The only thing that shocked me about 2016 was that there were so many of them, and the "establishment" didn't succeed in squelching them. That was a big shock - the kind that changes one's plans for the rest of one's life - as I realized that I could never truly see Americans as "Us" - their lunatics are mainstream, and so presumably their sane people (like you) are fringe. Retiring in California had been my plan - something I was actively preparing - for 20 years - and now I'm working on plan B. (First casualty - the solar panels I didn't install, and the electric car I didn't buy.)
I'm currently reading Fantasyland by Kurt Andersen. He's wrong in a lot of ways - particularly his idea that the US is unique in having these problems. But the basic picture is right enough - the lunatics here are running the place, and I can't really imagine that getting better any time in e.g. the next 30 years, regardless of which party produces the next president.
There are real grievances, but they are so mixed in with disappointed entitlement and scapegoating that I certainly can't see any effective way to address them. Feel good policies are more important to most of the loonies than anything else - they want to return to feeling like normative lords of creation, more than they want food, shelter, health, etc. They want the dream - the kind one gets with lottery tickets - more than they want real opportunities. And worst of all, the same seems to generally be true of their opponents, but in different ways. They can neither effectively examine evidence, nor find and believe someone competent to do so.
I suppose this is the human condition generally - we're tuned for "social skills" as a species, with intelligence and rationality as a side effect.
no subject
I'm currently reading Fantasyland by Kurt Andersen. He's wrong in a lot of ways - particularly his idea that the US is unique in having these problems. But the basic picture is right enough - the lunatics here are running the place, and I can't really imagine that getting better any time in e.g. the next 30 years, regardless of which party produces the next president.
There are real grievances, but they are so mixed in with disappointed entitlement and scapegoating that I certainly can't see any effective way to address them. Feel good policies are more important to most of the loonies than anything else - they want to return to feeling like normative lords of creation, more than they want food, shelter, health, etc. They want the dream - the kind one gets with lottery tickets - more than they want real opportunities. And worst of all, the same seems to generally be true of their opponents, but in different ways. They can neither effectively examine evidence, nor find and believe someone competent to do so.
I suppose this is the human condition generally - we're tuned for "social skills" as a species, with intelligence and rationality as a side effect.