talking to a person at work who is a big Glenn Beck fan, who pipes in the right-wing radio whenever possible, and who is always trying to start up political "conversations" (read: rants at people) based on what he's heard...
And I'll say that he is a good guy. He treats people well. He works hard and takes pride in the quality of his work. He has skills.
I generally just let him rant, because disagreeing with him feeds his need to rant. And because I want him to keep showing up and helping me when it comes to getting around bureaucratic bullshit that makes professional life miserable.
Yesterday he ranted a bit. Interestingly enough, he did not mention either presidential candidates by name. That was enough to make me wonder where his head was. I'm still not sure. The thing he was going on and on about that raised my brows was this:
"This country is in trouble. Nobody thinks. Nobody thinks they have to pay attention and think." Now, I was assuming that he meant that correct thinking would, of course, have people thinking like Beck. Because once, about 7 years ago, he told me that he's too busy to figure out everything himself, so he trusts Beck to do it for him.
It has always been this way. People are generally herd animals that want alphas to do their thinking for them.
I've been, this summer, working on a new unit to teach this year about Civil Rights. I've been searching through all kinds of potential resources. Yesterday I watched a BBC documentary on you tube about the history of the KKK that made me nauseous, listening to the people of the time talking, and realizing that their bigotry was considered righteous by supposed thinking people. Realizing that whatever the people in power say IS conventional wisdom. And also recognizing that the Trump campaign is empowering people to bring the worst of humanity out from under the rugs they've been hiding them to give them prime time again.
We see it at work all the time. Horrifyingly, we see it at work in the Democratic Party as well. I can read, every day of the week all year long, posts here defending bad ideas, bad policy simply because a Democratic leader said so. I can find someone coming out to argue for conservative and corporate positions because their candidate of choice backs that position.
Interestingly enough, many of the same things people take sides and engage in right now are very similar to the things they were fighting over 200 years ago. People are people. The smartest people can be filled with hate and ugliness. Cognitively limited people can recognize the value of love. And smart politics has always been about propaganda and spin rather than truth.
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