Culture war burnout is very real. I blame social media for a lot of this: people get caught up in echo chambers when they have to take more extreme positions to curry favor with their side.
People of my generation often use the term “touching grass” to refer to simply turning off the screen and going outside. I spend a lot of time writing about politics on Substack. But even then, I often get burned out and worry about if people like my work or not, and feel pressured to write for an audience. I’ve learned in these situations, it’s best to take a break and touch grass.
And what you’ll find is that people in real life are not the caricatures you’ll meet online. It’s even possible to hang out with people you disagree with... and even have a good time with them. People are complex creatures. When you don’t have to worry about social media likes and retweets, suddenly you’ll feel more free to interact with people on the “other side”.
“It’s even possible to hang out with people you disagree with... and even have a good time with them.”
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I personally cannot have a good time with anyone who is rooting for the government. Sorry. Can’t do it.
I do not see, and have never seen, any humanity in people who are actually inspired by the idea of Joe Biden and his unintelligent, low-class, Marxist friends seizing my assets in order to reappropriate them in pursuit of jackass utopian schemes.
Nothing wrong with going to touch grass with normal decent humans who are *not* rooting for authoritarianism though.
I empathize with that feeling. I’m very anti-woke, but as a result of me being in grad school, I am forced to hang out with woke people. I don’t agree with them and they don’t agree with me politically. Some of them know that I run a blog here attacking wokeness and get personally offended by that.
But when we don’t talk about politics, we find that we do just fine. We talk about books, films, ancient history, sports, and other non-culture-war stuff.
People that spend every waking minute of their lives thinking about politics will not be about to separate the politics from the person. But if you make the effort to not talk about it, it is possible to be friends with someone who doesn’t share all your beliefs. It’s hard, but it’s possible.
Yes. I do know what you mean. And it’s very difficult in your particular situation.
I think we make a mistake by calling it “politics”. That minimizes it in a way that I think is a problem.
When I pay my taxes every three months it is not “politics”. They really just demand the money and I have to send it to them.
Now they have ventured off from just routine theft into literal Mengele-style experimentation on children, which makes the contrast even more profound. Never mind the millions of people who will starve and freeze to death over the next year because of their maniacal utopian energy grift.
I cannot abide them. For me, it would be like going out for drinks with a group of child molesters and just putting the child molestation aside.
There’s an Instagram account I follow called ‘Dictators Having Fun’. It’s just pictures of the worst people in history doing normal things and laughing with their friends. I find it informative.
I totally don’t care that they lack morals. Do whatever you want. What I hate is that they are so depraved that they lobby the government to force me to pay for their fantasies.
Yip we are living in very strange times and what drives me mad is they keep telling us we voted for this ..... that’s the bulls... our taxes are going to and if you ask “hang on a sec what’s this about the mutilation of kids” you branded a transphob or abort a full term pregnancy just change the wording to pro choice it’s so unnerving!!!
The problem is, the reason we have an upside down world is as Larry David famously said.....Even stupid people can vote!
One vote one person is insanely wrong, the Greeks were against it as well as the founding fathers who opined it would cause problems by turning elections into popularity contests, and sure enough the Dems have abused this process in spades, figuring out every loophole.
There are many myriad solutions, but right off the bat it would be best if certain groups didn't vote in lockstep, voting the same way consistently while not voting based upon issues.
Also, why in the world would we allow people with such little world experience, young voters, to have such an outsized influence on electing officials. A solution would be to have the voting age be significantly higher.
Others to blame are those who vote mainly on emotions, not reason.
It's possible that until we correct this issue we will often experience a topsy turvy upside down world that often times doesn't make sense.
I’ve tried something with an old friend, a retired liberal physician in my Bible study, who suggested we have “bridging our differences civilly” conversations. Fine with me, why not try? We proceeded comfortably the first few times by mostly sharing personal information, getting acquainted more deeply to establish a foundation for eventually turning to culture and politics. But our mutual comfort dissipated when we got to politics.
I wrote out two lists, one of 20 commentators and relatively obscure politicians on the left, and the other of 30 conservative academics, politicians, and commentators. My suspicion, which he confirmed, was that I could identify all of those on the left, whereas he could identify NONE of those on the right - not even Candace Owens, Thomas Sowell, Glenn Loury, or Winsome Sears. You see, every one of those 30 conservatives, well known to me but unknown to him, is black! He was astonished, and somewhat chagrined to learn how narrow and dishonest are his news sources (you know them: CNN, MSNBC, NPR, NYT, PBS, WaPo, etc.).
Then I gave him a range from which to choose of the number of unarmed black men shot by police in 2019: 1,764, 781, 159, 12. He chose 781; the official number is 12. Again, he was startled at learning the facts, which did not conform to the narrative pushed on him by “news” from the left.
I asked him, a physician, if he agrees that there are only two genders. He informed me that dozens of genders exist, depending on a person’s self-identification. Touching on communism, he thinks of it as strictly an economic theory and is ignorant of its murderous, subversive history. I suggested he read David Horowitz’s book, “Radical Son.” He had never heard of Horowitz.
We became uncomfortable at seeing what a chasm of political opinion separates us, and, at least in my case, at thinking that my esteemed friend’s left-informed opinions are too firmly entrenched to be unlearned. I fear for my country because of the legions of younger people who are being schooled in leftist propaganda.
My friend and I haven’t been in touch to resume our conversations. Maybe we’ll stick to the Bible’s safer terrain - although, even there....
I see this sort of delusion all the time, but where I disagree, perhaps, is your characterization of this person as "liberal" or these opinions as "left-informed". The Democratic Party is not liberal in any of the various ways the word is used in political science. Inaccurate perceptions of the statistics on police violence or psudeoscientific theories of gender are not liberal. These are viewpoints that people hold, but the liberals are nowhere near them. Neither is any of this "left wing" or "progressive".
Whatever you want to call it; wokeness, critical social justice, the successor ideology. All of this stuff is something else.
Please explain more about this. If not Left Wing or Progressive
what then?
I am sincerely asking, bc I have family members who are proud to identify as WOKE, Progressive Democrats. What they regurgitate ‘openly and with no thought of who might disagree’ sounds exactly like ‘the Squad’ and current administration.
No, I do not engage them any longer. They are my grand children & all educated, contributing members of society. Any disagreement with their ideals / opinions results in instant alienation. Makes me very sad!
Dennis Prager draws a useful distinction between liberals, with whom he disagrees but can respect, and leftists, who actively attempt to subvert our country’s traditions and values. “Progressives” are largely in the latter camp.
Sure. There's an entire collection of left-wing ideologies that only partially overlap. There's the idea that technological progress leads to social progress (one definition of progressivism). There's economic redistribution (another definition of progressivism). There's a focus on individualism and individual rights (liberalism). There's a general concern about people on the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum and a disdain for elites (the original definition of the left wing; the commoners of the French parliament). This is not an exhaustive list.
The stuff we're talking about is often nonsensical and in many cases in direct opposition to any sort of left ideology. The top-down imposition of COVID policies by a union of government and corporations is the polar opposite of any left wing or democratic point of view. People on the left, by definition, do not like Pfizer. They don't value credentials from Harvard. They don't place safety or comfort above liberty. The same for any number of other issues. The left, by definition, is very concerned with people in abandoned towns in Appalachia, and unconcerned with the feelings of Columbia University students who think that hair color is an identity. Progressives by definition believe that science will make racism better, and would never falsify or oppose genuine scientific inquiry. The list goes on.
That's why you see (to take a recent example), the Washington Post referring to Matt Taibbi as a "right wing journalist". He is not. He is on the left. His claim to fame is demystifying corruption in the financial industry, and you can bet most of those bankers were on the right. But WaPo have to differentiate themselves from him somehow.
Don't get me wrong, I am opposed to a lot of nonsense the poster above was talking about. I just don't want "the left" to be associated with it. Social justice ideology is left wing in the same way that the mold on a piece of bread is bread, i.e. it is not.
Your highly educated physician friend lacks intellectual curiosity. This is because he is certain that he already knows everything he needs to know, and anything he is unaware of is out of range because it’s “right-wing” and therefore irrelevant and spurious. He represents millions of Americans who see Joe Biden as a great and articulate leader with a heart of gold whose wise and generous policies have made our lives more prosperous, fair, and secure. There’s no way to bridge that reality gap. You live in two different paradigms.
Speaking as a highly educated physician myself, let's go a little easy on people. No one knows everything. It's impossible to even keep up with medical literature, let alone all the information that's available to us in the Information Age.
If you were born a decent while ago, you probably remember when liberals were for free speech, federal agencies and private corporations didn't agree on everything, and children were not used as political footballs. Things have changed, obviously, but if you're a doctor and you work hard and stay isolated due to COVID, you can easily be very out of touch.
I also don't agree that people can't change on these issues. The average Democrat voter had never heard of a transgender child ten years ago, or considered that there might be more than two genders. Who's to say what the future holds? Will they break out of this delusion or get crazier? I can imagine a future where the current racism inquisition is viewed much the same way we view the Red Scare today. People have been led into some bad ideas, but they can go elsewhere.
Well ... your generalities don’t really describe my friend, who suggested we converse to try bridging our political/cultural understandings in large part because he’s curious why I think as I do. He doesn’t think I am a “right-wing, spurious” thinker. He probably thinks I’m misguided, just as I think of him. We’re trying, respectfully, to understand each other. I think your characterization of him is a little too pat, lacking the nuance he deserves.
I probably agree with your positions on most issues, but one thing I don’t like is the tendency to pigeonhole people with labels, rather than treating them as nuanced individuals.
Yeah, it's hard. Just like you would likely not change your political views via conversation, he wouldn't either. Yet you both are still friends. And that's what it's about: being able to stay amicable based on shared agreements and not disagreements.
No, it was MY list of people on the left, to demonstrate that I knew who his influencers probably were, whereas he didn’t know any of the black conservatives I listed. Among those I knew about and listed were Joy Reid, Rachel Maddow, April Ryan, Charles Blow, Eric Swalwell, Maxine Waters, Lawrence O’Donnell, Nicole Wallace, Mika Brzezinski, Jennifer Rubin, Paul Krugman, Donna Brazile, Nikole Hannah-Jones, and Stacey Abrams.
The average person doesn't know what planet they are on much less anything about history and what is happening politically in the US and the sad part is they don't care. "Ignorance is bless?"
Our ignoramus population believes anything no matter how outrageous a lie it is.
I see things similarly to you, Sheluyang. What I find in interacting with the woke people I know personally (some of whom I love), is that they genuinely believe they are supporting something good and useful for humanity. I disagree with them. Vehemently. But to the extent anyone can judge another's motives, I see that their hearts are in the right place. The problem is that they trust the wrong people and organizations for information. They have misplaced faith in the integrity of our institutions. They believe a utopian vision and want it to be true so badly it keeps them from asking, what are to me, obvious questions. And it makes me angry at times as I watch society destabilize and harms accruing because so many people remain blind to the path we're on.
But the point is, staying in connection with those close to me who are supporting the very things I think are destroying our foundations is possible because I focus on the good and useful things they do—the true kindnesses they show, the sympathies and concerns that drive them. I don't see the use in rejecting people based on flattening labels that feed into narratives. One of the most harmful dynamics of our society, often seen in online mobbings, is the rejection of nuance. It's an impulse fostered by people who lean into simplistic storylines. If we want that to change we need to BE the change. We need to live the example of keeping our hearts and hearths open to others. We need to search out the good in one another, resist buying into the lies of polarizing lenses.
I understand that most of the leftists have good intentions. Calling it all “just politics” obscures the very real evil that the policies they support have unleashed on society. Politics is not just a game or a pastime. It is the way that we bring our worldviews into the real world. “Just politics” have real world consequences, and imposing one’s views on a population brings moral responsibility for the results.
As I taught my son when he was a child, it doesn’t matter if you didn’t mean to spill the milk. The milk is still on the floor. Everyone makes mistakes, but you can’t keep doubling down on evil, then excuse yourself by pointing to good intentions.
"Politics is not just a game or a pastime. It is the way that we bring our worldviews into the real world."
Totally agree. Not sure where you heard me say anything about "just politics"...? I'm not talking about excusing evil, either. I'm talking about embracing the very real and important complexity of being human, the fact that ALL of us are capable of blindness, of creating unintended harms. I fully believe in speaking out against woke ideology and its destructiveness, in finding ways to combat it. But I also think it's important that we don't stare into the abyss with such certainty of our own moral rightness and superior perspective that we find our gazes locked with the monster's, sucked into its ugliness.
I believe one of the hardest things to learn is how to establish and hold healthy boundaries—physically, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually—how to be true to ourselves in ways that involve neither codependency nor isolation. That allow for both honesty and connection. Part of being the solution, rather than a participant in the unraveling, is to leave space for the flawed humanity of others. Not to dismiss or excuse their harms, but to acknowledge that more good can result from pursuing paths to partnerships than from dwelling in the divide. Four years ago I wrote a piece on this basic challenge for my personal blog, which I republished when I created my Substack a couple years ago. You can read it here, if you're interested:
Leah, that was an excellent essay! And I really, really want to agree wholeheartedly, but I just cannot.
There is a fundamental choice to be made. How should men live together in society? I can never agree with someone whose philosophy at its base is coercion hiding behind good intentions. We will force you to do what WE know is right. This thinking results in terrible disaster every time it rears its ugly head. Today’s benevolent tyrants will be no different.
Contempt for someone who has different ideas and wants to follow a different drummer? No, only for those who arrogantly want to force everyone to comply with their supposed elevated concept of good, no matter the consequences.
I agree wholeheartedly with this approach to connection. I am of the Millennial generation and have gotten great joy in the time spent seeking the humanity in those of a completely different political worldview. I have also had some very progressive friends alter their beliefs as a result of these interactions so I know they’re worth my breath. All agreement aside, you are a beautiful writer and I could read your words for days.
Humans would be better off if we realized that everyone is a multifaceted being and not a caricature. The only way to change people's minds is if we can understand who they are as people.
I don't think it's just tribal, and i don't think it's "just politics". Modern politics is about the most fundamental values: does everyone deserve a voice, or only "the experts"? Is the individual subordinate to the state? Is the state empowered to require that I mask my children's faces?
These aren't "just political" questions. If we don't agree on the fundamental values, how can we be friends?
Exactly Zoya all the above are very naive and want to be the Angel of their neighborhood or the darling of their bookclub. It’s not working like that anymore, that has passed it’s sell by date. The mere fact that we listened to Dr Fauci tells us how far the human race has fallen. It’s now time for new leadership in fact a new world order not climate change, vaccine mandates or wokeness, rather a genuine leader who can rise above all this and take us forward. At the moment there is no such human!
Kevin, Although I supported Biden over Trump, I can emphasize with your anger about federal spending you dislike. I am 80 years old and fairly disabled. Due to a 2021 windfall, instead of the touted 8%+ increase in SS, I will now receive $200 Less in Social Security than before. We believe in helping the poor as we are able and we also believe it is important to stop Putin from taking over Ukraine & other neighboring countries. Unfortunately, gaining things a majority desire means painfully giving up something we value.
If I am fortunate enough to make it to 80 years I will be living in a dystopian hellscape because Social Security is a naked Ponzi scheme and, along with Medicare, by then it will have bankrupted the United States.
Obviously I’m happy you’re getting money. It’s nice for people to get money. But this system will result in extreme suffering for people younger than you.
Not your fault. Just enjoy it. Everyone younger than you will get screwed.
You are probably correct. To counter people’s belief that they are owed social security, it might help to know when Bismarck first began SS in Germany, the average age of death was 49yrs. Today’s long lifespans together with the unbelievably high cost of medical care near the end of life should be widely discussed in my opinion.
Yes and also it should be reserved just for the people who need it. But Paul Ryan, a genuinely decent guy, proposed means testing, where you stop giving benefits to rich people, and Democrats accused him of trying to kill the elderly. They ran commercials of him pushing an elderly woman off a cliff in a wheelchair.
The congressional baseball shooter was shooting, partly, because he believed Republicans like Paul Ryan were going to kill the elderly because that is what Democrats like Rachel Maddow told him.
True but Joe Manchin is firmly pushing current work as a requirement for the Child Tax Credit. If our different sides could work together as we did in the previous century, we could probably find some acceptable compromises on most things.
Sally, I’m 65 and a freshly minted American citizen. I came here from England 34 years ago but traveled and lived abroad extensively so getting my citizenship was a meandering path. When I arrived in America I was a Democrat, probably close to a socialist. But America and Americans showed me the folly of socialism and I became a conservative with a small c.
I don’t wish to be in any way disrespectful, but I cannot understand why at 80-years old you would vote for Joe Biden? His entire life has been a plagiarizing sham and in close to 50 years he’s accomplished little to nothing. In fact the only bill he authored was a disaster for minorities. I’d like to hear your reasoning if you have the inclination to do so. Thank you.
Re: hanging out with people you disagree with. That depends. I have friends I disagree with, but they would never cheer the government for murdering dissenters, they do not cheer when anyone's rights are violated, and they are willing to negotiate and argue in good faith. This is what separates an independent thinker from an apparatchik. I will be friendly with independent thinkers of all sorts, but apparatchiks are well advised to Stay Over There.
"And what you’ll find is that people in real life are not the caricatures you’ll meet online. It’s even possible to hang out with people you disagree with... and even have a good time with them. People are complex creatures."
Totally agree with you. Social media drives people to extreme views -- and they'll say things they would never actually say out loud to someone in real conversation.
Maybe it's just me, but I try to be very careful to say only what I believe is true. So I tend to believe that what people say reflects what they genuine think and believe.
I'm not comfortable with people who are willing to say things online that they would not say in a real conversation. Just because they are inhibited from saying it in a face-to-face conversation doesn't mean they don't think it.
I follow the rule that when people show you who they are, you should believe them.
I agree that "when people show you who they are, you should believe them". That being said I also believe that people are much more willing to be rude and/or downright disagreeable online since it feels anonymous. Perhaps they'd spout off after one too many drinks at a family gathering or at the bar --- but I doubt that some of them would say to a person's face what they say online. And this level of rancor feeds feelings of divisiveness and makes it easier to demonize people who hold opposing views.
Situations that lower inhibitions do not create feelings and opinions that the person did not already have. The saying "In Vino Veritas" is as true now--when the inhibition-lowerer is internet anonymity--as it ever was.
No amount of rancor or divisiveness can turn a human into a monster if the monster was not already lurking inside them.
I'd say most people have thoughts about other people that they wisely keep to themselves. That's the basics of good manners and etiquette -- and why most of us teach our children to hold their tongues if they can' say something nice. And learning to disagree without being disagreeable is also a mark of maturity and good judgement in my book.
Yes. The anonymity of social media, the lack of physical interaction, and the knowledge that everything said can be read by everyone and kept on the internet forever creates a very hostile environment for real discussion.
With all due respect, is it that tough to not look at social media? Why does everyone in your generation blame a completely controllable force for their anxiety? There is a strange psychosis at work here.
“Touching grass” sounds poetic. As a person belonging to an older generation, it is natural for me to think and feel beyond a party line. I don’t even belong to a party since the choice is limited to two uncreative and bigoted entities, both of which lost touch with reality and are not able to serve our country’s moving forward. And because I have lived in an authoritative state where people learned to resist the party line in order to survive as human beings.
But I do meet lots of people who are very much like caricatures in real life - I live in a progressive area, and many of my neighbors simply refuse to talk to you if you are “from the other side”. I find it very alarming how much people are susceptible to propaganda and easily believe nonsense that goes against common sense and their own experience and knowledge. Maybe disconnecting from social media is the solution, but how many are ready to cut the cord? How many of us are able to spend a summer without mobile connection in order to undergo a mental rebirth?
I live in a very conservative, rural area and I meet a fair number of caricatures myself. :-)
Best thing is to remember that everyone is a person with good qualities and that politics really doesn't impact much of "real life" .... family, community, etc. Disconnecting from social media is generally good for mental health. Have a good day.
Modern journalism has gone off the rails. It no longer serves its traditional function of reporting news. Instead it is devoted to manipulating readers so that they might accept a party line interpretation of events. This essay goes a long way to explaining what we have lost. Bravo!
“Journalism” today makes me sad. I was raised by an actual old school journalist. He absolutely agrees with the author that humans are far more interesting in reality than the ideas we hold about them from afar. He is bewildered about all the intersectionality lunacy today - he doesn’t see how anyone who has done any degree of meaningful actual investigative journalism could ever promote such nonsense.
My dad was the oldest of 6 kids (5 boys) from a poor family on the banks of the Mississippi. His parents were abusive alcoholics. He turned 18 as a Marine in combat trapped in the top of a mountain in Vietnam. He attended Catholic school for free because he grew up before SCOTUS outlawed direct funding of religious schools. Books and nuns saved his life.
After being offered a job by The New Times in his late 20’s he left the profession all together to go into the investing world. Bloomberg attempted to lure him out a few years later, but my dad was determined to give us, his family, a nice life. He didn’t think he could afford that on what journalists made in the late 70’s, and he didn’t think it was possible if he moved to crime ridden NYC (which was the growing requirement).
Society’s loss was my family’s gain. I had a wonderful childhood and received daily lessons from an actual journalist. While he is a far superior writer than me, he taught me to hold far more nuanced views of others than most other millennials. My dad trained us to push aside the narrative and hone in on outcomes. Even as I hit my 40th birthday this year I still have a child’s curiosity for the world - a priceless gift from a great dad. I hope he lives long enough to see a revival of true journalism. Story telling is older than human written history. To me it is the true first profession.
“My root objection to these fictions isn’t about politics or even ethics, purely; it’s one of aesthetics. Not only are these narratives untrue, they’re also uninspired and formulaic. They feel engineered with a takeaway in mind, assembled from a kit—with a moral, a villain, and a hero.”
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Yes, and then when you have the most amazing, unbelievable, and grotesque story of all time it disappears. Because this is fascism.
Imagine if Ron DeSantis had grabbed a shotgun to chase a black man, who was just out jogging, down the street. Imagine it.
John Fetterman absolutely 100% did that and he wasn’t ostracized. He is, in fact, heralded. I just saw some photos of this nasty, obese, skinhead simpleton with his communist wife and Christian Bale yucking it up on the set of a movie.
HE CHASED A RANDOM INNOCENT BLACK GUY DOWN THE STREET WITH A SHOTGUN. It is literally the most racist shit I have ever heard of.
But of course, it’s only racism when Republicans do it. If Oz was a Democrat and Fetterman was a Republican, mainstream journalists would be screaming about how Oz lost because Republicans hate Turkish Muslims.
Yes and then we are told to believe that Dr. Oz lost because “suburban women” preferred the slovenly, illiterate skinhead to the heart surgeon from Oprah.
Suburban women. Uh huh. That, of course, is a euphemism for the street hustlers and nightclub promoters who they hire to collect votes in the apartment buildings that have expanded out into “suburban” districts.
That’s one of the most bizarre narratives put out there to explain Fetterman’s victory. Dr. Oz literally hosted a show that was extremely popular with suburban women. At its peak, you could go to your local health supplements store and it’ll be all suburban women buying products based on what Dr. Oz said on TV.
How it would be "perceived if" is irrelevant. Your opinion on something that did not happen is irrelevant. You can toss that with the "whataboutism" that is consistently used. also.
Pro-tip: Next time, run a candidate for Senate who actually lives/has roots in the state. Tends to be pretty helpful.
Republicans blindly tow the party line and justify anything to do so, that's why it's hard to trust their intent. Call out the bullshit as it is more so in your own party and the republican party can be the GOP again.
When I was young and naive, I actually thought that Jounalists pursued the truth and reported their findings. How foolish of me. You can't really call them journalists. They are propagandists. If they like the story, they report it in glowing terms. If they don't like the story they either spike it or trash it.
The vast majority of these propagandists are left or right ideologues. These disgusting people are trying to color their stories in such a manner as to keep us the public in the dark in the land of the lies. I think only the gullible take these fabrications as the truth.
It has always been this way. The jingoistic, rightwing press got us into the Spanish American War.
At present the main propaganda sources are the major news outlets. We have to be skeptical enough and do the best we can to try and divine the truth. Sometimes that is next to impossible.
I'm sure you've seen the photo of Justin Trudeau in blackface. You know what they say--if not for the double standard, they would have no standards at all.
The Democratic Plantation is real. I wish black voters would wake up and realize that, and I wish the GOP would at least make a sincere attempt to start winning them onto the other side instead of ceding to the Dems as unwinnable. And I don't mean to start all sorts of programs which in reality are designed to keep them as an underclass. But talking louder about the insidious ways Democrats and their ideologies, policies and programs have been keeping them down, and how some conservative economic and ideologies can actually empower them to lift up their communities. It utterly fails logic how after 50 years since the Civil Rights movement and countless Democratic experiments of social programs supposedly to help blacks, when Biden "must elect an black woman" as VP, they strained to find an experienced and qualified candidates, and couldn't come up with more than a handful, with almost all of them entirely unknowns on the national level except for Kamala Harris, and that was only because she was recently part of a Congressional hearing and then ran during the primaries themselves. All the other ones were also not ready for prime time in the WH on their experience and credentials alone. If all those programs and policies were so helpful, how come they didn't even have a real pool of black women to choose from?
The Democrats are nothing more than exceptional bullshit artists.
I think a good start for that "sincere attempt" would be:
1. Stop telling black people they are on a "plantation" or describing them as an "underclass." Rude.
2. Stop acting like all black people are living in abject poverty, misery, have no successful lives, businesses, education, families, don't pay taxes, etc. and are all constantly nursing gunshot wounds.
3. Stop saying that any black person who gets a job got it because of "Affirmative Action."
4. Stop framing/describing black people as somnolent monkeys who need to "wake up" - when the GOP consistently puts up candidates that are very off-putting to black people, and many others, because of.....well, what those GOP candidates actually say, believe and do. They might actually be very wide awake and paying attention. Is that why "woke" is bad?
5. Stop acting like the Civil Rights movement was a net negative and everything has gotten worse since then. Segregation, even with an intact family, was NOT better.
6. Stop acting like white people don't benefit just as much, if not more, from The New Deal programs and "countless Democratic experiments of social programs" in America.
7. Stop calling everything "woke."
8. Stop acting like everyone was getting along until CRT (whatever that is) came along. Echoes the '60s trope of Civil Rights workers "stirring up and agitating all our good Niggras." Just because you have a black coworker, does not mean you are friends.
9. Stop revolving campaigns, fundraising, etc. around white racial grievance.
10. Understand that all the improvements in America were the result of protests, violence and bloodshed. America was forced, kicking and screaming ,every inch of the way by SoCIal jUSticE WaRRiORS (of all races, ethnicities, backgrounds) to become a better country. It did not happen because America is any more inherently decent or moral than anywhere else. So....stop taking credit for the work, and sacrificed lives, done/given by people you hate.
11. Stop telling people "equal opportunity, not equal results" (equal opportunity has never existed and never will) and that you're only poor, struggling, etc. because of some moral failing, laziness - don't ask for support - every man, woman, child for themselves, etc....then if/when they do become successful, tell them they should be "grateful" to America.
12. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD AND ALL THAT IS HOLY!!!....stop using/repeating that ONE partial, out-of-context quote, by Dr. King. It seems to be the only one/thing you know about him....honestly, if you actually read more of his his work, the more you'd probably dislike him.
12a. Stop bringing up Dr. King as an example of the "way things should be done" and the "right way" to protests, when he had a 69-70% disapproval rating, was one of the most hated men in America during his time, and was assassinated.
13. Understand that when other people gain rights....it does not mean yours have been taken away.
14. Understand that America was an apartheid state and only became a real, legitimate democracy in 1965. So...a little patience might be warranted.
15. If you can understand that past smoking might give you present lung cancer or past decisions you've made have an effect on your present - the same thing holds true with a country. History does not start over every 24 hours. So, a little patience might be warranted.
16. Stop claiming Jesus is your road dawg when you are actually completely antithetical to everything he said/taught.
17. Stop saying that anyone who disagrees with you "hates America" or is a Communist.
18. Black people (and all kinds of nonwhite ethnicities) have fought, shed blood, and died for America in EVERY single war this country has been in, along with white folks, from Day 1. So, maybe try approaching black folks as Americans and not as a burden, interlopers, "underclass," liability or some type of "problem" that hasn't been fixed yet that is taking YOUR country from YOU?
19. Stop acting like having statues, schools named, military bases named, state holidays, etc. to honor Confederate traitors to the U.S. isn't a little bit weird. No other country does that. Go ahead and keep them....but you know it's weird, right?
So....maybe an overall good, beginning start would be to approach African-Americans as people who have been here from Day 1 of colonization, on this land, side by side with white folks, LONG before the U.S. was even an official country, rather than as some problem that was unfortunately imported?
Nah....can't do that - cause everyone lost their f*cking collective shit over the "1619 Project," so that ain't gonna work.
Here is a micro example that might illustrate the macro. Trump's famous "My African-American." So, looks like you lost another one.
1. It was about Conservative outreach. Not everyone.
2. LOL!!!! That's what 95% of this board is, just without the numbers. EXPECIALLY lecturing blacks on what they should/shouldn't be upset about, instructing them on how they should/shouldn't respond, "wokeness,"etc.
3. Well that, and CONSTANTLY complaining about CRT and anti-white bias is everywhere. So you can miss me with ALL your gaslighting bullshit.
4. Have at it buttercup - just another day that ends in "Y" on this board.
HEY, EVERYONE -HERE'S THE GUY WHO SUPPORTED TRAVIS & GREGORY MCMICHAEL PRETENDING TO BE UPSET ABOUT FETTERMAN.
“I already AM a minority in America and I am the most openly hated and systematically oppressed minority that has ever existed: straight white male.” – Kevin Durant?, Dec. 11, 2022
Nobody supports them and that is, of course, the whole point about Fetterman.
What Fetterman did was even more racist than what the McMichaels did except without the tragic outcome.
John Fetterman saw an innocent black man out for a jog and he grabbed his shotgun to chase him because John Fetterman is a racist piece of shit. And Democrats LOVE him.
Democrats have essentially announced themselves as pro-lynching by electing Fetterman.
Ooops.....now I have to go find your comment about the shooting being a "tragedy for everyone involved," etc.
HEY EVERYONE - HERE'S KEVIN DURANT PRETENDING TO BE UPSET ABOUT A BLACK GUY BEING CHASED BY FETTERMAN AND PRETENDING TO BE OUTRAGED ABOUT HIM BEING A "RACIST PIECE OF SHIT."
“I already AM a minority in America and I am the most openly hated and systematically oppressed minority that has ever existed: straight white male.” – Kevin Durant?, Dec. 11, 2022
So, what you're saying is that anyone who chases a non-white person with a gun is racist? How "woke" of you.
HERE'S KEVIN DURANT EVERYONE - PRETENDING TO BE UPSET ABOUT RACISM AGAINST BLACK PEOPLE!
“I already AM a minority in America and I am the most openly hated and systematically oppressed minority that has ever existed: straight white male.” – Kevin Durant?, Dec. 11, 2022
What I am saying is that John Fetterman, specifically, is a racist piece of shit, who grabs his shotgun to chase black people when he sees them. Every single Democrat who supports him is fine with it.
It’s difficult to say if each individual Democrat who is fine with it is also a hardcore racist. They might just be making a calculation. But they are certainly fine with hardcore racism and don’t think it’s a problem.
I loved this - and remember, too, that diving down into the granular in order to reveal what is truly real and good and beautiful is precisely what God was doing in Christ, taking to himself the flesh and bones and blood of reality and all all the particulars of an every day life of hopes, fears, loss and loves and reredeeming all precisely through the singular. . . . Thank you for this piece. It gave me hope.
I was delighted to see Amanda Fortini’s name here. She is married to the inimitable Walter Kirn. What a talented couple. If you haven’t read his essay called, I think, On the Bullshit, get to it. He has a Substack, sadly rarely updated, probably more of a filing cabinet, called Unbound.
I am thrilled to learn that she is married to Walter Kirn, whose writing I also enjoy. I am a little angry with Substack for featuring him as a columnist. I finally had to cancel my subscription because he never wrote anything. Why does Substack make writers available who never post anything?
Yeah, it is called reality. Entertaining angels unaware, anyone? The world God created has been there all along for anyone who cared to notice. “I don’t want your sacrifices, I want your love. I don’t want your offerings, I want you to know me”. Simple and profound.
The butterfly story... that resonated. Thank you. I’ve had similar magical experiences where my over-logical mind stops dominating my life, pinching me into bitterness and frustration. That’s when I can feel my soul again. One time when starting a canoe trip in the boondocks a bird flew down and perched on my knee, staying there for a long time. It had no fear of people apparently, which is so unbirdlike. It seemed to be delivering a message for me personally, and it was amazing. In my better moments life can be like that.
Years ago, when I was in my mid 20's, I agreed to take two kittens who needed a home (shockingly, the person who had them said that she was going to "kill" them, if she couldn't find them a home). I grew up with dogs and never had any experience with cats (I had been thinking about getting a cat, though). When I came home, I set them up in the bedroom in my apartment (fed them--they were famished--and got their litter box set up), left the door open, and went to the living room. I then proceeded to sit on the sofa and start bawling... I was second guessing myself about taking on the responsibility of a pet and was wondering what I had gotten myself into, since I knew nothing about cats.
While sitting on the couch, I prayed to God, asking him for a "sign" that I was doing the right thing. A minute or so later, one of the kittens, Molly, came into the living room. She sat by my feet and reached up to me. I picked her up and put her on my lap. Shortly thereafter, the other kitten, Max, did likewise. As soon as these kittens were on my lap, cuddling and purring contentedly, there was no doubt in my mind that I had done the right thing. I knew they would be with me forever.
What is interesting is that for a good two weeks afterwards, they refused to come out of the bedroom (the door was open, so they could come and go, if they wanted to). They were too scared. Of course, they eventually came out, but the fact that they came out when I had asked for a sign, but then wouldn't do so again for another few weeks made me a believer: I got my sign!
Year's end is always a pensive time, and the end of 2022 is filled with anxieties for almost everyone.
My 84-year-old brother and I visit often now - while we still can - and on my last visit we spent hours talking about the decline of the social order. The passing of seemingly inconsequential amounts of time has changed everything. I remember bands of kids walking along the dirt road by our house, shouting out for recruits for the afternoon softball game. He's considerably older and remembers the long evenings of community "corn shuckin's," a dozen adults shucking each neighbor's crib of corn in turn by kerosene light while their many children played in the discarded husks. We both remember neighbors and relatives who regularly showed up for Sunday visits, invariably staying for Mother's sumptuous noon meal. Since almost nobody owned a telephone and cell phones were far in the future, drop-in visiting was the usual, not the exception. After a hard day's work in the hay, the older men's evening games of "setback," pranks played on newlywed wedding nights, local tales that made the rounds. Now solitary young addicts roam the valleys and hollers with backpacks, cooking methamphetamine as they walk to agitate the reagents.
These memories and the ones chronicled in this well-written essay are pleasant and self-indulgent and by themselves mean little. Their importance, though, is that they are one more data point illustrating the breakdown of Western culture - and that, of course, is why those who are attacking it and mean to bring it down must first destroy our history. I see in the news that the racist mayor of Richmond is destroying another monument and digging up the corpse beneath in another of his Woke attacks on the civilization that put him in office. Whatever the cost, these people must be resisted. And they must be stopped.
I cannot "yes" this enough. I have not paid much attention to the narratives, mostly because they've never tracked with my day to day life. I have neighbors from at least six different nationalities who are wonderful people, and we all want the same things. Health. Safety and security for our families. And we all care about each other's well being. The people I speak with at the grocery store and in restaurants are generally friendly, kind, and polite, and willingly offer grace for mistakes. The Us vs Them narrative being pushed in so many different ways is simply that, a narrative. It's not real life. Thank you for this essay, it reaffirms my belief that we can live outside the narratives that are constantly being forced down our throats.
“You might even start to notice that most stories are not tidy parables with morals.”
I have a 6 year old, I have a niece and nephew who are about 15, and I have a cousin I used to babysit that’s 23. One thing I noticed in observing small kids in 3 different decades is that cartoons/kid tv is not just funny for the sake of entertainment anymore. There’s no more Bugs Bunny or Tom and Jerry style shows. EVERY. SINGLE. SHOW. in the past 20 years or so is the same- there’s some crisis that needs to be fixed and a moral lesson to be learned. It’s no wonder that we’ve fallen down this hole. This culture is a product of our own creation and we started training our citizens at a very young age.
I see now why I have gravitated so fast to reading fiction, nonfiction ( a pile of books await) and of what Substack, and now THE FREE PRESS has to offer. The other day walking in Queens, NY I saw a squirrel and realized how they have disappeared. Oh, the simplicity and wonder of a squirrel, a red leaf from a tree in the Fall and a blade of grass. Enjoy!
“I tell my students to go out and report on events as they unfold, letting their stories arise from whatever they find”
One of the joys of having children is that when they’re very young, they have no preconceived notions. Watching the wonder in their eyes with each new experience, nurturing their curiosity and letting them be children is perhaps the most gratifying experience any human can have. It also gives hope for our future, but only if we protect them.
This is a wonderful essay and provides a beautiful start to the day. I have been reading Frederick Buechner who well writes about getting in touch with the story of our own lives, all of our strengths, incongruities and weaknesses. Our stories are well worth remembering and telling. The stories of our lives and others are what makes us human. I would say the ideologies that surrounds us dehumanizes us and separates us as well. As I recall Annie Dillard loved Buechner. He is little known but is well worth finding and reading. Thank you, Bari, for your work.
Perhaps life as it exists is too difficult for many people, so living in a fiction is their solution. As this wonderful little essay points out, real life is much more varied and interesting. My father always reminded us kids that we couldn't live in a comic book.
Well put. But I must admit that the reality is so disheartening that the only solace I find is in fiction. In good old-fashioned fiction. It helps me survive and keep sanity.
Agree, it is a wonderful backstop. If it weren't for lack of central heat and running water, I could happily reside in the eighteenth century. I even prefer the music.
Culture war burnout is very real. I blame social media for a lot of this: people get caught up in echo chambers when they have to take more extreme positions to curry favor with their side.
People of my generation often use the term “touching grass” to refer to simply turning off the screen and going outside. I spend a lot of time writing about politics on Substack. But even then, I often get burned out and worry about if people like my work or not, and feel pressured to write for an audience. I’ve learned in these situations, it’s best to take a break and touch grass.
And what you’ll find is that people in real life are not the caricatures you’ll meet online. It’s even possible to hang out with people you disagree with... and even have a good time with them. People are complex creatures. When you don’t have to worry about social media likes and retweets, suddenly you’ll feel more free to interact with people on the “other side”.
“It’s even possible to hang out with people you disagree with... and even have a good time with them.”
————————————————-
I personally cannot have a good time with anyone who is rooting for the government. Sorry. Can’t do it.
I do not see, and have never seen, any humanity in people who are actually inspired by the idea of Joe Biden and his unintelligent, low-class, Marxist friends seizing my assets in order to reappropriate them in pursuit of jackass utopian schemes.
Nothing wrong with going to touch grass with normal decent humans who are *not* rooting for authoritarianism though.
I empathize with that feeling. I’m very anti-woke, but as a result of me being in grad school, I am forced to hang out with woke people. I don’t agree with them and they don’t agree with me politically. Some of them know that I run a blog here attacking wokeness and get personally offended by that.
But when we don’t talk about politics, we find that we do just fine. We talk about books, films, ancient history, sports, and other non-culture-war stuff.
People that spend every waking minute of their lives thinking about politics will not be about to separate the politics from the person. But if you make the effort to not talk about it, it is possible to be friends with someone who doesn’t share all your beliefs. It’s hard, but it’s possible.
Yes. I do know what you mean. And it’s very difficult in your particular situation.
I think we make a mistake by calling it “politics”. That minimizes it in a way that I think is a problem.
When I pay my taxes every three months it is not “politics”. They really just demand the money and I have to send it to them.
Now they have ventured off from just routine theft into literal Mengele-style experimentation on children, which makes the contrast even more profound. Never mind the millions of people who will starve and freeze to death over the next year because of their maniacal utopian energy grift.
I cannot abide them. For me, it would be like going out for drinks with a group of child molesters and just putting the child molestation aside.
There’s an Instagram account I follow called ‘Dictators Having Fun’. It’s just pictures of the worst people in history doing normal things and laughing with their friends. I find it informative.
"Mengele-style experimentation on children" What an excellent analogy.
I do understand how you feel. It is difficult to abide the Left, Woke (so often hateful) people who seem to have no moral compass or mental filters.
I totally don’t care that they lack morals. Do whatever you want. What I hate is that they are so depraved that they lobby the government to force me to pay for their fantasies.
Yip we are living in very strange times and what drives me mad is they keep telling us we voted for this ..... that’s the bulls... our taxes are going to and if you ask “hang on a sec what’s this about the mutilation of kids” you branded a transphob or abort a full term pregnancy just change the wording to pro choice it’s so unnerving!!!
The problem is, the reason we have an upside down world is as Larry David famously said.....Even stupid people can vote!
One vote one person is insanely wrong, the Greeks were against it as well as the founding fathers who opined it would cause problems by turning elections into popularity contests, and sure enough the Dems have abused this process in spades, figuring out every loophole.
There are many myriad solutions, but right off the bat it would be best if certain groups didn't vote in lockstep, voting the same way consistently while not voting based upon issues.
Also, why in the world would we allow people with such little world experience, young voters, to have such an outsized influence on electing officials. A solution would be to have the voting age be significantly higher.
Others to blame are those who vote mainly on emotions, not reason.
It's possible that until we correct this issue we will often experience a topsy turvy upside down world that often times doesn't make sense.
Gosh Kevin this post of yours was really brilliant! Thank you!!
I’ve tried something with an old friend, a retired liberal physician in my Bible study, who suggested we have “bridging our differences civilly” conversations. Fine with me, why not try? We proceeded comfortably the first few times by mostly sharing personal information, getting acquainted more deeply to establish a foundation for eventually turning to culture and politics. But our mutual comfort dissipated when we got to politics.
I wrote out two lists, one of 20 commentators and relatively obscure politicians on the left, and the other of 30 conservative academics, politicians, and commentators. My suspicion, which he confirmed, was that I could identify all of those on the left, whereas he could identify NONE of those on the right - not even Candace Owens, Thomas Sowell, Glenn Loury, or Winsome Sears. You see, every one of those 30 conservatives, well known to me but unknown to him, is black! He was astonished, and somewhat chagrined to learn how narrow and dishonest are his news sources (you know them: CNN, MSNBC, NPR, NYT, PBS, WaPo, etc.).
Then I gave him a range from which to choose of the number of unarmed black men shot by police in 2019: 1,764, 781, 159, 12. He chose 781; the official number is 12. Again, he was startled at learning the facts, which did not conform to the narrative pushed on him by “news” from the left.
I asked him, a physician, if he agrees that there are only two genders. He informed me that dozens of genders exist, depending on a person’s self-identification. Touching on communism, he thinks of it as strictly an economic theory and is ignorant of its murderous, subversive history. I suggested he read David Horowitz’s book, “Radical Son.” He had never heard of Horowitz.
We became uncomfortable at seeing what a chasm of political opinion separates us, and, at least in my case, at thinking that my esteemed friend’s left-informed opinions are too firmly entrenched to be unlearned. I fear for my country because of the legions of younger people who are being schooled in leftist propaganda.
My friend and I haven’t been in touch to resume our conversations. Maybe we’ll stick to the Bible’s safer terrain - although, even there....
I see this sort of delusion all the time, but where I disagree, perhaps, is your characterization of this person as "liberal" or these opinions as "left-informed". The Democratic Party is not liberal in any of the various ways the word is used in political science. Inaccurate perceptions of the statistics on police violence or psudeoscientific theories of gender are not liberal. These are viewpoints that people hold, but the liberals are nowhere near them. Neither is any of this "left wing" or "progressive".
Whatever you want to call it; wokeness, critical social justice, the successor ideology. All of this stuff is something else.
Please explain more about this. If not Left Wing or Progressive
what then?
I am sincerely asking, bc I have family members who are proud to identify as WOKE, Progressive Democrats. What they regurgitate ‘openly and with no thought of who might disagree’ sounds exactly like ‘the Squad’ and current administration.
No, I do not engage them any longer. They are my grand children & all educated, contributing members of society. Any disagreement with their ideals / opinions results in instant alienation. Makes me very sad!
Dennis Prager draws a useful distinction between liberals, with whom he disagrees but can respect, and leftists, who actively attempt to subvert our country’s traditions and values. “Progressives” are largely in the latter camp.
How dreadful Honey not your grandchildren but a system that has hijacked our young beautiful minds I’m lost for words after reading your post 😢😢
Sure. There's an entire collection of left-wing ideologies that only partially overlap. There's the idea that technological progress leads to social progress (one definition of progressivism). There's economic redistribution (another definition of progressivism). There's a focus on individualism and individual rights (liberalism). There's a general concern about people on the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum and a disdain for elites (the original definition of the left wing; the commoners of the French parliament). This is not an exhaustive list.
The stuff we're talking about is often nonsensical and in many cases in direct opposition to any sort of left ideology. The top-down imposition of COVID policies by a union of government and corporations is the polar opposite of any left wing or democratic point of view. People on the left, by definition, do not like Pfizer. They don't value credentials from Harvard. They don't place safety or comfort above liberty. The same for any number of other issues. The left, by definition, is very concerned with people in abandoned towns in Appalachia, and unconcerned with the feelings of Columbia University students who think that hair color is an identity. Progressives by definition believe that science will make racism better, and would never falsify or oppose genuine scientific inquiry. The list goes on.
That's why you see (to take a recent example), the Washington Post referring to Matt Taibbi as a "right wing journalist". He is not. He is on the left. His claim to fame is demystifying corruption in the financial industry, and you can bet most of those bankers were on the right. But WaPo have to differentiate themselves from him somehow.
Don't get me wrong, I am opposed to a lot of nonsense the poster above was talking about. I just don't want "the left" to be associated with it. Social justice ideology is left wing in the same way that the mold on a piece of bread is bread, i.e. it is not.
Your highly educated physician friend lacks intellectual curiosity. This is because he is certain that he already knows everything he needs to know, and anything he is unaware of is out of range because it’s “right-wing” and therefore irrelevant and spurious. He represents millions of Americans who see Joe Biden as a great and articulate leader with a heart of gold whose wise and generous policies have made our lives more prosperous, fair, and secure. There’s no way to bridge that reality gap. You live in two different paradigms.
Speaking as a highly educated physician myself, let's go a little easy on people. No one knows everything. It's impossible to even keep up with medical literature, let alone all the information that's available to us in the Information Age.
If you were born a decent while ago, you probably remember when liberals were for free speech, federal agencies and private corporations didn't agree on everything, and children were not used as political footballs. Things have changed, obviously, but if you're a doctor and you work hard and stay isolated due to COVID, you can easily be very out of touch.
I also don't agree that people can't change on these issues. The average Democrat voter had never heard of a transgender child ten years ago, or considered that there might be more than two genders. Who's to say what the future holds? Will they break out of this delusion or get crazier? I can imagine a future where the current racism inquisition is viewed much the same way we view the Red Scare today. People have been led into some bad ideas, but they can go elsewhere.
Well ... your generalities don’t really describe my friend, who suggested we converse to try bridging our political/cultural understandings in large part because he’s curious why I think as I do. He doesn’t think I am a “right-wing, spurious” thinker. He probably thinks I’m misguided, just as I think of him. We’re trying, respectfully, to understand each other. I think your characterization of him is a little too pat, lacking the nuance he deserves.
I probably agree with your positions on most issues, but one thing I don’t like is the tendency to pigeonhole people with labels, rather than treating them as nuanced individuals.
Yeah, it's hard. Just like you would likely not change your political views via conversation, he wouldn't either. Yet you both are still friends. And that's what it's about: being able to stay amicable based on shared agreements and not disagreements.
I’m curious as to his list on the left which names were there?
No, it was MY list of people on the left, to demonstrate that I knew who his influencers probably were, whereas he didn’t know any of the black conservatives I listed. Among those I knew about and listed were Joy Reid, Rachel Maddow, April Ryan, Charles Blow, Eric Swalwell, Maxine Waters, Lawrence O’Donnell, Nicole Wallace, Mika Brzezinski, Jennifer Rubin, Paul Krugman, Donna Brazile, Nikole Hannah-Jones, and Stacey Abrams.
The average person doesn't know what planet they are on much less anything about history and what is happening politically in the US and the sad part is they don't care. "Ignorance is bless?"
Our ignoramus population believes anything no matter how outrageous a lie it is.
I see things similarly to you, Sheluyang. What I find in interacting with the woke people I know personally (some of whom I love), is that they genuinely believe they are supporting something good and useful for humanity. I disagree with them. Vehemently. But to the extent anyone can judge another's motives, I see that their hearts are in the right place. The problem is that they trust the wrong people and organizations for information. They have misplaced faith in the integrity of our institutions. They believe a utopian vision and want it to be true so badly it keeps them from asking, what are to me, obvious questions. And it makes me angry at times as I watch society destabilize and harms accruing because so many people remain blind to the path we're on.
But the point is, staying in connection with those close to me who are supporting the very things I think are destroying our foundations is possible because I focus on the good and useful things they do—the true kindnesses they show, the sympathies and concerns that drive them. I don't see the use in rejecting people based on flattening labels that feed into narratives. One of the most harmful dynamics of our society, often seen in online mobbings, is the rejection of nuance. It's an impulse fostered by people who lean into simplistic storylines. If we want that to change we need to BE the change. We need to live the example of keeping our hearts and hearths open to others. We need to search out the good in one another, resist buying into the lies of polarizing lenses.
I understand that most of the leftists have good intentions. Calling it all “just politics” obscures the very real evil that the policies they support have unleashed on society. Politics is not just a game or a pastime. It is the way that we bring our worldviews into the real world. “Just politics” have real world consequences, and imposing one’s views on a population brings moral responsibility for the results.
As I taught my son when he was a child, it doesn’t matter if you didn’t mean to spill the milk. The milk is still on the floor. Everyone makes mistakes, but you can’t keep doubling down on evil, then excuse yourself by pointing to good intentions.
"Politics is not just a game or a pastime. It is the way that we bring our worldviews into the real world."
Totally agree. Not sure where you heard me say anything about "just politics"...? I'm not talking about excusing evil, either. I'm talking about embracing the very real and important complexity of being human, the fact that ALL of us are capable of blindness, of creating unintended harms. I fully believe in speaking out against woke ideology and its destructiveness, in finding ways to combat it. But I also think it's important that we don't stare into the abyss with such certainty of our own moral rightness and superior perspective that we find our gazes locked with the monster's, sucked into its ugliness.
I believe one of the hardest things to learn is how to establish and hold healthy boundaries—physically, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually—how to be true to ourselves in ways that involve neither codependency nor isolation. That allow for both honesty and connection. Part of being the solution, rather than a participant in the unraveling, is to leave space for the flawed humanity of others. Not to dismiss or excuse their harms, but to acknowledge that more good can result from pursuing paths to partnerships than from dwelling in the divide. Four years ago I wrote a piece on this basic challenge for my personal blog, which I republished when I created my Substack a couple years ago. You can read it here, if you're interested:
https://leahrose.substack.com/p/the-comfort-of-contempt
Leah, that was an excellent essay! And I really, really want to agree wholeheartedly, but I just cannot.
There is a fundamental choice to be made. How should men live together in society? I can never agree with someone whose philosophy at its base is coercion hiding behind good intentions. We will force you to do what WE know is right. This thinking results in terrible disaster every time it rears its ugly head. Today’s benevolent tyrants will be no different.
Contempt for someone who has different ideas and wants to follow a different drummer? No, only for those who arrogantly want to force everyone to comply with their supposed elevated concept of good, no matter the consequences.
I agree wholeheartedly with this approach to connection. I am of the Millennial generation and have gotten great joy in the time spent seeking the humanity in those of a completely different political worldview. I have also had some very progressive friends alter their beliefs as a result of these interactions so I know they’re worth my breath. All agreement aside, you are a beautiful writer and I could read your words for days.
Definitely. Humans naturally want to fit into tribes. It's hard to resist that tribal pull of "my team good and your team bad". I discuss this subject in one of my essays: https://societystandpoint.substack.com/p/the-court-system-is-not-non-binary
Humans would be better off if we realized that everyone is a multifaceted being and not a caricature. The only way to change people's minds is if we can understand who they are as people.
I don't think it's just tribal, and i don't think it's "just politics". Modern politics is about the most fundamental values: does everyone deserve a voice, or only "the experts"? Is the individual subordinate to the state? Is the state empowered to require that I mask my children's faces?
These aren't "just political" questions. If we don't agree on the fundamental values, how can we be friends?
Exactly Zoya all the above are very naive and want to be the Angel of their neighborhood or the darling of their bookclub. It’s not working like that anymore, that has passed it’s sell by date. The mere fact that we listened to Dr Fauci tells us how far the human race has fallen. It’s now time for new leadership in fact a new world order not climate change, vaccine mandates or wokeness, rather a genuine leader who can rise above all this and take us forward. At the moment there is no such human!
Thank you! Yes. Exactly.
Agree
Thank you for this comment.
Kevin, go touch grass by yourself. Alone is better. The world is too much with us.
Kevin, Although I supported Biden over Trump, I can emphasize with your anger about federal spending you dislike. I am 80 years old and fairly disabled. Due to a 2021 windfall, instead of the touted 8%+ increase in SS, I will now receive $200 Less in Social Security than before. We believe in helping the poor as we are able and we also believe it is important to stop Putin from taking over Ukraine & other neighboring countries. Unfortunately, gaining things a majority desire means painfully giving up something we value.
SallyJones
Hi Sally,
If I am fortunate enough to make it to 80 years I will be living in a dystopian hellscape because Social Security is a naked Ponzi scheme and, along with Medicare, by then it will have bankrupted the United States.
Obviously I’m happy you’re getting money. It’s nice for people to get money. But this system will result in extreme suffering for people younger than you.
Not your fault. Just enjoy it. Everyone younger than you will get screwed.
You are probably correct. To counter people’s belief that they are owed social security, it might help to know when Bismarck first began SS in Germany, the average age of death was 49yrs. Today’s long lifespans together with the unbelievably high cost of medical care near the end of life should be widely discussed in my opinion.
SallyJones
Yes and also it should be reserved just for the people who need it. But Paul Ryan, a genuinely decent guy, proposed means testing, where you stop giving benefits to rich people, and Democrats accused him of trying to kill the elderly. They ran commercials of him pushing an elderly woman off a cliff in a wheelchair.
The congressional baseball shooter was shooting, partly, because he believed Republicans like Paul Ryan were going to kill the elderly because that is what Democrats like Rachel Maddow told him.
So then Trump got elected. Et cetera.
True but Joe Manchin is firmly pushing current work as a requirement for the Child Tax Credit. If our different sides could work together as we did in the previous century, we could probably find some acceptable compromises on most things.
SallyJones
Sally, I’m 65 and a freshly minted American citizen. I came here from England 34 years ago but traveled and lived abroad extensively so getting my citizenship was a meandering path. When I arrived in America I was a Democrat, probably close to a socialist. But America and Americans showed me the folly of socialism and I became a conservative with a small c.
I don’t wish to be in any way disrespectful, but I cannot understand why at 80-years old you would vote for Joe Biden? His entire life has been a plagiarizing sham and in close to 50 years he’s accomplished little to nothing. In fact the only bill he authored was a disaster for minorities. I’d like to hear your reasoning if you have the inclination to do so. Thank you.
I wrote JAE a long detailed answer that didn’t make it to this box. I’ll try to send it again. S C J
I agree how can you listen to people who praise a government who we all know are trying to kill us us. It beggars belief at times.
Also beautifully said.
Mandates which one party is in favor of mean that humans have ZERO CHOICES!
❤️❤️🔥🔥🔥🔥 Exactly. Wonderfully articulated. Touching Grass: I like that. We need less online obsession, more human interaction.
Michael Mohr
‘Sincere American Writing’
https://michaelmohr.substack.com/
I get the heart emoticons. But what do the little fires mean?
Haha!! Just means: I agree/good stuff/awesome 🔥🤣
hearts on fire..
Maybe he needs an antacid?
Re: hanging out with people you disagree with. That depends. I have friends I disagree with, but they would never cheer the government for murdering dissenters, they do not cheer when anyone's rights are violated, and they are willing to negotiate and argue in good faith. This is what separates an independent thinker from an apparatchik. I will be friendly with independent thinkers of all sorts, but apparatchiks are well advised to Stay Over There.
"And what you’ll find is that people in real life are not the caricatures you’ll meet online. It’s even possible to hang out with people you disagree with... and even have a good time with them. People are complex creatures."
Totally agree with you. Social media drives people to extreme views -- and they'll say things they would never actually say out loud to someone in real conversation.
Maybe it's just me, but I try to be very careful to say only what I believe is true. So I tend to believe that what people say reflects what they genuine think and believe.
I'm not comfortable with people who are willing to say things online that they would not say in a real conversation. Just because they are inhibited from saying it in a face-to-face conversation doesn't mean they don't think it.
I follow the rule that when people show you who they are, you should believe them.
I agree that "when people show you who they are, you should believe them". That being said I also believe that people are much more willing to be rude and/or downright disagreeable online since it feels anonymous. Perhaps they'd spout off after one too many drinks at a family gathering or at the bar --- but I doubt that some of them would say to a person's face what they say online. And this level of rancor feeds feelings of divisiveness and makes it easier to demonize people who hold opposing views.
Situations that lower inhibitions do not create feelings and opinions that the person did not already have. The saying "In Vino Veritas" is as true now--when the inhibition-lowerer is internet anonymity--as it ever was.
No amount of rancor or divisiveness can turn a human into a monster if the monster was not already lurking inside them.
I'd say most people have thoughts about other people that they wisely keep to themselves. That's the basics of good manners and etiquette -- and why most of us teach our children to hold their tongues if they can' say something nice. And learning to disagree without being disagreeable is also a mark of maturity and good judgement in my book.
Yes. The anonymity of social media, the lack of physical interaction, and the knowledge that everything said can be read by everyone and kept on the internet forever creates a very hostile environment for real discussion.
With all due respect, is it that tough to not look at social media? Why does everyone in your generation blame a completely controllable force for their anxiety? There is a strange psychosis at work here.
“Touching grass” sounds poetic. As a person belonging to an older generation, it is natural for me to think and feel beyond a party line. I don’t even belong to a party since the choice is limited to two uncreative and bigoted entities, both of which lost touch with reality and are not able to serve our country’s moving forward. And because I have lived in an authoritative state where people learned to resist the party line in order to survive as human beings.
But I do meet lots of people who are very much like caricatures in real life - I live in a progressive area, and many of my neighbors simply refuse to talk to you if you are “from the other side”. I find it very alarming how much people are susceptible to propaganda and easily believe nonsense that goes against common sense and their own experience and knowledge. Maybe disconnecting from social media is the solution, but how many are ready to cut the cord? How many of us are able to spend a summer without mobile connection in order to undergo a mental rebirth?
I live in a very conservative, rural area and I meet a fair number of caricatures myself. :-)
Best thing is to remember that everyone is a person with good qualities and that politics really doesn't impact much of "real life" .... family, community, etc. Disconnecting from social media is generally good for mental health. Have a good day.
Beautifully said and soooo true !
Modern journalism has gone off the rails. It no longer serves its traditional function of reporting news. Instead it is devoted to manipulating readers so that they might accept a party line interpretation of events. This essay goes a long way to explaining what we have lost. Bravo!
“Journalism” today makes me sad. I was raised by an actual old school journalist. He absolutely agrees with the author that humans are far more interesting in reality than the ideas we hold about them from afar. He is bewildered about all the intersectionality lunacy today - he doesn’t see how anyone who has done any degree of meaningful actual investigative journalism could ever promote such nonsense.
My dad was the oldest of 6 kids (5 boys) from a poor family on the banks of the Mississippi. His parents were abusive alcoholics. He turned 18 as a Marine in combat trapped in the top of a mountain in Vietnam. He attended Catholic school for free because he grew up before SCOTUS outlawed direct funding of religious schools. Books and nuns saved his life.
After being offered a job by The New Times in his late 20’s he left the profession all together to go into the investing world. Bloomberg attempted to lure him out a few years later, but my dad was determined to give us, his family, a nice life. He didn’t think he could afford that on what journalists made in the late 70’s, and he didn’t think it was possible if he moved to crime ridden NYC (which was the growing requirement).
Society’s loss was my family’s gain. I had a wonderful childhood and received daily lessons from an actual journalist. While he is a far superior writer than me, he taught me to hold far more nuanced views of others than most other millennials. My dad trained us to push aside the narrative and hone in on outcomes. Even as I hit my 40th birthday this year I still have a child’s curiosity for the world - a priceless gift from a great dad. I hope he lives long enough to see a revival of true journalism. Story telling is older than human written history. To me it is the true first profession.
Great dads are a true blessing.
Exactly ❤️❤️🔥
“My root objection to these fictions isn’t about politics or even ethics, purely; it’s one of aesthetics. Not only are these narratives untrue, they’re also uninspired and formulaic. They feel engineered with a takeaway in mind, assembled from a kit—with a moral, a villain, and a hero.”
————————————————-
Yes, and then when you have the most amazing, unbelievable, and grotesque story of all time it disappears. Because this is fascism.
Imagine if Ron DeSantis had grabbed a shotgun to chase a black man, who was just out jogging, down the street. Imagine it.
John Fetterman absolutely 100% did that and he wasn’t ostracized. He is, in fact, heralded. I just saw some photos of this nasty, obese, skinhead simpleton with his communist wife and Christian Bale yucking it up on the set of a movie.
HE CHASED A RANDOM INNOCENT BLACK GUY DOWN THE STREET WITH A SHOTGUN. It is literally the most racist shit I have ever heard of.
No narrative. Story disappears.
Yep. And I found it disturbing that the mainstream media refused to acknowledge that Dr. Oz may have lost partly because of racism. I wrote about it on my blog: https://societystandpoint.substack.com/p/dr-mehmet-oz-lost-to-john-fetterman
But of course, it’s only racism when Republicans do it. If Oz was a Democrat and Fetterman was a Republican, mainstream journalists would be screaming about how Oz lost because Republicans hate Turkish Muslims.
Yes and then we are told to believe that Dr. Oz lost because “suburban women” preferred the slovenly, illiterate skinhead to the heart surgeon from Oprah.
Suburban women. Uh huh. That, of course, is a euphemism for the street hustlers and nightclub promoters who they hire to collect votes in the apartment buildings that have expanded out into “suburban” districts.
That’s one of the most bizarre narratives put out there to explain Fetterman’s victory. Dr. Oz literally hosted a show that was extremely popular with suburban women. At its peak, you could go to your local health supplements store and it’ll be all suburban women buying products based on what Dr. Oz said on TV.
Or maybe because Oz doesn't live in PA?
If you read the essay I linked above, I discuss this line of attack and how it would be perceived if Oz was a Democrat.
Comprof is a troll account. Don't engage with it, you'll get nothing but insipid mockery.
Fascinating....really.
How it would be "perceived if" is irrelevant. Your opinion on something that did not happen is irrelevant. You can toss that with the "whataboutism" that is consistently used. also.
Pro-tip: Next time, run a candidate for Senate who actually lives/has roots in the state. Tends to be pretty helpful.
Oh, yes, that’s how people vote.
“I want to pick a Senator to represent me but where is his main house?”
😂😂😂
By "main house"....do you mean primary residency?
As in, the one that is NOT in PA?
Yes, Kevin....most people don't vote for Senators that DO NOT live in their state. Weird.
Not votes, BALLOTS. it is all about ballots now
Republicans blindly tow the party line and justify anything to do so, that's why it's hard to trust their intent. Call out the bullshit as it is more so in your own party and the republican party can be the GOP again.
When I was young and naive, I actually thought that Jounalists pursued the truth and reported their findings. How foolish of me. You can't really call them journalists. They are propagandists. If they like the story, they report it in glowing terms. If they don't like the story they either spike it or trash it.
The vast majority of these propagandists are left or right ideologues. These disgusting people are trying to color their stories in such a manner as to keep us the public in the dark in the land of the lies. I think only the gullible take these fabrications as the truth.
It has always been this way. The jingoistic, rightwing press got us into the Spanish American War.
At present the main propaganda sources are the major news outlets. We have to be skeptical enough and do the best we can to try and divine the truth. Sometimes that is next to impossible.
Luckily, there is Fox News and Newsmax.
Lol, love it!
I'm sure you've seen the photo of Justin Trudeau in blackface. You know what they say--if not for the double standard, they would have no standards at all.
Great quote and so true!
The Democratic Plantation is real. I wish black voters would wake up and realize that, and I wish the GOP would at least make a sincere attempt to start winning them onto the other side instead of ceding to the Dems as unwinnable. And I don't mean to start all sorts of programs which in reality are designed to keep them as an underclass. But talking louder about the insidious ways Democrats and their ideologies, policies and programs have been keeping them down, and how some conservative economic and ideologies can actually empower them to lift up their communities. It utterly fails logic how after 50 years since the Civil Rights movement and countless Democratic experiments of social programs supposedly to help blacks, when Biden "must elect an black woman" as VP, they strained to find an experienced and qualified candidates, and couldn't come up with more than a handful, with almost all of them entirely unknowns on the national level except for Kamala Harris, and that was only because she was recently part of a Congressional hearing and then ran during the primaries themselves. All the other ones were also not ready for prime time in the WH on their experience and credentials alone. If all those programs and policies were so helpful, how come they didn't even have a real pool of black women to choose from?
The Democrats are nothing more than exceptional bullshit artists.
I think a good start for that "sincere attempt" would be:
1. Stop telling black people they are on a "plantation" or describing them as an "underclass." Rude.
2. Stop acting like all black people are living in abject poverty, misery, have no successful lives, businesses, education, families, don't pay taxes, etc. and are all constantly nursing gunshot wounds.
3. Stop saying that any black person who gets a job got it because of "Affirmative Action."
4. Stop framing/describing black people as somnolent monkeys who need to "wake up" - when the GOP consistently puts up candidates that are very off-putting to black people, and many others, because of.....well, what those GOP candidates actually say, believe and do. They might actually be very wide awake and paying attention. Is that why "woke" is bad?
5. Stop acting like the Civil Rights movement was a net negative and everything has gotten worse since then. Segregation, even with an intact family, was NOT better.
6. Stop acting like white people don't benefit just as much, if not more, from The New Deal programs and "countless Democratic experiments of social programs" in America.
7. Stop calling everything "woke."
8. Stop acting like everyone was getting along until CRT (whatever that is) came along. Echoes the '60s trope of Civil Rights workers "stirring up and agitating all our good Niggras." Just because you have a black coworker, does not mean you are friends.
9. Stop revolving campaigns, fundraising, etc. around white racial grievance.
10. Understand that all the improvements in America were the result of protests, violence and bloodshed. America was forced, kicking and screaming ,every inch of the way by SoCIal jUSticE WaRRiORS (of all races, ethnicities, backgrounds) to become a better country. It did not happen because America is any more inherently decent or moral than anywhere else. So....stop taking credit for the work, and sacrificed lives, done/given by people you hate.
11. Stop telling people "equal opportunity, not equal results" (equal opportunity has never existed and never will) and that you're only poor, struggling, etc. because of some moral failing, laziness - don't ask for support - every man, woman, child for themselves, etc....then if/when they do become successful, tell them they should be "grateful" to America.
12. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD AND ALL THAT IS HOLY!!!....stop using/repeating that ONE partial, out-of-context quote, by Dr. King. It seems to be the only one/thing you know about him....honestly, if you actually read more of his his work, the more you'd probably dislike him.
12a. Stop bringing up Dr. King as an example of the "way things should be done" and the "right way" to protests, when he had a 69-70% disapproval rating, was one of the most hated men in America during his time, and was assassinated.
13. Understand that when other people gain rights....it does not mean yours have been taken away.
14. Understand that America was an apartheid state and only became a real, legitimate democracy in 1965. So...a little patience might be warranted.
15. If you can understand that past smoking might give you present lung cancer or past decisions you've made have an effect on your present - the same thing holds true with a country. History does not start over every 24 hours. So, a little patience might be warranted.
16. Stop claiming Jesus is your road dawg when you are actually completely antithetical to everything he said/taught.
17. Stop saying that anyone who disagrees with you "hates America" or is a Communist.
18. Black people (and all kinds of nonwhite ethnicities) have fought, shed blood, and died for America in EVERY single war this country has been in, along with white folks, from Day 1. So, maybe try approaching black folks as Americans and not as a burden, interlopers, "underclass," liability or some type of "problem" that hasn't been fixed yet that is taking YOUR country from YOU?
19. Stop acting like having statues, schools named, military bases named, state holidays, etc. to honor Confederate traitors to the U.S. isn't a little bit weird. No other country does that. Go ahead and keep them....but you know it's weird, right?
So....maybe an overall good, beginning start would be to approach African-Americans as people who have been here from Day 1 of colonization, on this land, side by side with white folks, LONG before the U.S. was even an official country, rather than as some problem that was unfortunately imported?
Nah....can't do that - cause everyone lost their f*cking collective shit over the "1619 Project," so that ain't gonna work.
Here is a micro example that might illustrate the macro. Trump's famous "My African-American." So, looks like you lost another one.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/man-trump-once-called-my-african-american-leaves-republican-party
You would stroke out if anyone here had the audacity and arrogance to issue a numbered list of instructions for how black people should behave.
1. It was about Conservative outreach. Not everyone.
2. LOL!!!! That's what 95% of this board is, just without the numbers. EXPECIALLY lecturing blacks on what they should/shouldn't be upset about, instructing them on how they should/shouldn't respond, "wokeness,"etc.
3. Well that, and CONSTANTLY complaining about CRT and anti-white bias is everywhere. So you can miss me with ALL your gaslighting bullshit.
4. Have at it buttercup - just another day that ends in "Y" on this board.
5. You're the snowflake / stroke out victim. Lol.
Great advice- just parrot all the progressive BS! Hard pass
By the way.....since you mentioned "arrogance."
I hope I wasn't too much of an "Uppity Negro" for you....don't want to you feel uncomfortable.
Oh....this stuff probably doesn't help either.
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/exclusive-lee-atwaters-infamous-1981-interview-southern-strategy/
Oh, I have no doubt you're a "hard pass" - especially on #2, #3, #6 and #9.
But the good news, Heyjude? I don't give a single f*ck what you choose to "pass" on or not.
HEY, EVERYONE -HERE'S THE GUY WHO SUPPORTED TRAVIS & GREGORY MCMICHAEL PRETENDING TO BE UPSET ABOUT FETTERMAN.
“I already AM a minority in America and I am the most openly hated and systematically oppressed minority that has ever existed: straight white male.” – Kevin Durant?, Dec. 11, 2022
Nobody supports them and that is, of course, the whole point about Fetterman.
What Fetterman did was even more racist than what the McMichaels did except without the tragic outcome.
John Fetterman saw an innocent black man out for a jog and he grabbed his shotgun to chase him because John Fetterman is a racist piece of shit. And Democrats LOVE him.
Democrats have essentially announced themselves as pro-lynching by electing Fetterman.
Ooops.....now I have to go find your comment about the shooting being a "tragedy for everyone involved," etc.
HEY EVERYONE - HERE'S KEVIN DURANT PRETENDING TO BE UPSET ABOUT A BLACK GUY BEING CHASED BY FETTERMAN AND PRETENDING TO BE OUTRAGED ABOUT HIM BEING A "RACIST PIECE OF SHIT."
“I already AM a minority in America and I am the most openly hated and systematically oppressed minority that has ever existed: straight white male.” – Kevin Durant?, Dec. 11, 2022
Answer me this though, Comprof……..are you chasing a black guy with a shotgun right now??
If you are, maybe you should run for Senate. Maybe that’s why they call it “running” for Senate.
Because first you “run” with your shotgun behind an innocent black man, and then Democrats make you a Senator.
Scumbag.
So, what you're saying is that anyone who chases a non-white person with a gun is racist? How "woke" of you.
HERE'S KEVIN DURANT EVERYONE - PRETENDING TO BE UPSET ABOUT RACISM AGAINST BLACK PEOPLE!
“I already AM a minority in America and I am the most openly hated and systematically oppressed minority that has ever existed: straight white male.” – Kevin Durant?, Dec. 11, 2022
“So, what you're saying is…..”
——————————————-
No, Cathy Newman, that’s not what I’m saying.
What I am saying is that John Fetterman, specifically, is a racist piece of shit, who grabs his shotgun to chase black people when he sees them. Every single Democrat who supports him is fine with it.
It’s difficult to say if each individual Democrat who is fine with it is also a hardcore racist. They might just be making a calculation. But they are certainly fine with hardcore racism and don’t think it’s a problem.
I loved this - and remember, too, that diving down into the granular in order to reveal what is truly real and good and beautiful is precisely what God was doing in Christ, taking to himself the flesh and bones and blood of reality and all all the particulars of an every day life of hopes, fears, loss and loves and reredeeming all precisely through the singular. . . . Thank you for this piece. It gave me hope.
❤️❤️🔥
Beautiful essay! This quality of writing is why I joined Common Sense and I feel it will only get better from here.
I was delighted to see Amanda Fortini’s name here. She is married to the inimitable Walter Kirn. What a talented couple. If you haven’t read his essay called, I think, On the Bullshit, get to it. He has a Substack, sadly rarely updated, probably more of a filing cabinet, called Unbound.
I am thrilled to learn that she is married to Walter Kirn, whose writing I also enjoy. I am a little angry with Substack for featuring him as a columnist. I finally had to cancel my subscription because he never wrote anything. Why does Substack make writers available who never post anything?
I didn't even know he had his own Substack. I read his work on other people's Substacks--here and Matt Taibbi--as well as on Compact.
Yeah, it is called reality. Entertaining angels unaware, anyone? The world God created has been there all along for anyone who cared to notice. “I don’t want your sacrifices, I want your love. I don’t want your offerings, I want you to know me”. Simple and profound.
And elegant in its simplicity.
The butterfly story... that resonated. Thank you. I’ve had similar magical experiences where my over-logical mind stops dominating my life, pinching me into bitterness and frustration. That’s when I can feel my soul again. One time when starting a canoe trip in the boondocks a bird flew down and perched on my knee, staying there for a long time. It had no fear of people apparently, which is so unbirdlike. It seemed to be delivering a message for me personally, and it was amazing. In my better moments life can be like that.
Years ago, when I was in my mid 20's, I agreed to take two kittens who needed a home (shockingly, the person who had them said that she was going to "kill" them, if she couldn't find them a home). I grew up with dogs and never had any experience with cats (I had been thinking about getting a cat, though). When I came home, I set them up in the bedroom in my apartment (fed them--they were famished--and got their litter box set up), left the door open, and went to the living room. I then proceeded to sit on the sofa and start bawling... I was second guessing myself about taking on the responsibility of a pet and was wondering what I had gotten myself into, since I knew nothing about cats.
While sitting on the couch, I prayed to God, asking him for a "sign" that I was doing the right thing. A minute or so later, one of the kittens, Molly, came into the living room. She sat by my feet and reached up to me. I picked her up and put her on my lap. Shortly thereafter, the other kitten, Max, did likewise. As soon as these kittens were on my lap, cuddling and purring contentedly, there was no doubt in my mind that I had done the right thing. I knew they would be with me forever.
What is interesting is that for a good two weeks afterwards, they refused to come out of the bedroom (the door was open, so they could come and go, if they wanted to). They were too scared. Of course, they eventually came out, but the fact that they came out when I had asked for a sign, but then wouldn't do so again for another few weeks made me a believer: I got my sign!
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️🐈⬛🐈⬛🐈⬛🐈⬛🐈⬛
There is much to be said for the boondocks.
That canoe trip sounds lovely 😊
Year's end is always a pensive time, and the end of 2022 is filled with anxieties for almost everyone.
My 84-year-old brother and I visit often now - while we still can - and on my last visit we spent hours talking about the decline of the social order. The passing of seemingly inconsequential amounts of time has changed everything. I remember bands of kids walking along the dirt road by our house, shouting out for recruits for the afternoon softball game. He's considerably older and remembers the long evenings of community "corn shuckin's," a dozen adults shucking each neighbor's crib of corn in turn by kerosene light while their many children played in the discarded husks. We both remember neighbors and relatives who regularly showed up for Sunday visits, invariably staying for Mother's sumptuous noon meal. Since almost nobody owned a telephone and cell phones were far in the future, drop-in visiting was the usual, not the exception. After a hard day's work in the hay, the older men's evening games of "setback," pranks played on newlywed wedding nights, local tales that made the rounds. Now solitary young addicts roam the valleys and hollers with backpacks, cooking methamphetamine as they walk to agitate the reagents.
These memories and the ones chronicled in this well-written essay are pleasant and self-indulgent and by themselves mean little. Their importance, though, is that they are one more data point illustrating the breakdown of Western culture - and that, of course, is why those who are attacking it and mean to bring it down must first destroy our history. I see in the news that the racist mayor of Richmond is destroying another monument and digging up the corpse beneath in another of his Woke attacks on the civilization that put him in office. Whatever the cost, these people must be resisted. And they must be stopped.
❤️❤️❤️🔥🔥
I cannot "yes" this enough. I have not paid much attention to the narratives, mostly because they've never tracked with my day to day life. I have neighbors from at least six different nationalities who are wonderful people, and we all want the same things. Health. Safety and security for our families. And we all care about each other's well being. The people I speak with at the grocery store and in restaurants are generally friendly, kind, and polite, and willingly offer grace for mistakes. The Us vs Them narrative being pushed in so many different ways is simply that, a narrative. It's not real life. Thank you for this essay, it reaffirms my belief that we can live outside the narratives that are constantly being forced down our throats.
Absolutely 💯 ❤️❤️
“You might even start to notice that most stories are not tidy parables with morals.”
I have a 6 year old, I have a niece and nephew who are about 15, and I have a cousin I used to babysit that’s 23. One thing I noticed in observing small kids in 3 different decades is that cartoons/kid tv is not just funny for the sake of entertainment anymore. There’s no more Bugs Bunny or Tom and Jerry style shows. EVERY. SINGLE. SHOW. in the past 20 years or so is the same- there’s some crisis that needs to be fixed and a moral lesson to be learned. It’s no wonder that we’ve fallen down this hole. This culture is a product of our own creation and we started training our citizens at a very young age.
🔥🔥
I see now why I have gravitated so fast to reading fiction, nonfiction ( a pile of books await) and of what Substack, and now THE FREE PRESS has to offer. The other day walking in Queens, NY I saw a squirrel and realized how they have disappeared. Oh, the simplicity and wonder of a squirrel, a red leaf from a tree in the Fall and a blade of grass. Enjoy!
Yes! Nature! Squirrels 🐿️!!
Thank you for addressing what I always refer to as the gaslighting of America!
Amanda- I loved reading this. It validated my decision to subscribe and cut the cable cord. Thank you for sharing.
“I tell my students to go out and report on events as they unfold, letting their stories arise from whatever they find”
One of the joys of having children is that when they’re very young, they have no preconceived notions. Watching the wonder in their eyes with each new experience, nurturing their curiosity and letting them be children is perhaps the most gratifying experience any human can have. It also gives hope for our future, but only if we protect them.
🫰🫰🔥
This is a wonderful essay and provides a beautiful start to the day. I have been reading Frederick Buechner who well writes about getting in touch with the story of our own lives, all of our strengths, incongruities and weaknesses. Our stories are well worth remembering and telling. The stories of our lives and others are what makes us human. I would say the ideologies that surrounds us dehumanizes us and separates us as well. As I recall Annie Dillard loved Buechner. He is little known but is well worth finding and reading. Thank you, Bari, for your work.
Yes!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Perhaps life as it exists is too difficult for many people, so living in a fiction is their solution. As this wonderful little essay points out, real life is much more varied and interesting. My father always reminded us kids that we couldn't live in a comic book.
Well put. But I must admit that the reality is so disheartening that the only solace I find is in fiction. In good old-fashioned fiction. It helps me survive and keep sanity.
Agree, it is a wonderful backstop. If it weren't for lack of central heat and running water, I could happily reside in the eighteenth century. I even prefer the music.
Yes!!!
Hell yes 🙌 Long live fiction. Biography helps too 🔥❤️
🙌🙌🫰🔥