Hate Trumps Love
Ignorance Trumps Education
Deceit Trumps Truth
Religion Trumps Science
Some said they rejected statist solutions and embraced capitalism, yet they embraced an enemy of capitalism who will destroy trillions of dollars of economic value, despite clear and constant warnings from virtually all professional economists and investors.
Some said they were angry at government, yet they elected in droves the very people who broke government.
Some said they were angry at corruption, yet they elected one of the most corrupt men ever to stand on a public stage in American politics.
Some said they cared about the Constitution, yet they elected a man who has shown through word and deed that he neither understands nor cares at all about democratic Constitutional values, but will instead exercise violent, autocratic, anti-constitutional powers to seek vengeance whenever he pleases. And a man who will appoint to the Supreme Court men who will suppress the voting rights of minorities, the reproductive health rights of women and the civil rights of the LGBTQ community.
Some claimed to care about "reason" (too laughable to write without quotation marks) yet they voted for a candidate who rejects science and threatens to pull the plug on the Paris Accords, humanity's last chance to save the biosphere and ourselves from self-extinction.
What this candidate promised was hate, not love. Ignorance, not education. Deceit, not truth. And his own special brand of myth making (which the religious imagined resonated with their own views of God), not science.
The study of rationality talks about "revealed preference." It says we must discard what people say they want or think, and instead infer their values and desires from their actions.
Today, the American people chose to become an existential threat to the other 7 billion people on the planet and to half of their own citizens at home. No matter what they say of themselves, they chose hate over love, ignorance over education, deceit over truth, and religion over science. They showed us who they are. We must hold their feet to the fire -- they did not choose capitalism, good government, and Constitutionalism, no matter what they say of themselves. They chose an authoritarian populist, a liar, an abuser, a misogynist, a vengeful sociopath to lead them, just as so many foolish mobs have done to their grave discredit and later horror so many times in history.
When Hitler was made Chancellor in 1934 few had in mind Kristallnacht, Dachau or Auschwitz. Few had in mind Jewish ghettos and genocide. You want a Strongman, you take your chances. Be careful what you wish for.
In their defense, the Constitutional experiment that took place here from 1789-2016 has always been flawed, and it was doomed from the start. (The blind hubris of white men who deny the searing hypocrisy of our early history is not worthy of any defense.) A Constitution, notably, provides protections against minorities (its fundamental purpose in replacing a simple majoritarian system) because its founders believe the natural tendency of mankind is to do minorities harm. The price one pays for such protection against evil is that the Constitution, a slow changing document by design, is used by the enemies of progress as a weapon against change, and, notably, used by the enemies of inclusion to exclude those they dislike or fear. No matter how prescient the writers of a Constitution can be, the world will change too much for them to have anticipated its needs, and the Constitution will, like the leeches applied to poor George Washington on his death bed, become the millstone around its citizen's necks that finally drowns them.
Last night, we drowned. Be cheered: it was our fate.
I apologize to all those who were victims of my belief over the years that mankind is fundamentally good. I was a victim of confirmation bias, trying to prop up my youthful delusion that, when I had to chose between Rousseau and Hobbes, my choice of Rousseau and the goodness of man in a state of nature made sense. Hobbes said we needed an absolutist, a sovereign protector who infantilized us with his power, and when push comes to shove, would chose such an ugly figure over democracy.
I also apologize to the rest of the world community for the grave harm that the American experiment, choosing to turn Fascist and denialist, will have on the rest of you.
Soon, Trump's America faces its own RÖHM PURGE. In '34, it took only three days to kill off all the opponents of Nazism and re-create the SS as its arm. (We will soon see increasingly militarized police in our inner cities if history means to repeat itself. The SS became more powerful than the German Army within a few years -- watch for signs of that.) Perhaps there will be some solace in the house cleaning that removes resistance and reason from Trump's path, as there will surely be Republican bodies that fall upon that heap outside the back door. Will Paul Ryan be the first to be hoisted on his own petard?
Those of us who can read and write and remember even an iota of history can see the writing on the wall. If you are young enough, make plans to leave.
Ignorance Trumps Education
Deceit Trumps Truth
Religion Trumps Science
Some said they rejected statist solutions and embraced capitalism, yet they embraced an enemy of capitalism who will destroy trillions of dollars of economic value, despite clear and constant warnings from virtually all professional economists and investors.
Some said they were angry at government, yet they elected in droves the very people who broke government.
Some said they were angry at corruption, yet they elected one of the most corrupt men ever to stand on a public stage in American politics.
Some said they cared about the Constitution, yet they elected a man who has shown through word and deed that he neither understands nor cares at all about democratic Constitutional values, but will instead exercise violent, autocratic, anti-constitutional powers to seek vengeance whenever he pleases. And a man who will appoint to the Supreme Court men who will suppress the voting rights of minorities, the reproductive health rights of women and the civil rights of the LGBTQ community.
Some claimed to care about "reason" (too laughable to write without quotation marks) yet they voted for a candidate who rejects science and threatens to pull the plug on the Paris Accords, humanity's last chance to save the biosphere and ourselves from self-extinction.
What this candidate promised was hate, not love. Ignorance, not education. Deceit, not truth. And his own special brand of myth making (which the religious imagined resonated with their own views of God), not science.
The study of rationality talks about "revealed preference." It says we must discard what people say they want or think, and instead infer their values and desires from their actions.
Today, the American people chose to become an existential threat to the other 7 billion people on the planet and to half of their own citizens at home. No matter what they say of themselves, they chose hate over love, ignorance over education, deceit over truth, and religion over science. They showed us who they are. We must hold their feet to the fire -- they did not choose capitalism, good government, and Constitutionalism, no matter what they say of themselves. They chose an authoritarian populist, a liar, an abuser, a misogynist, a vengeful sociopath to lead them, just as so many foolish mobs have done to their grave discredit and later horror so many times in history.
When Hitler was made Chancellor in 1934 few had in mind Kristallnacht, Dachau or Auschwitz. Few had in mind Jewish ghettos and genocide. You want a Strongman, you take your chances. Be careful what you wish for.
In their defense, the Constitutional experiment that took place here from 1789-2016 has always been flawed, and it was doomed from the start. (The blind hubris of white men who deny the searing hypocrisy of our early history is not worthy of any defense.) A Constitution, notably, provides protections against minorities (its fundamental purpose in replacing a simple majoritarian system) because its founders believe the natural tendency of mankind is to do minorities harm. The price one pays for such protection against evil is that the Constitution, a slow changing document by design, is used by the enemies of progress as a weapon against change, and, notably, used by the enemies of inclusion to exclude those they dislike or fear. No matter how prescient the writers of a Constitution can be, the world will change too much for them to have anticipated its needs, and the Constitution will, like the leeches applied to poor George Washington on his death bed, become the millstone around its citizen's necks that finally drowns them.
Last night, we drowned. Be cheered: it was our fate.
I apologize to all those who were victims of my belief over the years that mankind is fundamentally good. I was a victim of confirmation bias, trying to prop up my youthful delusion that, when I had to chose between Rousseau and Hobbes, my choice of Rousseau and the goodness of man in a state of nature made sense. Hobbes said we needed an absolutist, a sovereign protector who infantilized us with his power, and when push comes to shove, would chose such an ugly figure over democracy.
I also apologize to the rest of the world community for the grave harm that the American experiment, choosing to turn Fascist and denialist, will have on the rest of you.
Soon, Trump's America faces its own RÖHM PURGE. In '34, it took only three days to kill off all the opponents of Nazism and re-create the SS as its arm. (We will soon see increasingly militarized police in our inner cities if history means to repeat itself. The SS became more powerful than the German Army within a few years -- watch for signs of that.) Perhaps there will be some solace in the house cleaning that removes resistance and reason from Trump's path, as there will surely be Republican bodies that fall upon that heap outside the back door. Will Paul Ryan be the first to be hoisted on his own petard?
Those of us who can read and write and remember even an iota of history can see the writing on the wall. If you are young enough, make plans to leave.
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