Both Martin Longman and Matt Yglesias take on the prevailing sense of doom in progressive circles. Longman looks at the broader picture and Yglesias focuses on climate change, but they both describe a sort of continual panic among left of center people. Some of this is a product of four years of living under the presidency of one of the worst human beings in American history. The non-stop effrontery to basic decency and competency was bad enough, but the number of Americans who cheered it on was what was so depressing. We went through this in 2004, when it seemed like John Kerry might derail the disastrous Bush Presidency. Alas.
I mean, I get it. I understand why people re-electing the architect of Abu Ghraib or devoting themselves to worshipping a man caught in tape bragging about sexual assault could cause people to be upset. I know that a Big Issue like climate change can feel overwhelming.
There is, nevertheless, a tendency on the left to do two things. The first is to look at our closely divided politics - but a politics where the left of center outnumbers the right of center - and despair that America is hopelessly racist and sexist. The second is to presume that the past was better than the present in some way. Both perspectives seem wrong to me.
On the first point, 16 years ago, same sex marriage was a wedge issue that Republicans used to win elections. Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein were raping women with impunity. America was embarking on two long and fruitless wars. Carbon emissions were rising to alarming levels. Does that mean that there are not still horrible people? Of course not. But if you look at a simpering idiot like Marjorie Traitor Greene and assume she's the average American, you're going to despair. She's not, though. She's part of a rearguard that's losing every major cultural battle - either yesterday or today or in the future. That "L" branded on her forehead is why Conservatives are so furious. They are losing; they know it; they are despondent.
On the second point, Yglesias touches on this, but it's about the weird relationship progressive-leaning people have with the past. Things are objectively better today than they have even been in recorded history. You can focus on vaccine hesitancy and miss the fact that we brought a new vaccine that works amazingly well from the lab to people's arms in record time. And that this new mRNA technology can be quickly applied to new variants AND existing diseases like malaria and HIV. I drive a hybrid SUV that can get 35 MPG on some trips. That's amazing.
There's a whole school of dipshit anarchists who think that living in medieval Europe was great, because you ate a healthier diet - no Big Macs - neglecting to look at the life expectancy in the 30s. The world today is amazing, but we are perpetually focused on what is wrong. We are addicted to outrage and angst.
Some of this, I think, is a product of how good things are. We are hard wired for threats and most of us live incredibly safe lives. We no longer worry about demented gods or strange beasts in the dark, so we obsess over whatever threat that DOES exist. Crime is down historically, but spiking in some areas. So we become monomaniacal over the "crime wave" that we read about on Fucking Facebook. Social media feeds off out outrage, whether it's a conservative ranting over Brian Flores pointing out that the NFL doesn't really care about Black people rising in the coaching ranks or a liberal fulminating over Trump tearing up documents because he's an idiot who thinks he's Meyer Lansky.
I suppose if there were one thing I would do, it would be to address the way social media focuses on stimulating our amygdala with things that are designed to outrage people. I don't know what we can do about the fact that if you are trying to raise money for Planned Parenthood, you need to convince the people on your mailing list that all abortions are about to be outlawed, rather than heavily, heavily restricted. The accumulation of that messaging is bad, but likely unsolvable.
Remember: Trump failed on January 6th. He never came close, because he didn't have the military or the police on his side, because he's a goddamned criminal. It was awful, but it was more spectacle than actual threat to democracy. That's bad, but it's not the end of the world.
In the end, good DOES triumph. Ask Hitler or Pol Pot.
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