my rant, for what it’s worth!
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