Marc Fisher writes, in "‘Nothing feels safe:’ Americans are divided, anxious and quick to panic" (WaPo).
Fisher quotes:
Thane Rosenbaum, a lawyer and novelist who runs the Forum on Life, Culture & Society at Touro University in New York: "There is a fundamental national insecurity now, after a perfect storm of social chaos where covid forced us to stay apart and the killing of George Floyd unleashed a movement that broke trust in the people who protect us... We’re in a moral panic: ‘Will anyone pick up the phone if I call for help?' Women feel more vulnerable because of the Supreme Court decision on abortion. Everyone feels more vulnerable because of soaring gas prices. People don’t see a way out."
Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum and a former Boston police official: "[W]e’re in uncharted territory in terms of anxiety... With the George Floyd murder, war in Ukraine, the questioning of elections, people don’t know who to trust. Who would think that in an iconic place like Highland Park, you would need to post snipers on rooftops on the Fourth of July? But that’s what we’ve come to. Nothing feels safe anymore."
Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist: "We are disoriented, unable to speak the same language or recognize the same truth... We are cut off from one another and from the past."
The Haidt quote is from ""Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid/It’s not just a phase," an article from a couple months ago in The Atlantic, which I blogged at the time.
Haidt's article is centered on stupidity, rather than anxiety. Here's another passage, chosen because it brings up George Floyd, and the Rosenbaum and Wexler quotes cite George Floyd:
You can see the stupefaction process most clearly when a person on the left merely points to research that questions or contradicts a favored belief among progressive activists. Someone on Twitter will find a way to associate the dissenter with racism, and others will pile on. For example, in the first week of protests after the killing of George Floyd, some of which included violence, the progressive policy analyst David Shor, then employed by Civis Analytics, tweeted a link to a study showing that violent protests back in the 1960s led to electoral setbacks for the Democrats in nearby counties. Shor was clearly trying to be helpful, but in the ensuing outrage he was accused of “anti-Blackness” and was soon dismissed from his job. (Civis Analytics has denied that the tweet led to Shor’s firing.)
The Shor case became famous, but anyone on Twitter had already seen dozens of examples teaching the basic lesson: Don’t question your own side’s beliefs, policies, or actions. And when traditional liberals go silent, as so many did in the summer of 2020, the progressive activists’ more radical narrative takes over as the governing narrative of an organization. This is why so many epistemic institutions seemed to “go woke” in rapid succession that year and the next....
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47 comments:
"Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist: 'We are disoriented, unable to speak the same language or recognize the same truth... We are cut off from one another and from the past.'"
Haha baby's first conception of TWANLOC. Adorable. There there Jonathan, don't you cry now, I know it's kind of scary, but don't you worry now, mama and dada are here to let you know it gets worse.
’Nothing feels safe anymore.’
Not feeling unsafe or anxious here. In fact, other than the short-term Biden calamities, I’m loving life. It also helps that I don’t give the first flying fuck about that stupid thug George Floyd.
Some poor sap went on the genetics subreddit to ask about the DNA differences of racial groups, and everyone piled on him immediately as a straight up racist, never mind the facts. You know, genetic bottlenecks, endogamy and the great barriers of desert and ocean leading to different genetic profiles over thousands of years.
Oh no, he's a nasty racist just for asking. Or maybe he was a troll, who knows.
I directed him to David Reich. I mean you can still find this info in books - for now.
" ... the killing of George Floyd unleashed a movement that broke trust in the people who protect us... We’re in a moral panic."
Let's make something perfectly clear: The prosecution of the 4 police officers that occurred after George Floyd died of a fentenyl overdose unleashed a movement that broke our trust in the people who are supposed to protect us ... our government. We realized at that moment that the government is not protecting us ... but rather the government is protecting the armed robbers and drug abusers in our midst.
We also cannot trust our corrupt media's false characterizations of such events, and their narrative-driven suppositions. That has thoughtful people rightfully in a panic.
What has caused a broken trust in the police, and demonstrated our moral cowardice, was the police response in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 kids died and we still don't know how many of them died by police bullets, because there appears to be a massive cover-up operation occurring in that investigation.
Read any media stories lately about Uvalde? Bueller ... Bueller?
Living in Central Texas. We are under a pretty serious drought right now and for that reason we didn't launch any fireworks of our own this year. Our fear was of retribution from mama nature if we did.
So much bloviating. They're all partisans. Do any of these experts concede one single point the other side? I'm not seeing it. Failure is the predicted result.
Right, because people weren't shooting off fireworks when they weren't anxious and jittery.
Once, people could take all this "Something is Happening to the Soul of America" writing seriously. Now it just seems like canned rhetorical overkill.
Sure, we are living in an "Age of Stupidity," but somebody tell Jonathan Haidt that if that's the only arrow in his quiver, he ends up looking a lot like just another idiot trying to look smart.
Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum and a former Boston police official: "[W]e’re in uncharted territory in terms of anxiety...
I guess Chuck wasn't around for World Wars One and Two or the Korean War or the Viet Nam War or the War on Poverty or The Great Depression or The Cold War.
George Floyd’s death and what followed thereafter told conservatives the following truth: The Left has an army of criminals that the police and politicians can’t and won’t stop. The Dems officially killed the Rule of Law that summer. The Dems then installed the corrupt and incompetent Joe Biden. That’s how we became hopelessly divided.
This is a problem resulting from the long war between moderate and hard utopian left. The moderate left has often let nutcases run wild since the 1960s. They appear to perhaps (1) think the ends justified the means, (2) lack the courage or concern to push back, or (3) fear being associated with the right wing by the activists.
End dysfunctional divisions by pushing back:
- Biological women are women, while transgendered and sexual identity folks are very different. They live entirely different lifestyles and have different needs/priorities than natural women. This is obvious to all but the willfully blind.
- Abortion up to 15 weeks would mimic global left's standards. Ending Roe and using this standard is not at all conservative!
- Most urban violence can be easily traced to young black males. This is not news and was a the cause of great concern among the scientific left until the 1980s. By the 1990s the moderate left retreated into silence, or were pushed out of the discussion (e.g., Haidt), or they died off. Face the utopian radicals and force them to become pragmatists or suffer evermore.
- Guns were driven from urban polite society inch-by-inch over the last 50 years, such as with Clinton's "Gun Free School Zones" of the 1990s. Ironically, the be probable solution for getting the crazy young men under control is to bring guns back into positive urban polite society. Bring back the school ROTCs and marksmanship clubs that ended with the Vietnam war. Bring back school shooting ranges. As 500M+ guns are not going away in the USA, demystify and de-taboo and thereby end the perceived easy path to power offered by guns.
Advice to the left: "Whatever you've been doing has failed. Repeatedly. Obviously. Trying something new couldn't be worse. That's what 'progressive' means!"
It’s not just the left that freaks out if one of their own strays from the orthodoxy. All kinds of unfounded accusations fly.
My family had a wonderful day together celebrating the GREATEST country in the world, whilst Progressives cried, and stomped their little feet crying about how evil it is. They should move to their favorite Utopia with GREAT Healthcare....CUBA. I laugh at the idiots who are crying. Britney Griner is sure missing the country that she hated just a half a year ago. When she get out of Russia, she will come back and CONTINUE to bash us....just like Rihanna's baby Daddy did to Trump when Trump got HIM out of trouble in Sweden. Trump should have left him there to rot.
"The killing of George Floyd broke trust in the people that protect us." My trust in the police is not absolute, but it is substantially greater than my trust in George Floyd and the people who reported on his killing and the proper lessons to be drawn from it.
SCOOP: @GavinNewsom is on vacation in Montana. His office had been loath to disclose the location until now.
Montana is one of 22 states to which CA bans state-funded travel due to anti-LGBTQ+ policies. It's also likely to institute an abortion ban.
More in tmrw's newsletter
— Emily Hoeven (@emily_hoeven) July 6, 2022
Freaking Progressive hypocrite. He doesn't support them, he uses them to win elections. If he cared as much as he claims, WHY would he ever step foot in such a homophobic place?? THIS is why we point and laugh at progressive liars.
We live in a progressive society, so the debate between left/right, woke/less woke, blue/red is kind of happening on a raft on a river that is headed in one direction. Intellectuals are proud to build on a somewhat sketchy knowledge of the past: there has been progress toward equality, previously unrecognized or underprivileged people gaining confidence and status, so further progress obviously involves or requires more of the same. Anyone who raises any kind of objection to changing the rules if the outcomes are "differential" based on identity is branded a conservative, and that always means practically a fascist. Obviously there are still people who are some kind of conservative, but they have to be careful to identify the thing they believe is worth conserving. If they can appeal to God, rather than "merely" to nature or tradition, this may give them confidence, but is also likely to make it difficult to appeal to the great secular masses. Never Trumpers seem to be conservatives with a bad conscience, ready to flip at any time on almost any issue; suddenly quite a few of them seem to be pro-choice, perhaps mainly because Trump is not.
Endless war provides an outlet for arbitrary expressions of will and power; rationales are shifting and hypocritical. Support for the Pentagon now brings together the neo-cons and the woke. For the woke Putin is a fascist; I guess for the neo-cons any enemy will do.
This is the article you get when you ask a bunch of neurotics "Hey, how's it going?"
"And when traditional liberals go silent, as so many did in the summer of 2020, the progressive activists’ more radical narrative takes over as the governing narrative of an organization."
I would say that the 'traditional liberals' in key positions of power and influence did NOT go silent. They jumped on board. They encouraged more- as a means to upending an already precarious economic situation due to covid. The goal and priority was and continues to be, since 2016: Remove Trump. Liberals in key positions were not engaged with George Floyd protest clones because they felt the injustice. They were engaged with it because they saw it as a chance to rip apart America and gain the White House and possibly more.
It worked. If you go back to the protests and look at Democratic comments, you will note that for the first few days of extremely violent riots, Democrats either said nothing, or made comments to the effect that these are peaceful people seeking justice- as multiple American cities burned. Kamala Harris, now Vice President, marketed a 'get out of jail free and immediately' bail program for people bombing Federal buildings and burning blocks of commerce out of cities. The initial silence was directed. You could see Chuck Schumer smiling about the riots. Nancy Pelosi was all in and encouraged 'peaceful protests'. No one said anything negative about protests that got out of hand, instead, they saw the moment to wreak havoc on a satisfied America.
And it worked.
One could write a book about how Liberal, and now so-called 'progressive' polices and attitudes promoted and amplified by social media have destroyed the American family, hitting Black Americans more than any other group. And how the policies that are now taking hold are working to destroy what is left of any American traditional culture. We are portrayed as an evil nation, run by an evil race, controlled by an evil gender. Just how do you come to agreement with people who view you as the walking evil because you honor traditions that made this country great for people who came here from all over the world?
I look only to this past July 4th, and the venomous emails and posts made by prominent Democrats in multiple states. The Mayor of Orlando decrying celebrating a nation as bad as us. The Democratic Party of Colorado hosting a 'F*** the Flag' festivity to decry 'evil' America. Venomous essays, articles, and commentary from the 'intellectual' leaders of the Left, all cozy and fine, spouting their 'luxury beliefs' and pouring it over their readers like arsenic.
We are now unhinged, unmoored from what made us great. Our Founders knew this would probably happen. And they knew we would have to fight to keep our freedom, our Republic. It is coming to that, I fear. Democrats and their 'soldiers' in academia and media hold 'luxury beliefs'. Those beliefs do not tarnish those promoting them, all good and upper level people that they are. But those luxury beliefs destroy the middle and lower classes. And in turn are destroying America.
We're too far into multiple generations of miseducated people, torn apart family structures, removal of religious standards, hell...any standards, to simply hit a button and get everything back in order. Order will come again when there is a hard thrust in one direction or the other. I will push in one direction, but I'm not sure which way things are going to go. Chaos loves company and we have many nations around the world who love what they see and are, I'm sure, helping it happen.
I'm no longer in a good mood today.
What most of what everyone above said (wendybar, enigma, begley, rsm, william, et. al.).
My descendants celebrated the 4th at our house. We literally went to the ballgame and literally watched fireworks afterward, in a display that recalled the bombs bursting in air celebrated by our Anthem.
My political adversaries, including some members of my extended family, spend the 4th in mourning because they were distressed that they could not abort even more of their potential descendants. I feel bad for them, but it is literally a self limiting problem.
The coming recession will beat back the current inflation, and our economy will take off again. Meanwhile, I'm doing what I can to support the local economy by buying more stuff than I need.
If you didn't get hung up on me silly and stupid discussion of Donald Trump on Lex Fridman's podcast featuring guest Joe Rogan you might have heard Joe lament the fact that the prevalent couch potato lifestyle of the Obesity clickbait social media Nation is the true source of all anxiety.
But that requires fixing yourself by taking responsibility. Nobody wants to do that it's much easier to blame the system or to blame other people or to blame God.
TWANLOC? I still haven't figured out who or what Ton Lōc is.
Without a frontier to conquer or poverty to overcome or an external enemy to fear Americans turn on themselves.
Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, sounds a bit over baked: "We are disoriented, unable to speak the same language or recognize the same truth... We are cut off from one another and from the past."
"We are disoriented” well our leaders are anyway. “Unable to speak the same language” here he tips into his own psychosis of some sort. “Or recognize the same truth...” yes if you believe in your truth and my truth then there’s no objective truth we can share, and great timing since I spent the weekend celebrating that special document that starts with We hold these truths to be self-evident so I’m suggesting this dude’s politics are affecting his credibility. And finally, “We are cut off from one another and from the past." Yes that’s the Progressives plan but too many of us are NOT cut off and recall just a short time ago when the past was acknowledged and wisdom was not rejected for foolish fads that serve to cut us off from each other.
Is the use of fireworks now cultural appropriation of Antics activities?
Despite the titles and vitae, Chuck Wexler is a professional liar, and PERF is an anti-police organization run by leftist academic police "experts" and disgruntled former police executives from big, dysfunctional cities.
The DOJ uses them as bag men: real police despise them. Mostly, they run cover for corrupt police chiefs and beat down the ranks.
David Begley said...
George Floyd’s death and what followed thereafter told conservatives the following truth: The Left has an army of criminals that the police and politicians can’t and won’t stop. The Dems officially killed the Rule of Law that summer. The Dems then installed the corrupt and incompetent Joe Biden. That’s how we became hopelessly divided.
After watching WI Gov Tony Evers let Kenosha burn in the summer of 2020, I realized that Madison, WI liberals will do ANYTHING to control the state and protect their ivory tower comfort. They will let your hometown burn, and do nothing if it deteriorates. They will openly break State election laws in broad daylight and illegally harvest ballots, and destroy all chain of custody.
Madison is only 50 miles west of me. Ten miles to the east, Milwaukee is flushing itself down the toilet with violent crime and drug use skyrocketing. You can't even go to the Deer District without bullets flying. Milwaukee is on pace to break both the shooting and homicide record again.
And then you have the Waukesha Dancing Granny Christmas massacre caused by a corrupt Soros funded Liberal DA in Milwaukee County, and the WI State Gov't in Madison does NOTHING except protect the DA (John Chisolm).
When your Grandma and her friends get run over at the Christmas parade, and they do NOTHING, what's left to trust?
We conservatives have very little common with today's Dems. I don't agree with open borders, selective enforcement of the law, the living constitution, the defund the police movement, the Green New Deal, the trans movement, the CAGW scam, CRT, tribalism, allowing China to control our economy, the cancel culture and the lack of Free Speech. There's no middle ground on these issues. And the Left will never admit it is wrong on any of these issues.
That's why we are divided.
I love how the guy lists all these Dem anxieties as if they’re everyone’s anxieties: George Floyd, Ukraine, questioning elections. Hey, he forgot Covid! Lol. The left is terrified of the majority. They hate the populous. They despise the uneducated. They hide in their houses, post their virtue signs in the front yard, and pose for the next Edward Munch painting.
And the Right? We’re just mad … but still having fun on out Ski-dos and snowmobiles.
So many commenters here are articulate, thoughtful conservatives. How did a liberal woman law professor from America’s quintessential progressive city draw such a crowd? The answer: Ann Althouse treats conservatives respectfully. If the broader left elite had done the same we would be living in a much less divided world.
Final comment from me on this topic: It’s quite satisfying to read articles such as this one Althouse links. It shows the corner has been turned, the paradigm has shifted, the shark has been jumped. The left knows it and is now in therapy over it. What lies ahead? Hard to see the landscape clearly but it’s definitely not one progressives will feel comfortable with.
Two genders, anyone?
Who are the people making America 'anxious'?
It is the sowing of division on the left, a constant haranguing, that is keeping us divided.
To them, it's a feature not a bug...
Howard said
"But that requires fixing yourself by taking responsibility. Nobody wants to do that it's much easier to blame the system or to blame other people or to blame God."
Now you sound like a Conservative. This is what we have been saying ALL along.
The Liberal cultural decay has reached full bloom. Anxiety is a natural by product. Complete degradation is next.
The Obama lawlessness has come home to roost. Agitators gonna agitate. And white man’s laws are gonna be ignored.
The Obama lawlessness has come home to roost. Agitators gonna agitate. And white man’s laws are gonna be ignored.
The Obama lawlessness has come home to roost. Agitators gonna agitate. And white man’s laws are gonna be ignored.
"The killing of George Floyd. . . ."
Hard to continue reading when the author is either so ignorant or dishonest to not even get a basic fact correct.
Anything about how "we" feel is bogus. Substitute "I" in the text and it transforms into something true, but only about a guy with mental problems.
What the Democrats do when :
1) They are in power: "Yeehaw, we're going to push our agenda to the max. Don't like it nazi? Eat shit and die. Woohoo!"
2) WHen the R's are in power: "Can't we all get along? Remember the minority has rights too, and the R's have to Govern for everyone!"
3) When they're getting too much resistance: "Why are we so divided? Why are we so angry as a nation? We need to work together to pass (our) legislation"
"We are disoriented, unable to speak the same language or recognize the same truth... We are cut off from one another and from the past."
This is largely a media phenomenon brought about by the mediaswine's refusal to acknowledge the George Floyds as victimizers as well as victims, cutting us all off from the past with 1619 and CRT bullshit, endorsing illegal immigration, inflation, increased crime, neutering our armed forces, etc.
Socialism and Donkeypox eat brain cells.
We had a peaceful and satisfactory fourth. No anxiety except our big (20 feet) Ocotillo fell over last weekend. Plumbers came by and installed a gas line to the kitchen for our new gas range we bought last week. Big 4th of July sales last weekend. I wonder if they were a result of the slowdown of buying with the coming recession?
The Left has an army of criminals that the police and politicians can’t and won’t stop.
Yes. They are in downtown Tucson. I doubt any will stray this far. Too many AR 15s in this neighborhood. I'm glad my daughter and her family are out of Santa Monica as there are many nuts around there. She's still in LA but I am working on her.
Chicago, of course, is hopeless. This mass shooting in Highland Park is yet another example of the failure to enforce existing law. That kid is crazy and has a history that should have kept him from buying any sort of gun.
It's Roe shock.
Suddenly they're in a world where their trick bag of rioting, cancelling and stamping their feet won't work.
Seems to me, the "we" they refer to is the chattering class. The so-called "intellectuals". They are facing that they can no longer control the narrative. Most of the "little people" have tuned them out. They feel unsafe because without them being able to serve their masters by setting the narrative, their sinecures are in jeopardy.
And best of all, the Dobbs decision really undermines the chatterers. Abortion is now an issue for state capitals, not DC chattering. And they fear having to travel into the interior of the country, where the natives are not obsequious to the latest Twitter-storm or NY Times article.
We had a great weekend with family, friends, and neighbors, but I live in a red state and we are backwards that way. Keep red states weird.
It's paganism, Wendy. Don't confuse philosophy with politics.
"The killing of George Floyd broke trust in the people that protect us."
Bullshit. It was the events after Floyd OD'd which broke that trust.
Clearly, the writer is confusing the situation in the Washington Post newsroom with the situation outside of that nuthouse.
In Minneapolis they celebrated by shooting the fireworks at each other, as well as at the pedestrians and buildings downtown.
It's no wonder some people are feeling jittery and anxious.
Of course the police did nothing in response.
https://mobile.twitter.com/CrimeWatchMpls
As one of those reactionary leftovers who persist in valuing liberty and thinking his life belongs to himself, what makes me feel insecure is the growing acceptance of--nay, enthusiasm for--statism.
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