"Real quick and real frank" still prompts deep and complicated thought, or should I say, questioning. 1) Entertainment is OK. I love being entertained and entertaining, but I find that I am no longer entertained by the mainstream news media and entertaining no longer includes political discussion. I've stopped watching and listening to the news media cold turkey, stopped talking politics with my friends. I'd like to find media outlets where I can still be informed without being entertained. It that possible? Or can I only consume news in the USA today as entertainment or as a consumer of a marketing campaign? Al Jazeera, Vox? I suppose that living in a society defined and financed by consumption I am tilting at windmills. 2) If the myth of America was shattered in 2016, then it died on Nov. 5. No more credibility to returning to the Founders' promise, blah, blah, blah. Democracy can always vote in its demise and it did. It takes a revolution or a war to overturn fascism. 3) Becoming more active locally to protect my and the rights of others would be fine, if there were any local questions where such things were in play. There are indeed some: voting for school board members who won't ban books from the high school library (they won!), supporting causes that house immigrants, giving to local food banks, appearing at township meetings on zoning, but they are few and far between. And living in a township where Republicans always run unopposed for township offices makes local action that makes a difference much harder. 4) I think we still need "local" leaders to support who carry inclusive. democratic messages. I was buoyed by J B Pritzker's warning to Trump today "You come for my people, you come through me." It reminds me - as part of your myth discussion - that in German "the United States" is grammatically plural, where we still treat it as grammatically singular in English. Knowing the horror that state's rights can introduce, be it during Jim Crow or in the aftermath of Dobbs, it seems to be our only hope today. This is a huge philosophical problem, since the same argument was used in our history to deny rights and justice, just as we are trying to restore rights and justice today.
This is great. It's where I am a year after a parallel upheaval in my country’s political landscape. In that election I voted against my lifetime pattern because that party no longer represented me. I watched democracy burn as the fascists goose stepped in. Now I stick with my tribe, close to home, still signing petitions and making submissions but locally, not nationally. It is making life feel good again. I believe the same can happen in America for those who choose to look away from the bonfire.
Love this💚
"Real quick and real frank" still prompts deep and complicated thought, or should I say, questioning. 1) Entertainment is OK. I love being entertained and entertaining, but I find that I am no longer entertained by the mainstream news media and entertaining no longer includes political discussion. I've stopped watching and listening to the news media cold turkey, stopped talking politics with my friends. I'd like to find media outlets where I can still be informed without being entertained. It that possible? Or can I only consume news in the USA today as entertainment or as a consumer of a marketing campaign? Al Jazeera, Vox? I suppose that living in a society defined and financed by consumption I am tilting at windmills. 2) If the myth of America was shattered in 2016, then it died on Nov. 5. No more credibility to returning to the Founders' promise, blah, blah, blah. Democracy can always vote in its demise and it did. It takes a revolution or a war to overturn fascism. 3) Becoming more active locally to protect my and the rights of others would be fine, if there were any local questions where such things were in play. There are indeed some: voting for school board members who won't ban books from the high school library (they won!), supporting causes that house immigrants, giving to local food banks, appearing at township meetings on zoning, but they are few and far between. And living in a township where Republicans always run unopposed for township offices makes local action that makes a difference much harder. 4) I think we still need "local" leaders to support who carry inclusive. democratic messages. I was buoyed by J B Pritzker's warning to Trump today "You come for my people, you come through me." It reminds me - as part of your myth discussion - that in German "the United States" is grammatically plural, where we still treat it as grammatically singular in English. Knowing the horror that state's rights can introduce, be it during Jim Crow or in the aftermath of Dobbs, it seems to be our only hope today. This is a huge philosophical problem, since the same argument was used in our history to deny rights and justice, just as we are trying to restore rights and justice today.
This is great. It's where I am a year after a parallel upheaval in my country’s political landscape. In that election I voted against my lifetime pattern because that party no longer represented me. I watched democracy burn as the fascists goose stepped in. Now I stick with my tribe, close to home, still signing petitions and making submissions but locally, not nationally. It is making life feel good again. I believe the same can happen in America for those who choose to look away from the bonfire.