I'm still processing. It all seems so overwhelming. RvW is gone. Human rights are once again on the chopping block. Half the country is on a gun binge and apparently willing to die or kill for them. Corporate America is happily gorging itself and starving it's workforce. Policy compromise is DOA. An entire political party gleefully endorses an outright fairy tale. People are scared and worried. I'm one of them.
It's the way I am. I can think my way around most debates that drop in my path and actually like working my way through them. I'm not a scientist or an academic but logic and facts make sense to me. Over the years, I've developed a low tolerance for simplistic arguments and buckshot analogies. It leaves me nervous when so many people have not.
The gleeful disregard for verifiable information is one thing I never saw coming. A sizeable portion of the body public seems bent on denying logic or proof. Everything that doesn't fit is fake. Or someone got paid to say it. Or just call everyone a pedophile or groomer and go happily and confidently on your way. Facts are flexible things that bend and twist to meet an end. It isn't what you know...it's what you believe. It isn't what you can prove...it's what's been approved. Anyone who isn't with you is against you. There will be a purity test administered for admission to your chosen faith system. It's a zero-sum game and there will be no negotiation.
Möbius was right in more ways than he ever could have imagined when it turns out literally everything tends to be one-sided. The world has become his eponymous strip that always circles itself back around to the beginning.
That might be why I'm having such a hard time. Everybody is yelling. Everyone is so very sure they're right and everyone else is a monster.
I've been debating gun rights over on my other social media and keep running up against the same big-brush arguments over and over. Now it's Roe v. Wade. Next it'll be January 6th. Then inflation. Then...well pick one. They're all complicated and deserving of consideration but memes and sound bites drive the discussion to a tabloid level. And it's self-reinforcing thanks to algorithms that drive clicks to the very same lowest common denominator that will generate the most likes and sell you the most stuff. It's so very easy to live on Möbius' strip where all things lead back to where you started and there's only one side no matter how you slice it. Your friends are there and they all agree with you.
And yet, there are so many really important things going on all around us and much as I'd like to turn off the world, I can't just ignore it and wait silently for whatever happens. If you don't engage you could find yourself sitting fat, dumb and happy when the roof caves in.
I'm unsure what to do or even if there's anything I can do. I think I should do something but where to start? I vote of course but I'm only one drop in an ocean. I can donate to what I consider worthy causes but how much difference can it reasonably make? I have to earn my way so how much volunteer time can I commit to? I raise an occasional stink on Facebook but I'm very much aware that you can't change the world by arguing on social media. Nobody is listening no matter how civil and thoughtful the post or how narrow I try to keep the focus. But then...is it doing anything anyway? Is it teaching the proverbial pig to sing? Wasting my time and only annoying the pig?
It's frustrating. So I'm processing. With any luck, I'll figure out if not what to do then at least which way to start. If all I can do is flirt with disaster with the keyboard warriors I guess that'll have to do for now...but I doubt it'll be the end of it.
As always...more to follow.
