74 Million Americans Scheduled for Deprogramming in 2021
Are you an automaton ready for deprogramming?
Katie Couric posed the question to Bill Maher earlier this month:
“How are we going to really almost deprogram these people who have signed up for the cult of Trump?”
Rhetorical fodder or not, it is language such as this that has furthered our political divide. Similar to the now-famous “deplorable” comment that Hillary Clinton made on the campaign trail in 2016, it should be apparent that blindly insulting the 74 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump by equating them to automatons is not the way to help them “see the light,” so to speak.
I was interviewed just yesterday by Meghan Lopez of Denver7 about bridging the political divide – I got a bit animated. The crux of the point I was trying to get across (probably ineffectively) was that public discourse no longer begins with mutual respect. If one side views the other as the enemy, then productive conversations are impossible. I’ll gladly share the interview with you when it goes live sometime later this week or next.
In 2018, I wrote a Medium piece about how actively engaging in respectful discourse is a necessary step to moving our nation forward – and it all starts at the dinner table. Little did I know that just a few years later, things would degrade to where they are today - I figured it’d take a few decades for the insanity to boil over.
“Generations look upon their fellow man with blood boiling, fists clenched, and while most have remained behind their screens, it requires only certain circumstances to turn keyboard warriors into wannabe revolutionaries.”
As a Republican who didn’t vote for either Donald Trump or Joe Biden, I find myself on quite the solitary political island. Many of my progressive acquaintances find me to be distastefully conservative (abolish the minimum wage), while many of my Republican cohorts view me as a “RINO” (see: didn’t vote for Donald Trump).
While it’s generally quite lonely on this island, it is not too far off the coast of the mainland, and my view of the “battle” occurring on the shores tends to be far more encompassing then those engaged in hand-to-hand (tweet-to-tweet?) combat.
It’s not pretty. We’re genuinely at a point where hatred is a predominate motivating factor for many who engage in politics. The “other side” seeks to destroy all that we know is good and wholesome and supplement it with all that we know is bad and immoral.
Over the next few weeks, months, and perhaps years, I’ll write a bit more on what I feel to be at the root of much of what is wrong with the American political scene today, which is a lack of respect. It wouldn’t fix all of our issues, but if we could start seeing our political adversaries as human beings, perhaps that would be a good start.
Opium
I wanted to share an article from 2012 I read recently that was quite fascinating. It started with a Google search, spurred by watching a television show, about opium. Specifically, do opium dens exist in the world still? Do people still use opium?
The answer is – practically speaking – no. I promise this article is quite fascinating, despite it being nearly 9 years old. Lisa Hix interviews Steven Martin (not the actor) about his book “Opium Fiend” and how he went from being one of the most active collectors of opium-related artifacts to being an opium addict himself. No joke.
Since reading the article, I’ve also purchased the book mentioned above, and hope to receive it soon to give it a read.
Speaking of Bill Maher
My friend* - Kmele Foster - appeared on the Bill Maher show this last weekend and has been getting quite a bit of attention for it. I figured I’d share this tweet for a small snippet of the genius that is Kmele Foster.
As Kmele says often: Be brave, call bullshit.
That’s exactly what he did.
*Kmele is my best friend, he just doesn’t know it yet. I’m a passionate subscriber to the podcast he co-hosts with Matt Moynihan and Matt Welch called The Fifth Column. I strongly encourage you to give that a try if podcasts are your thing.