Checking In, Week 3

Well, things have calmed down (not really any less crazy, just quieter). It's nice to think of a world where we don't really have to think about Trump much longer and we can start to solve actual problems, like the pandemic response. I'm curious to see what the right-wingers say after we are still talking about the virus for the next several months--at that point, it should be clear that we didn't make it up to hurt Trump, because we will still all be dealing with it after January and into the next year.

I've had a couple of thoughts relevant to the right wing bubble this week. Mainly because I still know people that back the current admin and enablers. One is about risk perception, and the other is about what the First Amendment actually means. They both are tied to our ideas of freedom.

I bring up risk because it seems to contrast in the people who don't believe in the danger of the virus and people that do. It's a spectrum, and some people are probably overly risk averse, while too many others, unfortunately, seem to engage in risky behavior that right now is endangering everyone. Many people's version of American freedom is selfish. Freedom to do as they please, and not be constrained by someone else's idea of restraint. Great risk takers often succeed in life, but often after failing numerous times. We need some of these risk takers for business, innovation, science and art. But for some areas, the risk taking affects other people, and those are the times where moral dilemmas develop. People I know that are extreme risk takers, to me exhibit a lack of caring about other people. Not that they don't care at all about others, but they definitely do not think about the consequences of their actions long term. Great artists are often insufferable people that ultimately sacrifice their good relationships in order to create. We have a large section of our culture that doesn't think long term. They claim to be good people, but don't really place the well being of others above their own interests.

Our culture also has a large misunderstanding about what Freedom of Speech actually is. Many people think it just means that you are free to say anything you want. While this is true, there are also conditionals. Is is not freedom from the consequences of your speech. And it also doesn't apply if it's not from the government. I am under no obligation as an individual to let you say anything. I can scream over you if I want (it might make me an asshole, but I'm free to do that, along with having to accept the consequences of my own behavior). I am certainly not under any obligation to let you say what you want without rebuttal or difference of opinion. Right now, people on the right are trying to act like their freedom of speech is being repressed (both in simply expressing their opinions and also the movement of so-called religious freedom). The thing about freedom within the First Amendment (and in general really), is that there are TWO types. Freedom TO do something, and freedom FROM something. The current war the left and right are fighting, I think boils down to this. The right wants the freedom to do what they want, but don't see how their freedom to do some things (like hate speech, discrimination and oppressions based on their beliefs) come into conflict with others' right to be free from discrimination and oppression, or the freedom to simply live their life unmolested. The "freedom" to not get vaccinated or wear a goddamn mask, tramples on others' right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Because we are in a social contract. I know it is scary when something appears like mob justice. Part of that is the price we pay where we live in a society where, in general, the majority rules. And a lot of it is simply overblown. It's hard for me to feel sympathy to comedians and right wing people complaining about political correctness and cancel culture, when then enact policies that are actually oppressing and harming people.

I'm starting to digress, so let me return to freedom of speech. Being fact-checked is not a violation of freedom of speech, nor are you being oppressed. Trying to protect minority groups from faith-based discrimination is not a violation of your freedom either. You are under no obligation to personally engage in behavior your find unacceptable, but if you have a business or job that supplies goods or services to the general public, you aren't being oppressed when you are expected to deliver those goods and services to the general public. Especially if you hold a State or Federal job. Your religious beliefs are irrelevant to anyone but yourself. You want things to change? Change hearts and minds, like we are trying to do. When you try to do it through force, willful ignorance and just belligerence, you seem like a fascist and an asshole, and will be treated as such. And that isn't oppressing you either; it's just a consequence of your actions.

So run off to Parler if you want. Get your feelings hurt over being called out on your willful ignorance and your "alternative facts". You'll get over it. You'll be back. Or you will simply be left behind.

Checking In, part 2

Media outlets have now called the race for Biden, though no votes have been certified yet. It looks like we will be rid of Trump, though some seats were lost in the House (still hold the majority), and the Senate looks to be determined by runoffs in Georgia in January. In the meantime, Trump and his followers are continuing to undermine the election process and are doing so with their usual false narrative in place of facts. And large portions of the American populace are eating it up. This, I think, is what was unsettling me a week ago.

Instead of a complete repudiation of Trumpism, we just barely won. That means there is still a lot of work to do. People have become so insulated in their own bubbles, and now the Trumpers are going to further retreat in their own microcosm. It had already begun prior to the election. Even Fox News had become too critical for some, and they started seeking out even more conservative outlets to join the ranks of Breitbart and the like. OAN is on the rise. And now, we have huge shifts of the alt-right (and make no mistake, they are not Republicans or conservatives; they are a dangerous fringe that has become way too large and influential) from Facebook and Twitter to Parler and MeWe. Ironically, to their own version of a safe space. An echo chamber where QAnon will breed, unchecked along with disinformation. It's a confusion of believing that Free Speech means anything goes without consequences (like simply being called out or disagreed with). For people that seem to want to protest against political correctness, they seem to have awfully thin skin. And they are not afraid to try to make their fantasy a reality (like the nonsense the President is currently trying to pull regarding false accusations of voting fraud; the only documented fraud so far has been on their side).

Epistemology is the study of knowledge; an offshoot of philosophy that talks about what knowledge is and how we know what we know. If you'll allow me to oversimplify, I still believe in objective truth, in that most questions can at least theoretically be confirmed or denied; and if they can't then they are either unknowable or currently beyond our capability for reason or science to determine. Ethics often falls into this greyer area, but even most major religions usually agree on the basics.

So here's what is concerning me now. Disinformation spreads so quickly. Large numbers of people do not have the skill or the desire to seek out information, to fact check, to think logically. We have the technology to produce Deep Fakes, where even video can be manipulated to show something altered from the truth. We now have all of these people with their reprehensible beliefs retreating back into the shadows and forming organized coalitions to confirm each others' bias even more. Opinions are held as equally important as facts. Beliefs overtake knowledge, even that of experts. How are we going to determine the truth going forward? How are we going to sort through the noise to get factual information? How are we going to convince our loved ones that they are on a strange and dangerous path? Why are they clinging to Pizzagate, QAnon, the Deep State, crazy "experts" that talk about demons and angels? And if they have fully retreated into the shadows, how will we know what they are up to? I don't really want to subject myself to these ramblings that resemble severe mental illness, but they are dangerous. They are armed, and angry and full of hate and misinformation.

I still believe we need to work on ourselves to figure out how to change hearts and minds, but we also have to be ready for conflict. This is not a call to arms; it's just some food for thought and a warning. We have to keep our eyes open to what they are thinking and saying and doing. Hopefully, we can get some policies in place that will quell the anger and disenfranchisement they feel. To disarm the beast through met needs before violence occurs. Getting rid of Trump is not enough. Something has awoken; something that used to walk in darkness has been roaming around in the daylight. It's not some supernatural beast, it is simply the worst aspects of humanity. This isn't over. It is just beginning.

So, yes, this went to a dark place. Because it is a glimpse into my fear, my uneasiness. Let me end though, by reiterating that I still believe in us. I still believe in justice. I still believe in our country. We will get through this. But it is not time to rest. We won a battle, but the fight for our nation's soul still continues. Be strong. Try to be kind.

Checking in

Well, it's the day after election day. 2020 has obviously been a monster in so many ways. We still don't know the full outcome of the election, and likely won't for perhaps a few days, maybe longer. It's not over, and I am trying to remain hopeful. I still think it's likely Biden will win, but the Senate takeover is less certain. The Blue Wave either didn't really happen, or it was met with an almost equal Red Wave. And that's disappointing, to put it mildly. I know people are really struggling with this. It's similar to 2004 and 2016 in a lot of ways, and the feelings are similar as well. How can so many people support these people after all we've seen and heard?

Pollsters and both parties are currently unable to understand what is going on with the current electorate psychologically, especially on opposing sides. That is what might be troubling me the most. If we don't understand how we got here, how can we begin to fix it? Avoid it from happening again?

I've been struggling with this is a philosophical way lately. If you know me, you know my first degree is in philosophy, and I have a great interest in it, particularly in moral philosophy. For most of my life, I have prescribed to the Hobbesian concept that humans are animals that will tear each other apart if given the opportunity. That is our natural state. But ethics and the social contract is where much of our evolution now takes place. Lately, partly brought on by age and having kids (I don't really know why?), I have been questioning whether we really are savages. I still believe ethics occupies that realm of "potential", but have been more hopeful about humankind's ability to rise above that preconceived nature.

Now, yet again, I question my new-found hopefulness. What are we? What is going on here? Our "side" is not winning hearts and minds. At least not enough. Why? That's the biggest question I think we need to be considering. Why is what is so self-evident to us not so to others? Is it really as simple as 40%-ish of our entire country doesn't realize we can rise above our animal state? That our ethics and social contract entails working together for a common betterment? Yes, there are racists, misogynists, bigots, homophobes, transphobes, xenophobes, neo nazis and fascists. But I just don't know that I'm ready to accept that almost half the country are those things. Even if they are, until an actual, physical revolution occurs, the path is still to change hearts and minds (and hopefully before it comes to that).

I'm not in a place yet where I can begin to tell anyone how we do this. Win hearts and minds. All I can say right now, while bouncing between sadness, fear and anger, I am still not willing to give up on hope. We find our people and we start to take stock of what matters to us. We are what stands in the way of greed and selfishness and oppression, so we cannot give up on that. I know we are all tired from what this year, these past few years have thrown at us. We long for something to let up. To return to normal. Exhaustion comes in many forms, but like the pandemic, these stressors are not likely to disappear any time soon. Even if the political landscape changed in the way we wanted, it still wouldn't just erase the parts we don't like.

So maybe the first hearts and minds we need to change are our own. Thich Naht Hanh says that suffering comes from the disconnect between what is and what we think ought to be. So the role of morality (to turn things into what we think they ought to be) is by definition, wrought with suffering. My people, it is time to put the oxygen masks around our own mouths first. We must take care of ourselves to get through this, and then we can begin to try to once again take care of others. To have the strength to remember hope, and to gain the ability to change hearts and minds.

Right now, in this moment, I feel the hope and strength necessary to deliver this message. Later, I may not. So this is a thing we can do for each other. I hope that this gives at least some comfort to anyone that is feeling anxiety about where we are. I do believe we can get through this, no matter what happens. And if nothing else, remember this quote from Patton Oswalt that his late wife used to tell him: It's chaos. Be kind.