There's money in division, even more money to be made if people are riled up. We are being divided though, not just on social media, but everywhere. Our schools are being wiped out and replaced with private schools (usually religious), homeschools (often organized by a church or religious group), and charter schools to get the kids started. Our news on tv. I've been told some people still watch tv, Yes, social media, internet content personalities giving us news, sites on the internet where we do our own research often following circular links that mostly cite each other. We don't even live in the same communities. The places with more jobs grow and have a set of concerns and there are places left behind in jobs and technology with a different set of concerns. And then there's whatever goes on in gated communities. We even have pulpits that seem to do a lot of politics. Even vaccines are politicized. We hate the stranger in our land as much as we hate ourselves. But we have freedom as long as we conform and stay within the lines like normal people.
I think we could agree on more, but among our divisions are issues that are highly emotionally charged. I'm not talking about things like what my former coworker complained about, like the minimum wage being immoral or how bad taxes are, but things like abortion and guns. Allowing some abortions will never soothe the people who rail against post birth abortions. How do you argue with that? And the whole thing about rigged elections is another case that reminds us that all the evidence in the world can't change the minds of a large number of people. I have friends in Europe who ask me about a number of things in the US, like what is going on with us and guns? It seems to me that a lot of the stuff driving the mania not only won't get resolved, but diverts our attention away from things we can do to make this a better place. Instead, it looks as though we're on an arc of decline. We'll be like Venice where people visit to see it the way it used to be, except we don't build anything worth seeing.
There's money in division, even more money to be made if people are riled up. We are being divided though, not just on social media, but everywhere. Our schools are being wiped out and replaced with private schools (usually religious), homeschools (often organized by a church or religious group), and charter schools to get the kids started. Our news on tv. I've been told some people still watch tv, Yes, social media, internet content personalities giving us news, sites on the internet where we do our own research often following circular links that mostly cite each other. We don't even live in the same communities. The places with more jobs grow and have a set of concerns and there are places left behind in jobs and technology with a different set of concerns. And then there's whatever goes on in gated communities. We even have pulpits that seem to do a lot of politics. Even vaccines are politicized. We hate the stranger in our land as much as we hate ourselves. But we have freedom as long as we conform and stay within the lines like normal people.
I think we could agree on more, but among our divisions are issues that are highly emotionally charged. I'm not talking about things like what my former coworker complained about, like the minimum wage being immoral or how bad taxes are, but things like abortion and guns. Allowing some abortions will never soothe the people who rail against post birth abortions. How do you argue with that? And the whole thing about rigged elections is another case that reminds us that all the evidence in the world can't change the minds of a large number of people. I have friends in Europe who ask me about a number of things in the US, like what is going on with us and guns? It seems to me that a lot of the stuff driving the mania not only won't get resolved, but diverts our attention away from things we can do to make this a better place. Instead, it looks as though we're on an arc of decline. We'll be like Venice where people visit to see it the way it used to be, except we don't build anything worth seeing.