Thanks for this Reed. 700 years ago Dante realized that words have tremendous power. He reserved the 8th Circle of Hell for Frauds who use their words to harm others for their own gain. Our time is not much different than Dante's Florence. He dealt with liars, thieves and frauds--and named names. Seven centuries later and human nature repeats on a much bigger scale.
On RFK, Jr and other noisy, irrelevant candidates: A vote for anyone other than Joe Biden is a vote for Trump. This must be broadcast far and wide. America cannot afford the distraction of idiots.
Good article. I liked both quotes. A good quote can cover lots of sins. Let's not forget that Wisdom is ageless. Thanks, Reed, for sharing thoughts. Very helpful on how we might frame our own conversations with those of like mind as well as with those that are not quite on planet earth.
*****Not to say you should insult them, belittle them, or otherwise cause them to switch off. But it is important to give the undecided, the unaffiliated, the apathetic, a nudge in the right direction.*****
.
This is ENORMOUSLY important!
Persuasion is the key. Snark and belittlement clog the lock.
Also relevant to this post and our future is a David French column that the New York Times published the other day. Excerpt below the gift link.
An urgent task is to inspire people to pay attention and respond appropriately. The beating-people-over-the-head approach is unlikely to succeed.
*****[A]n online conversation isn’t the same thing as a national conversation.
I’m reminded of one of the most illuminating studies I’ve ever read. It came from the Hidden Tribes of America project, which was put together by a group called More in Common. It surveyed 8,000 Americans to try to explore their attitudes and conflicts beyond the red-blue divide, and one of its central conclusions is critical to understanding the modern moment: Only a minority of Americans are truly active in political debates, and they’re exhausting and alienating the rest of the country.
[...]
Together, [the] polarized wings are the most united, most tribal and least persuadable Americans. Or, as More in Common put it, members of the wings are “the most certain of their positions.” The rest of Americans — the other two-thirds — constitute an “exhausted majority.” They’re deeply discontented with American politics, and many are also largely disengaged.
[...]
This kind of exhaustion magnifies our political inertia. If the wings aren’t changing their minds and the majority is checked out, then stasis can set in. The engaged members of the wings are negatively polarized. There is no way they’re switching teams. The exhausted majority is discontent with the status quo, but it’s largely passive. It doesn’t exert nearly enough energy to repair our political culture, even though it wants change.
To better understand the dynamic, imagine our political controversies as a court case where the lawyers argue with each other but most of the jury doesn’t even arrive until the end of the case. Yes, they cast votes, but their decisions are rooted in their existing biases, not the evidence. The lawyers are livid at the absent jurors. The jurors are repulsed by the lawyers’ hostility, and nothing changes.
[...]
Experience teaches us that most disengaged Republicans would quite likely stay Republican even if they knew the truth about Trump. It’s also true, however, that absent new information, they have no good reason to change their votes. Yet when they disengage, they remove themselves from the information that could change their minds.
[...]
One friend told me, “I got sick of the constant rage.” So he deleted his social media accounts, turned his cable television from Fox News to ESPN and never looked back. “My blood pressure is down,” he said, “and I’m a better husband and father.” Good for him, I thought, but bad for us. Another decent man has disengaged. Another member of the jury has left the courtroom.*****
Thanks for this Reed. I listened to your podcast with Danny. I know he has to hold the academic line and talk about the scholarly disagreements about fascism. I’m glad that you get talking about the political or pragmatic situation in which we find ourselves.
The only way, at this point, to start to diminish the power of MAGA is to defeat not just Trump, but MAGA GOP up and down the ballot. Thank you for this essay and a great podcast episode.
"Not as bad as Trump" is the lowest possible bar for anyone to slither over. Almost any one of us, including Unca Joe, looks like a saint next to Agent Orange.
That doesn't mean Joe's a good option, even if he's the best one. He opposed school busing, defamed Anita Hill and gave us Clarence Thomas, voted to invade Iraq, and has a very peculiar idea for how to handle classified documents.
On top of that, he's 81 and while he's pretty fit, it's a mistake not to follow that with "for a man his age." We're being asked to bet on an 86-yr old man as our President. While Trump, of all people, has asked us to check if we're better off than 4-yrs ago, we should also be looking 4 years ahead. We can all cite a number of octogenarians who are pretty sharp, but it's invariably anecdotal. Not many of us make it that far and those who do are overwhelmingly likely to have major health issues. An acquaintance just checked his wife into dementia facility and they are @ 80. That's a helluva bet we're being asked to take with absolutely no assurance "it'll all work out."
The hottest places in hell are reserved for those, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.” - Dante Alighieri
The great moral crisis that you would have us ignore is the GENOCIDE of the Palestinian people by the Biden administration. Normalizing genocide in the most powerful nuclear capable country in the world puts the whole world at risk and when the republicans eventually take over again the next genocide will be even worse.
As if the democratic party platform offers anything close or resembling to the “ideals it is America“ intended by the framers? You’re fucking Trippin. Aside from a few basic human rights, there is no statistically significant difference whatsoever. If you’re playing argument boils down to that, we’ve lost a long time ago. The only way to change this choice of fascism versus despotic totalitarianism is to stop the blind, ignorant tribal allegiance, and remove all barriers for Vallet access to other parties. There is one other way, but there’s not a snowballs chance in hell it will happen. #MassCivilDisobedience and performance of duty by the citizens.
Do you even know what your #Duty is?
Per the Declaration
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
Thanks for this Reed. 700 years ago Dante realized that words have tremendous power. He reserved the 8th Circle of Hell for Frauds who use their words to harm others for their own gain. Our time is not much different than Dante's Florence. He dealt with liars, thieves and frauds--and named names. Seven centuries later and human nature repeats on a much bigger scale.
On RFK, Jr and other noisy, irrelevant candidates: A vote for anyone other than Joe Biden is a vote for Trump. This must be broadcast far and wide. America cannot afford the distraction of idiots.
Good article. I liked both quotes. A good quote can cover lots of sins. Let's not forget that Wisdom is ageless. Thanks, Reed, for sharing thoughts. Very helpful on how we might frame our own conversations with those of like mind as well as with those that are not quite on planet earth.
Reed wrote:
*****Not to say you should insult them, belittle them, or otherwise cause them to switch off. But it is important to give the undecided, the unaffiliated, the apathetic, a nudge in the right direction.*****
.
This is ENORMOUSLY important!
Persuasion is the key. Snark and belittlement clog the lock.
Also relevant to this post and our future is a David French column that the New York Times published the other day. Excerpt below the gift link.
An urgent task is to inspire people to pay attention and respond appropriately. The beating-people-over-the-head approach is unlikely to succeed.
.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/opinion/christian-nationalists-polling-divide.html?ugrp=c&unlocked_article_code=1.fU0.yu2w.jrcgkpgvsr7n&smid=url-share
*****[A]n online conversation isn’t the same thing as a national conversation.
I’m reminded of one of the most illuminating studies I’ve ever read. It came from the Hidden Tribes of America project, which was put together by a group called More in Common. It surveyed 8,000 Americans to try to explore their attitudes and conflicts beyond the red-blue divide, and one of its central conclusions is critical to understanding the modern moment: Only a minority of Americans are truly active in political debates, and they’re exhausting and alienating the rest of the country.
[...]
Together, [the] polarized wings are the most united, most tribal and least persuadable Americans. Or, as More in Common put it, members of the wings are “the most certain of their positions.” The rest of Americans — the other two-thirds — constitute an “exhausted majority.” They’re deeply discontented with American politics, and many are also largely disengaged.
[...]
This kind of exhaustion magnifies our political inertia. If the wings aren’t changing their minds and the majority is checked out, then stasis can set in. The engaged members of the wings are negatively polarized. There is no way they’re switching teams. The exhausted majority is discontent with the status quo, but it’s largely passive. It doesn’t exert nearly enough energy to repair our political culture, even though it wants change.
To better understand the dynamic, imagine our political controversies as a court case where the lawyers argue with each other but most of the jury doesn’t even arrive until the end of the case. Yes, they cast votes, but their decisions are rooted in their existing biases, not the evidence. The lawyers are livid at the absent jurors. The jurors are repulsed by the lawyers’ hostility, and nothing changes.
[...]
Experience teaches us that most disengaged Republicans would quite likely stay Republican even if they knew the truth about Trump. It’s also true, however, that absent new information, they have no good reason to change their votes. Yet when they disengage, they remove themselves from the information that could change their minds.
[...]
One friend told me, “I got sick of the constant rage.” So he deleted his social media accounts, turned his cable television from Fox News to ESPN and never looked back. “My blood pressure is down,” he said, “and I’m a better husband and father.” Good for him, I thought, but bad for us. Another decent man has disengaged. Another member of the jury has left the courtroom.*****
Thanks for this Reed. I listened to your podcast with Danny. I know he has to hold the academic line and talk about the scholarly disagreements about fascism. I’m glad that you get talking about the political or pragmatic situation in which we find ourselves.
The only way, at this point, to start to diminish the power of MAGA is to defeat not just Trump, but MAGA GOP up and down the ballot. Thank you for this essay and a great podcast episode.
"Not as bad as Trump" is the lowest possible bar for anyone to slither over. Almost any one of us, including Unca Joe, looks like a saint next to Agent Orange.
That doesn't mean Joe's a good option, even if he's the best one. He opposed school busing, defamed Anita Hill and gave us Clarence Thomas, voted to invade Iraq, and has a very peculiar idea for how to handle classified documents.
On top of that, he's 81 and while he's pretty fit, it's a mistake not to follow that with "for a man his age." We're being asked to bet on an 86-yr old man as our President. While Trump, of all people, has asked us to check if we're better off than 4-yrs ago, we should also be looking 4 years ahead. We can all cite a number of octogenarians who are pretty sharp, but it's invariably anecdotal. Not many of us make it that far and those who do are overwhelmingly likely to have major health issues. An acquaintance just checked his wife into dementia facility and they are @ 80. That's a helluva bet we're being asked to take with absolutely no assurance "it'll all work out."
Ridiculously un self aware Reed Gallen.
The hottest places in hell are reserved for those, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.” - Dante Alighieri
The great moral crisis that you would have us ignore is the GENOCIDE of the Palestinian people by the Biden administration. Normalizing genocide in the most powerful nuclear capable country in the world puts the whole world at risk and when the republicans eventually take over again the next genocide will be even worse.
Brilliant and true
As if the democratic party platform offers anything close or resembling to the “ideals it is America“ intended by the framers? You’re fucking Trippin. Aside from a few basic human rights, there is no statistically significant difference whatsoever. If you’re playing argument boils down to that, we’ve lost a long time ago. The only way to change this choice of fascism versus despotic totalitarianism is to stop the blind, ignorant tribal allegiance, and remove all barriers for Vallet access to other parties. There is one other way, but there’s not a snowballs chance in hell it will happen. #MassCivilDisobedience and performance of duty by the citizens.
Do you even know what your #Duty is?
Per the Declaration
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
Simply put, you have no standing, Sir
Great quote.