Great post. I DO remember when we could have those kinds of conversations. I remember the day Trump was elected and EVERYONE was having those kinds of conversations. For a couple weeks, even. The guy who owned the Indian Restaurant down the street voted for Trump, and he argued with one of his regulars about it, a white woman. (He wanted low taxes and a good business environment.) Two white suburban teenagers were arguing with a bunch of other people at a bar. (Incredibly, one of their reasons was ‘we don’t want to be poor like the people in Europe. Have you seen how they live?’ I had been to Europe so this comment perplexed me until I hit up google and found out that people in Europe do have somewhat lower disposable income than Americans (only on average). Yes, they live longer but as I can’t ask these people I assume they were big fans of disposable income and not so into longer lives. Another woman (white again, senior citizen, on social security) was talking about immigrants and how to get rid of them.
I said to my students, who didn’t seem especially eager to talk about the election but who were bummed overall—‘whatever you think about the election, the future can work out for all of us, as long as everyone doesn’t start to hate everyone else.’ And bingo—it was like I had jinxed America. I know that isn’t what happened, obviously. My guess was that the hate was the biggest danger of all. This was the main thing I wanted to prevent, and also did not want the situation to change me as well. I think most people don’t even remember what we lost. Almost nobody talks about it. If you do talk about it—the shrinking possibility of non-pigeonholed, less mediated human connection that was easier to find across various social gulfs—they say it wasn’t real or think you are an enemy, corrupt or a fool for valuing such a thing.
thank you, I'm really glad it resonated with you. I agree, and I think it's really pretty discouraging that everything is so polarized. As I think I made pretty clear in the peice, I think Trump is a legitimate menace to democracy and I'm tired of listening to him, almost 10 years later! But I think most of the cultural oppostion to him has just kind of fed his divisive strategy and we're all the poorer for it. I grew up in a pretty liberal/leftist world, but I've worked construction for 25 years. I'm very grateful for that because otherwise I probably wouldn't have a window into the way the "other half" thinks and feels. I feel like mostly because of my job I don't see Trump supporters as horrible racists and unredeemable scum or whatever because I talk to them with curiousity, and even though I disagree with them A LOT I can understand why they feel the way they do. People are so fascinating to me I can't do the clean easy othering that both sides constantly want to do. And of course our media ecosystem is literally built for this kind of division.
Great post. I DO remember when we could have those kinds of conversations. I remember the day Trump was elected and EVERYONE was having those kinds of conversations. For a couple weeks, even. The guy who owned the Indian Restaurant down the street voted for Trump, and he argued with one of his regulars about it, a white woman. (He wanted low taxes and a good business environment.) Two white suburban teenagers were arguing with a bunch of other people at a bar. (Incredibly, one of their reasons was ‘we don’t want to be poor like the people in Europe. Have you seen how they live?’ I had been to Europe so this comment perplexed me until I hit up google and found out that people in Europe do have somewhat lower disposable income than Americans (only on average). Yes, they live longer but as I can’t ask these people I assume they were big fans of disposable income and not so into longer lives. Another woman (white again, senior citizen, on social security) was talking about immigrants and how to get rid of them.
I said to my students, who didn’t seem especially eager to talk about the election but who were bummed overall—‘whatever you think about the election, the future can work out for all of us, as long as everyone doesn’t start to hate everyone else.’ And bingo—it was like I had jinxed America. I know that isn’t what happened, obviously. My guess was that the hate was the biggest danger of all. This was the main thing I wanted to prevent, and also did not want the situation to change me as well. I think most people don’t even remember what we lost. Almost nobody talks about it. If you do talk about it—the shrinking possibility of non-pigeonholed, less mediated human connection that was easier to find across various social gulfs—they say it wasn’t real or think you are an enemy, corrupt or a fool for valuing such a thing.
thank you, I'm really glad it resonated with you. I agree, and I think it's really pretty discouraging that everything is so polarized. As I think I made pretty clear in the peice, I think Trump is a legitimate menace to democracy and I'm tired of listening to him, almost 10 years later! But I think most of the cultural oppostion to him has just kind of fed his divisive strategy and we're all the poorer for it. I grew up in a pretty liberal/leftist world, but I've worked construction for 25 years. I'm very grateful for that because otherwise I probably wouldn't have a window into the way the "other half" thinks and feels. I feel like mostly because of my job I don't see Trump supporters as horrible racists and unredeemable scum or whatever because I talk to them with curiousity, and even though I disagree with them A LOT I can understand why they feel the way they do. People are so fascinating to me I can't do the clean easy othering that both sides constantly want to do. And of course our media ecosystem is literally built for this kind of division.