2020. Americans asleep at the wheel.
2020 is a year we should already be looking back on and talk about journalists, politicians and ourselves with honesty. Because we are very very good at not looking at ourselves with honesty.
Remember the peak of #43 dubya madness as some type of heroic leader when it was unpatriotic to suggest the war he waged was wrong? (It was and is still wrong.) In fact there are credible arguments he’s a war criminal. The stories we were told around his handling of September 11th were so different from what was obviously true to anyone with eyes, but very few people in the news media were willing to say it…it was scary to be a bush critic. Remember the “if you’re not with us, you’re against us” cry? Yep.
It was a preview to today’s republican party. And it’s a nightmare. Too soon? Fuck that. We should have been fighting this shit decades ago.
Bush deserved criticism. Trump does now.
I look for the Molly Ivinses of today. She spoke out — she criticized with abandon any politician she found to be problematic — when no other media outlets would.
“And isn’t that what we keep doing in this country, over and over again? We get scared so bad–about the communist menace or illegal immigration or AIDS or pornography or violent crime, some damn scary thing–that we hurt ourselves. We take the odd notion that the only way to protect ourselves is to give up some of our freedom–just trim a little, hedge a bit, and we’ll all be safe after all. ~ Molly Ivins”
Today Sarah Kendzior is that voice for us. Her book Hiding In Plain Sight is as terrifying as anything you will read this year. You can hear her talk about it with Seth Meyers here. Sarah is also the cohost of the Gaslit Nation podcast, a discussion of where we are as a country no holds barred.
After Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine was published, then made into a movie in 2009, we did what we always do; move on to the next thing. The shock doctrine is a theory that explains how scare tactics are used to make and keep economic policies like privatization, deregulation and shredding social services in place. Sound familiar?
It’s what politicians count on. Our short attention spans.
Find Naomi. Find Sarah. Find Molly. Read what they’ve been telling us; Molly since the 70s, Naomi since 1999, Sarah since 2000.
We’re not great at listening, or more accurately, learning, from history. It’s why we keep voting mediocre white men into office. It’s why some say we should show sympathy for a mentally and physically ill monstrous politician who has harmed hundreds of thousands of our neighbors. It’s why women’s rights are on the brink of extinction. It’s why Black Lives still don’t matter to police — or to politicians. It’s why said monstrous politician is in the hands of the world’s best doctors while our neighbors tell their loved ones goodbye over skype and why so many of our neighbors died without getting care soon enough. It’s why masks are even divisive. It’s why the criminality of today’s administration has not yet been full stopped. It’s why we are tail spinning into authoritarianism and there are no protests to fight against authoritarianism specifically.
It is the time we’re in. Damaging our own freedoms and ignoring the fact so many of our neighbors don’t have the freedoms we do.
“…but there’s some things’ll scare you so bad, you hurt yourself.”
It’s true if you’re comfortable with the way things are, you won’t fight or step outside of your comfort zones (aka active or passive support of white supremacy) and most American’s seem to be just fine with that.
You’re not safer, you’re just less free.
