Hi folks,
Most of you don't know me, but some of you might remember me from the good old days of 1990s and 2000s here. A lot of my old SI pals are still around and some of them post a lot on this thread. Let's get this out first: I'm as liberal as they come.
Are you still with me? Good, because I have a LOT of conservative friends both here and in 3D. Those of you who know me might remember that back in the day, when it was Bush v. Kerry, I was so completely convinced of a Kerry victory, that I posted a challenge on SI that if Bush won I would stop posting for an entire year. I think only Jorj X. McKie agreed with to take the other side of that challenge. That may not seem like a big deal, but at the time I was a fairly prolific poster. Why did I feel so confident? Well, in hindsight I can say that I lived in a bubble. I live in New England, in the bluest of the blue states. All of my friends, and family members, and old college buddies, and coworkers, all thought exactly like me. So, while I never actually thought too much about it, it seemed at the time that the entire universe (that I knew of) thought the exact same way I did. I couldn't understand that a few hundred miles to my west people had very different thoughts and experiences, and political preferences. So, of course Bush won and I was gobsmacked! True to my word, btw, I stayed off SI for the next year. For that matter, I never posted much after that.
You probably see where I am going here. With much respect to you all, I am wondering whether you all have asked yourselves lately whether or not you are living in a similar kind of bubble. One where you live in a community of like-minded people who all have the same views at the local grocery store, barbershop and backyard BBQ. You may have self-selected the voices that you can hear on SI, and with Facebook's algorithms that only feed you with content it knows you will click on, and with the people you follow on Twitter. You may get most of your news from a cable network, or blog, or podcast, whose commentary jibes with your own ideas. Maybe you are thinking about switching your preferred source of news because your old reliable source has started saying things that don't line up with your beliefs.
I'm not trying to start an argument, because I think you are all good people with good intentions, even if I disagree with you on most issues. I'm just sharing my own experience as a person who learned the hard way that the United States is a very big place, with vastly varying feelings about economics, justice, immigration, health care, race and religion.
I have learned that I live in a liberal bubble. For that reason I have been following this thread to see what the other side thinks. It's an eye opener. Have you considered that you live in a bubble too? The people outside of my bubble are not my enemies, and I'm not yours. I lived through 8 years of George W. after the whole Bush/Gore fiasco.
Let's look at the full picture here. You all did pretty well in this election, actually. Was it really that unlikely that Biden would win? If so, what was the rush to seat the new Supreme Court Justice prior to the election? Politics is a pendulum that swings both ways. This time it swung my way, but not really as far as it could have if you think of the other 19 non-Biden democratic challengers during the primary. You will all be okay. The United States will be okay. This is why we are so great! I don't hate you, and you don't need to hate me and the people like me.
Your pal,
Quahog |
