Last edited Sun Nov 29, 2020, 03:14 PM - Edit history (1)
"What to do? You can’t argue people out of paranoia. If you try to point out factual errors, you only entrench false belief. The only solution is to reduce the distrust and anxiety that is the seedbed of this thinking. That can only be done first by contact, reducing the social chasm between the members of the epistemic regime and those who feel so alienated from it. And second, it can be done by policy, by making life more secure for those without a college degree.
"Rebuilding trust is, obviously, the work of a generation."
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First, what good is making social contact with rotted minds going to do? You can plainly state your name to them, and address them by their names, and they will tell you that everything you just said is wrong. Just when you think you set the expectations bar low enough to communicate with the deliberately and militantly obtuse, they will find ways to make you believe you set the bar too high.
Secondly, why is it incumbent upon the reality-based people to build bridges to the residents of Cloud Cuckoo Land? It gets us nowhere. Oh, we listen, we accommodate, we compromise — and to what end? The alternative facts crowd never negotiates in good faith. It is embarrassingly rich with takers and abusers, and it should not be up to us to rehabilitate them. If they claim to belong to the party of personal responsibility, then it is time they act responsibly and quit being obnoxious, entitled jerks.
Thirdly, life is not secure for college degree holders, either. Those vehicles you see lined up for food bank distributions? Their drivers are not all blue collar types. Those buried for years under a mountain of debt? College grads, in many if not most cases. Those people facing eviction during the holidays? Degree holders are affected by this threat, too. The alternative facts crowd likes to claim all lives matter, and if they practiced what they preached, they would be equally concerned about everyone from all walks of life, all social classes, and all education backgrounds. But what they really mean is "My life matters more than yours."
Go away. Stay there. Come back when you no longer equate your selfishness with freedom.
Lastly, if "rebuilding trust is the work of a generation," that is an acceptable statement only if it describes the minimal amount of time that Trump supporters will need to get back in our good graces. They need to become unconditional staunch supporters of democracy, the common good, and basic human decency. In short, our American values. Anything less is unacceptable.
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