Comment by estearum
7 hours ago
Yes but this administration was essentially elected on the idea that they can be horrible people and do horrible things because they will not kick the can down the road, and biting the bullet on these problems is worth the litany of abuses of our nation and our allies.
Turns out it's just the worst of both worlds.
Higher debt, more foreign intervention, slower growth, higher inflation, and our upper echelons occupied by people with no semblance of, or even gesture toward, personal character.
Anyone who thought the admin was anything but conmen deserves what they get.
The sad part is everyone else they’re going to take with them.
> deserves what they get
American voters exist in an environment of propaganda addiction, with every piece of their personal technology reinforcing and profiting from said addiction, that has never existed before. I have great empathy and understanding for those who are bombarded by voices that are actively manipulating them for engagement, and I believe this empathy is key to understanding if, and how, a landscape of echo chambers can nonetheless result in a sustainable and balanced future.
(edit: see below for my response about the limits of this)
The issue here is that mindset is exactly what enables their continued behavior.
How many ‘DUI’s are acceptable? How many innocents dying will be ignored?
Enabling an addict makes you (in my opinion) just as culpable in the outcomes as they are.
Understanding, absolutely. None of us are immune from propaganda, and most of us have at one time or another been swayed by selective arguments and echo chambers to behave poorly.
I don’t like that you have empathy for people who are right this second steering the government in a project of performative cruelty against me. I think you should withhold your empathy until they’ve been stopped and appropriately punished for their misdeeds.
19 replies →
I am certainly willing to accept, and empathize with, people being bombarded by political propaganda that leads them to stupid ideas. There is no shortage of this, across all political stripes.
What I will decidedly not accept is when people steadfastly refuse to listen to their fellow citizens' criticisms of their chosen propaganda, but instead go on the offensive attacking anyone who deviates from it - even when people are trying to engage with them using their own stated preferences regarding morals, rights, economics, etc! This is the highly toxic dynamic underlying the actual division, and is exactly what enables the negative-sum con job based around vice signalling.
> I believe this empathy is key to understanding if, and how, a landscape of echo chambers can nonetheless result in a sustainable and balanced future.
That ship has sailed. This administration is reinforcing that it is okay, even something to be celebrated, to be doing violence to those that they dislike, for whatever reasons. It is not mere parroting of propaganda that is the concern, but the consequences thereof. There is no "sustainable and balanced future" in that.
I have had arguments on this very site where I've been told that -I- and others like me are at fault. At fault for having exhausted tolerance for people peddling things like "after-birth abortions" (Did you know that in some Democrat states you can have an abortion up to 30 days after the baby is born?!?) and similar absolute garbage. Not even "differences of opinion or perspective". I've been told endlessly, "Maybe I need to put more effort into why they think or feel that way?" That won't work, because I'll be the only one. It's never "maybe they should think about why I think that's absolutely ridiculous". There's no effort on critical reasoning or discourse that will work there, because it's not grounded in reason in the first place. And when that comes up, crickets. But no, keep going high, keep working on empathy for people who actively celebrate LE shooting people, a President that will say from the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, quote, "My kids are insider trading all the time".
That ship has sailed. I'm not sure where it goes from here, but my fear is somewhere even uglier.