I've been in a pretty dark place when it comes to the status of the American people, government, and its place in the world. At one point, I was an optimist. Someone who saw the flawed history of...
I've been in a pretty dark place when it comes to the status of the American people, government, and its place in the world.
At one point, I was an optimist. Someone who saw the flawed history of this country as lessons to be learned from, that guided who we are, where we came from, and on whose backs we trod to get here. We are a people of war profiteers before almost anything else, and it is one of the few consistent strains in our national legacy, from our time as a neutral power fighting for trade rights against the empires in Europe, to our time trying to start an empire of our own in Haiti, Mexico, Cuba, and South America, to the current day as we dominate the international order in large part thanks to our heavy investment in R&D, arms, and keeping at the forefront of military technology.
At the end of the day, though, I thought we were at our core decent people trying to do our best. Trust in our institutions has grown shakier, but the institutions themselves largely worked. Reforming those institutions would be tough work, tougher still to rebuild trust with people who had lost that trust in government, but it would be work that I was willing to help do.
Now, I've been pretty thoroughly burned. We have two one-party systems in this country. One party for people who value evidence, and one party for people who value vengeance on all those who wronged them. And increasingly, that second party's culture is trying to take over even the first. I try to take a long-look at these trends. These things throughout history have tended to ebb and flow. The Jim Crow laws abated eventually. McCarthyism lasted for only nearly a decade before he was thoroughly discredited. The various red scares throughout our past had only been used to discredit some political opponents, and only for certain periods before they went back into the background of the politics of the day.
The reason I don't think I am in a place to forgive this country this time isn't the unprecedented rejection of our institutions and values. It isn't unprecedented and it isn't likely to be permanent. The reason I struggle to forgive this country is because it will do it again, and I don't have enough heart to have it broken like that again. Not by these people.
So I'm in a place where I openly wonder whether the people in this country are worth my trying to help them. Whether this is a place that is worth my time and energy to contribute to. I recognize this is what assholes who disagree with me want, but I kind of don't care anymore. If they want this country, it's not going to be over my cold, dead body. It was always theirs to begin with. I just wanted a small bit of it for myself. Now I'm not so sure.
This opinion piece brings forth a lot of good points about what I think are real issues in our modern, online politics. The media, with varying degrees of integrity and success, has always been...
This opinion piece brings forth a lot of good points about what I think are real issues in our modern, online politics. The media, with varying degrees of integrity and success, has always been the average person's tool to ensure that we are informed and making informed choices. However, with our growing need of instance information, and various echo chambers, we are supporting the model that releases "first", and not "best" (whatever your personal definition is).
Fact-checking, the essence of journalism, no longer matters much, says Rosen, because it carries no consequence.
Democracy is more than just voting once every four years.
I've been in a pretty dark place when it comes to the status of the American people, government, and its place in the world.
At one point, I was an optimist. Someone who saw the flawed history of this country as lessons to be learned from, that guided who we are, where we came from, and on whose backs we trod to get here. We are a people of war profiteers before almost anything else, and it is one of the few consistent strains in our national legacy, from our time as a neutral power fighting for trade rights against the empires in Europe, to our time trying to start an empire of our own in Haiti, Mexico, Cuba, and South America, to the current day as we dominate the international order in large part thanks to our heavy investment in R&D, arms, and keeping at the forefront of military technology.
At the end of the day, though, I thought we were at our core decent people trying to do our best. Trust in our institutions has grown shakier, but the institutions themselves largely worked. Reforming those institutions would be tough work, tougher still to rebuild trust with people who had lost that trust in government, but it would be work that I was willing to help do.
Now, I've been pretty thoroughly burned. We have two one-party systems in this country. One party for people who value evidence, and one party for people who value vengeance on all those who wronged them. And increasingly, that second party's culture is trying to take over even the first. I try to take a long-look at these trends. These things throughout history have tended to ebb and flow. The Jim Crow laws abated eventually. McCarthyism lasted for only nearly a decade before he was thoroughly discredited. The various red scares throughout our past had only been used to discredit some political opponents, and only for certain periods before they went back into the background of the politics of the day.
The reason I don't think I am in a place to forgive this country this time isn't the unprecedented rejection of our institutions and values. It isn't unprecedented and it isn't likely to be permanent. The reason I struggle to forgive this country is because it will do it again, and I don't have enough heart to have it broken like that again. Not by these people.
So I'm in a place where I openly wonder whether the people in this country are worth my trying to help them. Whether this is a place that is worth my time and energy to contribute to. I recognize this is what assholes who disagree with me want, but I kind of don't care anymore. If they want this country, it's not going to be over my cold, dead body. It was always theirs to begin with. I just wanted a small bit of it for myself. Now I'm not so sure.
This opinion piece brings forth a lot of good points about what I think are real issues in our modern, online politics. The media, with varying degrees of integrity and success, has always been the average person's tool to ensure that we are informed and making informed choices. However, with our growing need of instance information, and various echo chambers, we are supporting the model that releases "first", and not "best" (whatever your personal definition is).
Democracy is more than just voting once every four years.