4 ms·

Some perspective—for a decent chunk of the population, the USA has always been on fire for them. There is something to be said for better understanding and emp

Some perspective—for a decent chunk of the population, the USA has always been on fire for them. There is something to be said for better understanding and empathizing what daily life has been like for a lot of our neighbors and colleagues who never really felt that things were right in our society.

dcrn 6y ago
As one of those neighbors and colleagues, I genuinely thank you for sharing this perspective.
iamatworknow 6y ago
This is one of the major things I miss about drinking in bars. I've had many super enlightening conversations with people I would otherwise never talk with at bars after a couple beers. YMMV of course, but as a "happy drunk" who usually only frequented quiet/low key places, it really was nice.
tootie 6y ago
Not to minimize, but society being "right" is an almost unachievable bar to hit. I tend to think in more relative terms. Most metrics of quality of life have been steadily improving for a long time. I think a lot of the things people see as being "on fire" in 2020 are things that have been going on forever, but we never bothered to worry about them because something more pressing was ahead of it in line. The thing that has set my anxiety on fire isn't that society has problems, it's just how far apart people's base perceptions are. Obviously we've always had crazies, but the capitol insurrection shows just how far removed from reality a huge swath of the population is. We can have debates on how to solve issues of policing, or taxation or health care, but in my mind there is just no justification for the 74M people who think a lying racist moron is the answer to anything. And I genuinely believe that "lying racist moron" is objectively true at this point. He led an insurrection based on absolute lies and people ate it up. They just don't exist on the same plane of reality as I do.
- tolbish 6y ago
  Trump is a symptom/result of things that have been "going on forever". In the same sense, couldn't your shock come from being out of touch with what your fellow countrymen desired for the last few decades? Not to minimize, of course.
- rubicon33 6y ago
  These things are unsurprising given the state of the middle class in the US. It’s no different than why hitler rose to power and scape goated the Jews. When people are stretched thin the ugliest in them comes out and opportunistic “leaders” have exploited that for centuries. You want to fix racism but you’re putting the cart before the horse. Fix the staggering wealth inequality first before you even think about having hope of addressing stereotyping and racism. Downvote me all you want, but this is history. I’m not saying racism isn’t real, it’s very real and very ugly. It’s part of human nature to stereotype others, just as it’s human nature to fight and hoard resources. We have to combat these innate tendencies as a community by FIRST ensuring that all our people have the ability to live comfortably. The unfortunate reality for most marginalized communities in the US is that they simply don’t have the time to sit and wait for the economic policies to shift back to favoring the middle class. They have to act now.
  - loopz 6y ago
    Many of us have been warning of this for some time. There are similar problems in Europe, but not so culturally extreme. Due to local history, the blindspots are not so prevalent and populists tend to go away. What is most disconcerning though, is US people seeming to vote against their own interests. Maybe a third party instead of co-opting those who clearly don't have your own interest at heart. But then we see the predicament since the system/culture/billionaires don't support more parties and hard compromises.
    - ryandrake 6y ago
      > What is most disconcerning though, is US people seeming to vote against their own interests. They are voting against their own economic interests, but clearly there are other non-economic interests that are more important to them in play here.

dcrn 6y ago

As one of those neighbors and colleagues, I genuinely thank you for sharing this perspective.

iamatworknow 6y ago

This is one of the major things I miss about drinking in bars. I've had many super enlightening conversations with people I would otherwise never talk with at bars after a couple beers. YMMV of course, but as a "happy drunk" who usually only frequented quiet/low key places, it really was nice.

tootie 6y ago

Not to minimize, but society being "right" is an almost unachievable bar to hit. I tend to think in more relative terms. Most metrics of quality of life have been steadily improving for a long time. I think a lot of the things people see as being "on fire" in 2020 are things that have been going on forever, but we never bothered to worry about them because something more pressing was ahead of it in line. The thing that has set my anxiety on fire isn't that society has problems, it's just how far apart people's base perceptions are. Obviously we've always had crazies, but the capitol insurrection shows just how far removed from reality a huge swath of the population is. We can have debates on how to solve issues of policing, or taxation or health care, but in my mind there is just no justification for the 74M people who think a lying racist moron is the answer to anything. And I genuinely believe that "lying racist moron" is objectively true at this point. He led an insurrection based on absolute lies and people ate it up. They just don't exist on the same plane of reality as I do.

tolbish 6y ago
Trump is a symptom/result of things that have been "going on forever". In the same sense, couldn't your shock come from being out of touch with what your fellow countrymen desired for the last few decades? Not to minimize, of course.
rubicon33 6y ago
These things are unsurprising given the state of the middle class in the US. It’s no different than why hitler rose to power and scape goated the Jews. When people are stretched thin the ugliest in them comes out and opportunistic “leaders” have exploited that for centuries. You want to fix racism but you’re putting the cart before the horse. Fix the staggering wealth inequality first before you even think about having hope of addressing stereotyping and racism. Downvote me all you want, but this is history. I’m not saying racism isn’t real, it’s very real and very ugly. It’s part of human nature to stereotype others, just as it’s human nature to fight and hoard resources. We have to combat these innate tendencies as a community by FIRST ensuring that all our people have the ability to live comfortably. The unfortunate reality for most marginalized communities in the US is that they simply don’t have the time to sit and wait for the economic policies to shift back to favoring the middle class. They have to act now.
- loopz 6y ago
  Many of us have been warning of this for some time. There are similar problems in Europe, but not so culturally extreme. Due to local history, the blindspots are not so prevalent and populists tend to go away. What is most disconcerning though, is US people seeming to vote against their own interests. Maybe a third party instead of co-opting those who clearly don't have your own interest at heart. But then we see the predicament since the system/culture/billionaires don't support more parties and hard compromises.
  - ryandrake 6y ago
    > What is most disconcerning though, is US people seeming to vote against their own interests. They are voting against their own economic interests, but clearly there are other non-economic interests that are more important to them in play here.