I’m still coping with the feelings that I might have witnessed half the voting population choose to mortally wound the country in November. Multitudes of opinions have been shared online detailing reasons for the Democrat loss, including those in politics whom I’ve come to admire (and not for the first time). I’ve been hoping that perhaps those who voted for Trump were just ignorant and could be educated about empathy and freedom, rather than that they really wanted to lean into hatred, bigotry, and racism. Perhaps the problem was the massive amount of disinformation and propaganda shared around the country, evident even within the national newspapers. That means with a measure of extra effort, people will change their minds!

Andrea L. Turpin — Anxious Bench (Patheos)

Jesus And John Wayne Revisited

A friend pointed out that sanctification may be the missing component in our analysis. People who look like Jesus would be more interested in voting on behalf of others than on behalf of themselves. To be perfectly clear, I am not saying that more sanctified people automatically vote for one party or the other. I am saying that a more sanctified church would show more voting diversity as genuine wrestling with various moral considerations takes place, a less pervasive ideal of masculinity as brash and combative, and more concern for the implications of leaders’ character and its effects on the least of these, prominently including the sexual abuse survivors whose experiences Du Mez details in her final chapter.

Amanda Marcotte — Salon

America’s political discordance: The Trump voters who want progressivism

When voters have factual information about the candidates, they prefer Democrats. Polls from earlier this year show that people who consume news from journalistic outlets — newspapers, network news programs, and news websites — overwhelmingly planned to vote for the Democratic candidate. Newspaper readers clocked in at 70% Democratic support, and network news viewers were 55% Democratic. News website readers were only less so because the survey didn’t distinguish between legitimate sites like Salon and bunk outlets like Breitbart, but still: merely being a person who reads stuff makes you more liberal. In states where heavy ad spending helped educate voters a little more on Harris’ plans, she lost less ground than in places where that money wasn’t spent.

I really want to believe that the problem is only education, but it doesn’t feel true. The chance that people are generally good and want to help others inspires hope within me. I want to believe that perhaps with a little more education and exposure to sensible thought, the average Trump voter can come to see how the far right doesn’t serve their needs. I want to cling to that, but I remain hesitant.

I think some of my hesitancy to hope for change is because of my own falling respect for major media outlets over the past year. I watched newspapers of record that I valued fail to be outspoken about Trump’s fascism and felt deeply betrayed. The takeover of social media and newspapers by billionaire oligarchs have ensured that even those who seek out decent information might never be able to find it. The internet greatly helped me deconstruct harmful ideologies I’d kept for decades, but it required a level of dedication and curiosity that seems unreasonable to be expected of every person. I tend to fixate on subjects and mull on them far longer than others in my life, and I was doing so when there was a press more willing to be critical of power and with an internet less dependent on gigantic corporations to stay functional.

I have to admit I’m doubtful, if the information was open and available to those in need in ways far more profound than it already is today, that it would be readily accepted by those in opposition to it, for it requires that person to be interested in seeking it out. I am well aware of the mindset that fears information from “outside” sources, for I grew up in that culture, and it took terrific effort to break free of that anxiety and feel comfortable asking “What if I’m wrong?”

Roxane Gay — The New York Times (Opinion)

Enough

There have been so many occasions when I thought finally, we have reached the apex. Finally, he has revealed too much of what lies behind the mask. Finally, this country will stand up and draw an unbreachable line in the sand. Finally, Americans will say this is not who we are and actually mean it.

That time hasn’t come.

Despite the poll claiming that the only thing separating us all is the two political parties in the United States, do we really all believe that people want to be kind to others? Isn’t hatred of the “other” an issue we’ve faced for millennia? I’ve been cynical for a while about the chances that people want to be good to others, so I doubt that those who parrot back the disinformation shared on various far-right news networks are actually confused. I think that they might be repeating favorable lies that match their internal worldviews. Are people actually misinformed? Doesn’t it seem more likely that the hatred of others is actually what is preferred by some since we keep encountering that repeatedly?

It’s like I’m watching a new religion being formed, one birthed from Christianity that strips out any of the revolutionary, socialist, communal living advice Jesus shared and replaces it with the condemnation of anyone different. The purging of anything but the most Bronze Age level worldview is happening throughout every denomination and church in Christianity, even while the people who seem to be advocating this level of hatred barely attend church or perform any religious rites. It’s like a Christianity by way of American exceptionalism, a new way of living where every condemnation is an admission of one’s secret guilt.

I’m off on a tangent, though. I started writing this post thinking I was going to share that I have hope that people can be taught how to care for others, but I couldn’t even make it through my own post before I returned to feeling discouraged. I don’t want to give up on people or the country, and I do still hope that things can get better, but I despair in moments of introspection. I’ve been keeping my thoughts about the future hidden from myself because I begin to slide into an abyss whenever I give them too much time.

Ken White — The Popehat Report

And Yet It Moves

Modernity has spoiled us in thinking things won’t get dramatically and catastrophically worse, worse in a way that will last for generations. But things have gotten abruptly much worse before, and they can again. And yet people must persevere, even if their children and grandchildren who will see the benefits and not them.

I think trying to educate others is worth the effort. I think reminding people of the humanity of others will return a net good, and I want to do it because I want the world to be a decent place for my children (or any future generations). After all those episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation I began to believe that perhaps the egalitarian worldview it espoused could happen in my lifetime, but as I face middle age I wonder if perhaps this will take far longer than I had naïvely expected. But I’m going to keep on believing.