Of the many clear things from yesterday’s riots, one of them is that politicians who think that they can simply let other people do the right thing are actively undermining democracy. Can we say that anyone who thinks it is someone else’s responsibility to do the right thing is actively making the worldd worse? There is no way to know what will ultimately make the significant difference. It’s important to do what you know is right anyway. That’s all there is. Do what you know is right. Why is that a hard statement for other people to accept? What is wrong with our culture that there is always a justification for not doing the right thing? “What good would it really do?” “Well, maybe there is a better thing i can do later if I just do this one wrong thing now.” “Someone else will do it if I don’t.” “Someone else will do it if I do.” Sad. The other less clear thing is that this wouldn’t have happened if the entire political system hadn’t failed so spectacularly many many years ago. An
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Does storytelling build empathy?
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I am one of those people who believes that more empathy and compassion would be a good thing for society. And I hear people who share those beliefs say all the time that storytelling builds empathy, that one of the important values of storytelling is the building of empathy. They defend and advocate for more storytelling—usually their own—based on the idea that it is like a medicine of empathy for a sick population of isolated and self-centered people. Except the rise of seemingly narcissistic behavior and a lack of empathy coincides, correlates, with an explosion of storytelling through multiple television channels and more screen time. We are surrounded by story, by narrative, and we seem to just be getting worse as people. In fact, a lot of the story we see and hear is how terrible we are as people. Does storytelling really build empathy? I think that the mediums which we deliver story on actually destroy our empathetic connections as a community. Because we don’t have to leave the
Teaching a certain type of student wrong
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I keep seeing images in my head of some of the young men I have taught over the years—the ones with a certain. smug, insecurity on their face. They’re proud of their cleverness and also insecure about it. And I always senses that insecurity and figured that’d root out its source—which is the fact that cleverness isn’t how we build a happy life. To be clear, I love being clever. I love that I am clever. I enjoy clever television shows and plays and jokes. Cleverness is delightful. But cleverness is not a way to organize society, and these young men (in my recollection they were all men and, specific to this particular smugness, white) seemed to want it to be so. I always figured that they would use their cleverness to learn, that they would dig themselves out of the holes that they built for themselves, have children and discover empathy, learn that their conclusions don’t matter if they don’t make people’s lives better, learn that love is the feeling that makes life worth living and
What is the purpose of being a high-information voter?
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I have been actively aware of politics via the internet since the 2000 election. I could have voted in 1996 but didn’t because I was driving around the country, so I think the first election I may have voted in was 2000, in California. The candidates I voted for lost—which felt right for a life-long Cubs fan. I also was working for a newspaper at the time and wrote a funny editorial about the aftermath of the election. I think I anticipated that people would forget that the election was disputed and move on with their lives. I was right, in a way, though I think they’re remembering more now. (Is it possible for something to become more clear and memorable and consequential 20 years later—like i didn’t punish your sins until I could recount them, and I couldn’t recount them for 20 years? There’s a rub there.) By 2004, I was fully engaged. A lot of my writing took political engagement for granted, and I was sure that Bush’s adventures in the Middle East were both practically and ideolo
Most people don’t WANT to care
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Most people would prefer not to care about American politics. They care about their family, hopefully, their dog, probably, their job, a little bit, how much money they have, a lot. They would prefer not to have to care about the intricacies of tax policy or global warming in general or mass incarceration or all of the myriad ways that active progressive citizens insist people need to care. The new slogan of the left should be, “If you’re not outraged, then you’re not a good person.” Even if millions of Republican voters think the election was stolen from Trump, only a few thousand of them will show up to protest. Liberals on the other hand will organize the largest protests in human history. And liberals also have a bias toward caring about protests. But if millions upon millions of people can’t be bothered to show up, even if they complain like crazy during their local dinner parties, then I don’t understand why progressives pay attention. It’s a smoke show. They’ve shown, most of a
Bias is not what you think it is
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People accuse other people of having bias all the time. I might be biased. It upsets me that everyone uses the word wrong. Using it in this imprecise way makes it impossible to address. Most people use the word bias to mean that a piece of writing has a hidden agenda, at best. At worst, they make it a negative-sounding word that simply means opinion. People who breath have opinions but having an opinion doesn't mean that you're biased. You're only biased if you cannot see how your opinion is effecting your view of reality. Donald Trump has a self-centered biased caused by narcissism or just a life in which everything has always gone his way. He cannot see reality as anything other than positive for him. If he honestly believes that the votes counted for him are legitimate while the votes counted against him are not, he has a bias toward himself. Except there is no point in using the word bias in this context. It isn't the right word. Donal Trump isn't biased
An inquiry: Why do we hold onto beliefs that don’t serve us?
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Data does not predict the future. Capitalism does not maximize positive outcomes. Learning cannot be legislated. People want to belong to something larger than themselves while expending a minimum of effort. They want their sins to be virtues. I have some questions about the state of this country I live in and the world right now. Why do we hold on to obviously false underlying values? At what point does rationalization, justification, and logical calisthenics become impossible? Does it ever? Or is everything an overreaction? I want to use this blog to keep myself investigating. Once a week. Inquire beyond the obvious. Talk to people for the purposes of. Look up the answers to my questions. Tell some jokes. Not for the purpose of figuring it all out. For the purpose of knowing you all better. You can be whatever you are. I want to make sure my glasses are not blurred and my vision is as precise as it can be.