Keystrokes, slow-pokes, puppy dog tails#
We’re all waiting. The pot has started to boil. Its slow, a slow roll, and the air and the water fidget themselves into a mist. Its hard not to think that there is someone at the top, orchestrating and fat-fingering their way into greater societal dis-ease. You can feel it, everywhere, and yet when you go outside and walk around and do your everyday things -nothing is wrong. Its just made up. Just a feeling.
The internet is a wild instrument and the effect it has on mankind is something we’re starting to understand but individually we feel above it. I know what cognitive dissonance is, I know what propaganda is, I know what implicit bias is, and I will not suffer its effects because I am smarter, more alert and will not fall where the rest of humanity does, because I am better than them. This is what we all think. Right? Its wrong, but its how the majority of people think. Why is that? Some people will attribute it to their habits, or their culture, how they look, maybe their parents, possibly their skin color. Its some rough version of: When God put me together, he cared more than when he put you together. This is ego and it is lying. Its so powerful though. You are susceptible, you are being influenced, you are being fooled. You cannot escape. Isn’t that wild?
The best you can do, is slow down. If you’re thorough and lucky, you can slow down enough to ask yourself why you think the way you do, and realize at the bottom of your argument is just emotion. Because you feel like it. It won’t win you an argument, but at least its honest. How can it be that the disgust people feel for Donald Trump, is the same force that put him in that position? Politics is a dirty, disgusting business. Watching the world twist and wriggle through the Trump presidency has changed a lot. Every institution is suspect. Nothing is sacred. But the story is the same, the politicians don’t care, they won’t save you, and if you think they will you’ve managed to lie to yourself for another term. How is that possible?
The left is starving for religion, and the right is sure their religion is what everyone needs. This need to fight a dragon and their hatred of Trump is what lets the left look past morality with their two tickets for suicidal empathy and go “Yeah, this is a good idea”. The left used to be the party of empathy, of compassion and understanding, and now its the party of censorship and uncensored sex. Watching the chairs get switched around is like waking up in bizarro world. The best parts about the left has been exchanged with the worst parts of the right 20 years ago. How did that happen?
The right did sort of the same thing but the other way. They put their chips behind an obvious liar. Someone with obvious moral flaws, the ones their religion preach against. The left looks at this and goes “how are you letting yourself be tricked?” but everyone is seeing the same thing. Nobody is being tricked. Just like big tech in this second term, they understand the ride they’re on and decided they can make a few bucks on it. He’s also doing the same thing, he’s trying to make some money and picking a couple issues to try and make people happy about. Unfortunately all those issues are super divisive, but are they that way because of the actual issue or because he’s the one pushing them? Sometimes its hard to tell.
When Trump became president the first time, the left had a real problem. He was taking up all the air time with his wild rhetoric and just making a mockery of them by dragging them through the mud. This lowered the office of the presidency to something akin to a reality TV show, but it was effective and the people loved it. The media could have taken the high road and they tried, but they couldn’t hold out. They were mad and wanted to fight back, and now we have a media that is covered in mud. I wish they held out and never got into the mud pit. I think we would be in a different position.
Culture is in a pretty bad spot. We need to start talking with each other instead of talking past each other. Stop mind reading and fortune telling because you don’t know. People aren’t robots. Censorship, PC culture, self censorship, these things are in the way of having real conversations. How have colleges become so bad at censoring speakers? Politics getting its tendrils into the minds of the youth is perverted, whichever way its pulling, and thats mostly the fault of the parents and young educators. An alien invasion probably won’t bring us together but comedy will. Things are starting the lighten up and comedy is coming back. That means the nation is starting to heal. Its slow, and after this Trump term it’ll be exciting to see how that changes things. Sometimes I think that if we took on a more British approach to politics we’d be in a better place. Meaning when the party in power flips, instead of undoing all the stuff the other side did, we just move forward. Maybe thats better? Its hard to tell.