Paul Cantrell
@tehstu @gulovsen @lisamelton
That article would have been a great place to dispel that misunderstanding instead of reinforcing it — unles voter suppression is the goal.
The thing is, the larger point stands: our society’s systems are failing, in the article’s metaphor, to keep hands on the wheel. Understanding the systemic nature of this problem (instead of “President bad”) might help solve it.
Grant Gulovsen
Everyone over the age of 30 needs to read this.
Seriously.
Paul Cantrell
@gulovsen @lisamelton
I’m sorry, this lost me at the “He's the government” line. Presidents are not kings.
The larger point is good, and doesn’t need any propping up with facile errors about how our democracy works.
T. Austin Brown
@inthehands @gulovsen @lisamelton Agreed. One of my peeves with the presidential system and the media is that, for the majority of people, people who want to go in the voting booth every 4 years, pick who gives them a good feeling, then have their government work, the president is a lightning rod for their disappointment. Meanwhile, there's 20% of the country who has well-funded prosperity gospel propaganda funneled at them 16h per day. They vote every damn time, even if they don't know why.
Paul Cantrell
@tehstu @gulovsen @lisamelton
Yes, as you say, much part of the article’s point is to articulate a kind of despair — a despair that I share.
To quote Rebecca Solnit: I respect despair as an emotion, but not as an analysis.
And whether intentionally or not, the article •does• present an analysis. It’s an analysis that’s subtly but deeply wrong, and wrong in a way that does harm. To wit:
Paul Cantrell
@tehstu @gulovsen @lisamelton
Just as you say, we do seem to “find out” where limits of power sit on every major issue, over and over. That’s not because there’s some secret code we don’t know. It’s because we are in the middle of an active, pitched battle with fascists and oligarchs for control of our society.
On student loans, for example, an oligarchic SCOTUS abused their power to block Biden’s program. Now Biden’s trying an end run. Will it succeed? Who knows! Not indifference. A fight.
Paul Cantrell
@tehstu @gulovsen @lisamelton
Instead of the distracted, irresponsible driver barely holding the wheel, a better metaphor would be the action movie where people are fighting in the driver’s seat as the vehicle careens toward the cliff. Yes, nobody’s driving — because we’re fighting for the wheel.
Paul Cantrell
@tehstu
Being a college prof, I see firsthand how newly eligible voters view politics. I do think most understand that there’s a fight going on. I think alarmingly few understand the relationship of politicians and elections to that fight.
“But we already voted and it didn’t fix everything!!” is a common sentiment.
So is “We need to do something different, something we’ve never tried before!” — not realizing that full youth participation would be exactly that.
Paul Cantrell
@tehstu Getting from understanding problems to understanding the systems that enable those problems is a •long• journey. The time that journey takes is one of the reasons why youth participation in elections and effective activism is low — and one of the reasons psychological voter suppression tactics are so effective.
If we could speed that journey up, even a little, get young people consistently taking effective action sooner…it would change the world.
(And PS: Glad you like the MN posts!)
Paul Cantrell
@caffetiel @tehstu @gulovsen @lisamelton
Yeah, but it ends up coming off as disengagement and voter suppression agitprop, even though that’s probably not the intent.
A whole lot of disinformation starts out its life as a sincere cry of the heart.
Psittacus cafeina
@inthehands @tehstu @gulovsen @lisamelton
It's agitprop my dude, not a comprehensive article
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