So, in what feels like a thousand years after 2016, the 2020 election finally happened. As of this morning, it’s drawing to a close, and looking like a Biden win. And yet…I’ve been feeling steadily worse since Tuesday, almost more than I ever did in all four years of the Trump presidency.
Not, mind you, for the same reason as a lot of my friends, customers, and family, who all seem shell-shocked and dismayed. “How can they be so stupid?”, they’ve been asking me, in regards to the people who voted for Trump a second time. I bite my tongue and I don’t say what I think, which is – it has nothing to do with stupidity. And if you’re genuinely taken aback by the closeness of these results, then you haven’t been paying attention.
So many of us became politically-engaged for the first time in 2016 - myself included. I don’t know what it was that drew me in exactly (probably a number of things), and I don’t know if it matters (for this article, anyway). Suffice to say, I became a woman obsessed, ingesting independent news and cable news and podcasts and documentaries and docu-series. Morning coffee and bike ride commutes became consumed by all of it. I was in my leftist little world, and every day it seemed like Trump stooped to new lows, while people who supported him reached new levels of rabid. And I was continually disgusted, shocked, and appalled by all of it.
But then, two years later, something happened. I started to talk, really talk, to right-wing conservatives. People who were self-proclaimed red-pillers, if you will. I dropped my clinging attachment and tentatively peered beyond the walls of my leftist echo chamber (difficult a thing as it was at first). Not to say I started thinking like a right-winger, but I stopped needing to...talk. I stopped needing to argue. I stopped regurgitating rhetoric. I had my world shaken by differing perspectives, and in turn, experienced the most important development yet: being curious above all else.
It may have been a natural progression for me; I’ve always found people fascinating. Ever since I was in grade school, I had an inexplicable love for reading autobiographies of legends and icons. Who were they, really? How did they get there? What stars had to align? How many failures did they have? How much drama packed their lives, and how did that shape them, as well as their path? And that inclination began to cross over, into my real life, with people I would talk to, whom all viewed the world so differently than I. It wasn’t about them being wrong, or me being right. It was about understanding them, as people. How did they get to have the views they have? What was their upbringing like? What sort of psychological trauma or life-changing events did they go through? And I started to find that, almost 100% of the time, there was deeper shit underlining the political stances they take. Some of it’s ugly, some of it’s understandable, some of it’s even relatable. But it’s the reason I’m so markedly unsurprised about the results of this election. Because that deeper shit, for so many people, is precisely the thing that makes them susceptible to why this election turned out the way it did. I’m talking about, of course, the misinformation network.
As I listened to the news coverage do its usual charade over election results trickling in, I found myself getting pretty pissed. All this wide-eyed bafflement about the polls...seriously? Are we just...not going to talk about it? Because for me, the clear culprit behind this whole shit-stain of a situation was absolutely misinformation. QAnon, news radio, conspiracy sites like, oh, TheGateWayPundit; you name it. I’m telling you, it’s not some boogeyman, and it’s not something to laugh about or shrug off. It’s a symptom of a much more pervasive problem, one that makes me think we might be past the point of return - especially if we don’t do anything to address it.
And no, I don’t mean the new and completely wrong approach social media platforms are taking. Banning people or groups? Okay, pause and think about it the way I do, and ask the “why”. People aren't just drawn to these fringe sites and extremist “pundits” and groups like QAnon because they’re dumb or racist or whatever (okay, maybe some of them). It’s because they are riddled with a massive, massive distrust. Yes, much of that distrust is learned from the very misinformation network I’m talking about, but beyond that - can you blame them? Look at our government. What have they done, really done, on a broad scale, to actually pass policy that changes all of our lives for the better? When have you ever heard someone talk about how competent and efficient government is? Why should we have faith in them, when it’s clear that the system is all about rich, the media, and the politicians, all working together to benefit only themselves (profits, ratings, and reelection, respectively). I mean, come on. If you really think people who look towards the fringe ends of the spectrum for their news are going to "see the light" because media platforms are exercising control, then you may be as delusional as they are.
To me, that’s the only real answer to the problem that will only get worse as time goes on: effective change, bold policy, and politicians who are able to lay their goddamn ego to the side. So, good luck to Joe Biden and his administration, because if they’re unable to get the wheels of government really moving, if they decide to take the usual establishment, pandering, meandering path, if they aren’t held to account, and if we don’t hold them there: say goodbye to 50% of this country for good, and be prepared for a future full of Trumps.
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