Exactly! That's why I had to disengage! I was getting that reaction, despite my Canadian immunity to American fascist displeasure.
I got a lot of peace from reading Stephen Pinker's "Better Angels" book. Pinker gives you a longer view of the entire planet slowly growing a conscience and a soul. It's not just the abolition of slavery, vote…
Exactly! That's why I had to disengage! I was getting that reaction, despite my Canadian immunity to American fascist displeasure.
I got a lot of peace from reading Stephen Pinker's "Better Angels" book. Pinker gives you a longer view of the entire planet slowly growing a conscience and a soul. It's not just the abolition of slavery, votes for minorities and women, there's an ongoing continuum of moral consciousness: it used to be OK to beat kids in public. Or shoot a "dog that won't hunt". A Republican just discovered even Republicans have moved to the other side of that little culture war: dogs are now pets, not farm equipment. That shooting would have been uncontroversial in 1980.
Pinker was able to show that WW2 was just a bump in that road; well, a mountain in the road, but the race climbed it and became better. Trump really is just a little bump in that same road.
On the other hand, Pinker's time-scale is also what drove me to drop NYT and WaPo subscriptions, start disengaging with American news. I realized that while I was watching progress, the speed is such that I won't see a low-racism, low-militarism, low-violence America in my lifetime. 20 years from now, another Trump, only a little less bad, will still be possible. If you feel you have to stay engaged, you'll need a lot of teeth-gritting.
So I had to give up cheering for the Good Guy American team.
Truly, if I were not a Florida voter in particular I might have disengaged more, as I have the luxury of my new Canadian citizenship. But it is still a state that could maybe go either way. Less than it used to be, but still.
Exactly! That's why I had to disengage! I was getting that reaction, despite my Canadian immunity to American fascist displeasure.
I got a lot of peace from reading Stephen Pinker's "Better Angels" book. Pinker gives you a longer view of the entire planet slowly growing a conscience and a soul. It's not just the abolition of slavery, votes for minorities and women, there's an ongoing continuum of moral consciousness: it used to be OK to beat kids in public. Or shoot a "dog that won't hunt". A Republican just discovered even Republicans have moved to the other side of that little culture war: dogs are now pets, not farm equipment. That shooting would have been uncontroversial in 1980.
Pinker was able to show that WW2 was just a bump in that road; well, a mountain in the road, but the race climbed it and became better. Trump really is just a little bump in that same road.
On the other hand, Pinker's time-scale is also what drove me to drop NYT and WaPo subscriptions, start disengaging with American news. I realized that while I was watching progress, the speed is such that I won't see a low-racism, low-militarism, low-violence America in my lifetime. 20 years from now, another Trump, only a little less bad, will still be possible. If you feel you have to stay engaged, you'll need a lot of teeth-gritting.
So I had to give up cheering for the Good Guy American team.
100%
Truly, if I were not a Florida voter in particular I might have disengaged more, as I have the luxury of my new Canadian citizenship. But it is still a state that could maybe go either way. Less than it used to be, but still.