Sorry if the premise is inflammatory, but I’ve been stymied by this for a while. How did we go from something like 1940s era collectivism or 1960s era leftism to the current bizarro political machine that seems to have hypnotized a large portion (if not majority) of the country? I get it - not everything is bad now, and not everything was good then. FDR’s internment camps, etc.
That said - our country seems to be at a low point in intellectualism and accountability. The DHHS head is an antivaxxer, the deputy chief of the DOJ is a far-right podcast nutball, etc. Their supporters seem to have no nuance to their opinion beyond “well, Trump said he’d fix the economy and I don’t like woke.”
Have people always been this unserious and unquestioning, or are we watching the public’s sanity unravel in real time? Or am I just imagining some idealistic version of the past that never existed, where politicians acted in good faith and people cared about the social order?
My answer is going to include a short story as a pretext.
In Canada in the 90s, we used to have these commercials from an organization called “Concerned Childrens Advetisers” the commercials were about a variety of things, some being positive reinforcement about self esteem, others were more on the nose like not eating glue…
there was one important one that would come on a lot called “The North American House Hippo”. And for about 60 seconds it would tell kids about tiny hippopotamus that come out in your kitchen at night, eat crumbs of dropped food, and make beds under your fridge or in the pantry or something… At the end of the commercial, the narrator says something to the effect of “That was an interesting story, but Its not real, not everything you read in a book or see on the TV is real.” the internet wasn’t mentioned because it wasn’t widespread enough yet… but it had a simple lesson. Not everything you see in media is real.
that lesson hasn’t been transfered over to the majority of people, or more likely, most people are not responsible enough to be trusted with the internet because they dont know how to filter, they dont know how to think critically when presented with information online, and its even worse now in the age of deepfakes and AI, that even the smart ones get fooled now.
Collectively we’re dumber because people have allowed their public facebook comment section keyboard warrior persona, to take over their real lives. Who people are in person and who people are online, are two different individuals, but the online persona is the one who is in charge. When we are in public, we usually revert to our social norms, respect each other. But when you’re a keyboard warrior, your impotent rage and urge to yell the N word and other slurs is unchecked because there isnt anyone present to break your nose for saying or doing something antisocial or arrogant.
That was a great one. Although they kind of exist (skinny pigs). But agreed, people need to think critically. Everywhere.