Speaking of regionalism...
I just listened to Ben Sasse of Nebraska (R) give his fellow
Senators and those of us watching the Supreme Court Confirmation
hearings a lecture on Civics. Sasse is very articulate and
earnest and gave a good case for treating this (and all Judicial
appointments) independent of partisan politics and religious
bias.
Unfortunately he managed to do this without even a single *nod* to the possibility that the very nomination and rushed confirmation was partisan and that the selection of this particular nominee is acutely based in religious bias (supporting the partisan bias).
I don't know Sasse's record well, but Mary (hardcore Lefty) is a
native Nebrasker and her head *can* be turned by his familiarity,
style and delivery, right up until he drops an implied (but not
obvious to me) conclusion that she disagrees with. Fortunately
her oldest son (who writes/edits Bills for the Texas Legislature,
but also born, raised, educated in Nebrasky) is a very well read
(esp. in political science) and very perceptive progressive
Liberal (liberal Progressive) who talks her down from Sasse's
charming deliveries, (or up and out) from the flaws (gaps?) in his
rhetoric.
For all of my resentment and distrust of politicians (esp. those trained as lawyers) I do wish I could have a one-on-one conversation with the likes of Sasse or Flake or McCain (RIP). Maybe their apparent reasonableness and rationality and even fairness is an extremely good act, or maybe they honestly believe everything I hear them say, even though I cannot draw some of the same conclusions (or do not start from the same unspoken axioms?).
Mary and each of her children left the enfolding comfort of the
western Nebraska plains and the plainspoken, folksy people whose
entire livelihood is armatured around a wide variety of acutely
exploitative (formerly extractive, and previously just plain hard
working people teasing needed resources from the earth for their
American cousins everywhere). They left because of the
parochial, narrow minded, self-serving views of the people they
lived with and grew up with. And they left behind a
yet-more-impoverished (socially and spiritually if not
economically) region in the process. They sorted themselves
into various meccas of liberal thinking and being. Mary left
behind several brothers who she had to unfriend from FaceBook,
and then leave FaceBook entirely (good move in any case) to escape
the echo-chamber of their Trump-trumpeting.
On the flip side, they had the benefit of a very progressive
educational system and a thin smattering of worldly and
progressive thinkers in their communities... 4 year state
teachers colleges cum general colleges that were not only
affordable and convenient to get started with a good liberal arts
educations, but staffed with very well educated, very progressive
(if not always Progressive) thinkers who inspired them to think
outside of the boxes they were (somewhat) raised in. These
professors/instructors were part of an extended upper-midwest
educational milieu that, from my (distant) perspective seems to be
top notch. The nieces in Mary's cohort, at least seem to have
come out of the same culture with a strong progressive (and
Progressive) mindset. The nephews are mostly focused on guns,
guts, and glory with god's blessing.
I stumbled my way out of very similar boxes, but without (for the
most part) the kind of progressive higher education system I sense
that Mary had benefit of. The Political Compass test places me
pretty solidly into the Liberal/Liberatarian quadrant and I
self-identify that way when I can... while still holding a strong
allergy to the most extreme (unto smarmy?) Liberal styling of
arguments for their positions. I tend to agree with many of
those positions at a fundamental level, but am put off by some of
the gymnastics used to justify them.
Unfortunately I *ache* for a more reasoned discourse, and am
therefore acutely susceptible to the kind of rhetoric that the
likes of Sasse and Flake and others can muster... I find myself
*wanting* them to be reasonable so badly that I overlook the
*gaps* in their rhetoric where they let me (and others) fill in my
own blanks with my most hopeful and generous thoughts. It seems
to be some variation on the dog-whistle? I think Trump's
ambiguous (self-contradictory, rambly, ???) style feeds this
well... leaving lots of people room to pretend he either doesn't
really literally mean what he says, or leaving them to pick the
parts of various contradictions that are convenient for their own
argument, or just ignoring all the innuendos they might not like
otherwise.
I am feeling fascinated to live in these "interesting times" in
spite (because?) of the stakes at hand. Mary is now into the
second volume of Klemperer's "I Will Bear Witness", a diary of a
Jewish scholar married to an Aryan who survived the Nazi years,
and more importantly managed to keep his diaries secreted away...
a day by day, moving testimony to just how wicked the bulk of the
population of Germany could become under the acutely evil
ministrations of Hitler, his malevolent cronies, and the
propaganda machine they built and operated.
The propaganda machine of the Self-Righteous Right seems as intentionally designed, but not nearly as "smooth", but maybe it is just Limbaugh and Jones, and Tucker and Sean that I am hearing in their hysterical rants. Dave (and others) may accuse the Loonie Left's propaganda machine of being equally malevolent (to the Right's, not the Nazis') but perhaps slicker than the Right?
- Steve
So this is metastasizing now, and there have been other decades when it wasn’t such a problem, or at least not as overt.
Is that due to demographic sorting? In more prosperous (or even just earlier) times, enough people stayed near where they were born that cultures got some mix of preferences, and you didn’t have whole regions “submitting too much to the authorities in their lives”. But when those who wanted out could get out, and did so systematically, the ones who stayed behind could create a tailored paradise for the preferences that had caused them to stay behind?
On Oct 12, 2020, at 10:19 AM, Roger Critchlow <[hidden email]> wrote:
- .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. .On Sun, Oct 11, 2020 at 12:27 AM Marcus Daniels <[hidden email]> wrote:
- .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. .There’s a page on the 2020 election where they claim, among other strange things, that Warren is a right-leaning authoritarian. If that is true, which I doubt, it says to me politicians are mirroring the electorate in a very obscure way. And I am pretty sure I am not far to the left of Bernie Sanders.
From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Stephen Guerin
Sent: Saturday, October 10, 2020 8:39 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Political compass teest
ec=-5.75 & soc=-6.3
On Sat, Oct 10, 2020, 9:18 PM <[hidden email]> wrote:
I’m more of a libertarian than Dave is? Something MUST be wrong, here.
Nicholas Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology
Clark University
https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/
From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Prof David West
Sent: Saturday, October 10, 2020 6:39 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Political compass teest
Econ left/right: -0.88
Social Lib/Auth: -6.1
davew
NOT a Libertarian
On Sat, Oct 10, 2020, at 5:56 PM, [hidden email] wrote:
Do we all agree at an insanely high level? Then wtf have we been arguing about all these years. Let’s wait until Glen and Dave take the test before we bury all our hatchets.
n
Nicholas Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology
Clark University
https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/
From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Gary Schiltz
Sent: Saturday, October 10, 2020 5:29 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Political compass teest
I was pretty much dead center in the lower left quadrant, which was surprising to me. I would have thought I would be in the middle of the whole graph.
On Sat, Oct 10, 2020 at 4:52 PM George Duncan <[hidden email]> wrote:
Jon, I took it. I'm barely left on economics and strongly libertarian on social issues
George Duncan
Emeritus Professor of Statistics, Carnegie Mellon University
See posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
Land: (505) 983-6895
Mobile: (505) 469-4671
My art theme: Dynamic exposition of the tension between matrix order and luminous chaos.
"Attempt what is not certain. Certainty may or may not come later. It may then be a valuable delusion."
From "Notes to myself on beginning a painting" by Richard Diebenkorn.
"It's that knife-edge of uncertainty where we come alive to our truest power." Joanna Macy.
On Sat, Oct 10, 2020 at 3:22 PM jon zingale <[hidden email]> wrote:
I just took the political compass test and surprise surprise, I am a
left-libertarian.
Take the test here if you are interested:
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