Doomerism

 Paul Campos looks at a Paul Krugman column about doomerism on the economy. Krugman is talking about how there's no point in arguing with the Right about economic data because facts don't really exist in that cognitive sphere. What's depressing for Krugman and what Campos picks up on is how it's tough to get the Left to see good news. 

Personally, I am guardedly optimistic that we are a few months away from people starting to realize that the economy is in pretty good shape. People's opinion of their personal economic situation is pretty favorable, but they are convinced that the overall economy stinks. Some of this is the relentless doomerism of the press and the Professional Left. Some of it, though, is the lag we have seen again and again between an economic recovery and people's ability to breath again and feel that the economy has, in fact, recovered.

I also keep coming back to the insights about negative engagement driving social media. For me, personally, I hate that shit. My Tik Tok feed is all about puppies. Literally. Yet for a lot of people, negative stories drive engagement. You also have a lot of younger people who have vague memories of 2008 and a lot more people who have no memory of the late '70s, so they can't conceptualize what a recovery looks like. 

The only factor that's "controllable" is the preference for Leftists to present doomerism as a model for change. Fucking Lenin and his "heightening the contradictions." That almost never works and when it does, it usually unleashes really destructive forces in society. You might get the left wing revolution of your onanistic fantasies, but more likely you will get a right wing coup. In fact, you will get exactly what Trump is threatening for January 2025. 

These philosophical revolutionaries are exactly what leads to right wing authoritarianism. For the moment, it's being held at bay in America, but for the last 150 years, it has been America that has corrected the forces of right wing authoritarianism. It seems kinda important that we not be the problem, but remain the solution.