Saturday, November 16, 2024

Further Musings Roughly Related to Election 2024

 I am still coming to terms with the results of the election, and what it means.

The core of the issue, I think, is what this says about my fellow Americans - and not in an abstract sense. It's friends, acquaintances, and even family.

I don't generally say this out loud, as there's no point to it - but every time someone expresses support for Trump my opinion of them plummets.

I normally refrain from inflammatory remarks, because the people who don't already share my opinion of Trump are just going to roll their eyes and not listen... and the ones who do, already know. 

I also haven't thrown out terms like 'traitor', because it has a legal definition and needs proven in a court of law.

But there's another definition that I think fits - 

One who betrays another's trust or is false to an obligation or duty.

The false electors, the claims that Pence could change the results of the election - I keep bringing up Jan 6 because even though there are a lot of other things we could say about Trump's first term, this one is pretty cut and dry. 

He betrayed his oath of office in order to try to change the results of the election.

So when I see someone displaying a Trump sign, or hear someone say they supported him, what I really hear is:

Traitors are fine

(So long as I like their politics)

Recriminations are still flying about, and people have all posed their own explanations for that, but none of them feel very satisfying.

I think partly because the relationships between leader and led are not that clear. Are my fellow Americans gullible dupes, led astray by cynical liars? Did they fail to do their due diligence, and actually research the candidates? Are they really okay with everything Trump stands for, and this just reveals who they really are? Was it outside interference - Russia, Fox News, or some other candidate to blame? Was it an inability to evaluate sources? A lack of critical thinking?

Do they just not understand how serious Jan 6 was? And think this is just like 'normal' politics?

Obviously, the answers vary - even for each Trump supporter.

Where this leads me, at the moment, is to something that seems unrelated and pretty far out there. At first, at least.

Let's start with 'Americans were led astray by cynical liars.'

They're like shady car mechanics who take advantage of people's ignorance. I get that many Americans don't have the time or interest to do thorough research into the issues. That with full time jobs, families to raise, dinner to put on the table - you're lucky if they can spare any attention for the news of the day. And a long post about why mail in voting is more secure than an electronic booth (it's related to this), or why fake electors are so concerning, or what the Posse Comitatus Act is and why the president can't just order federal troops to do certain things.

These things are long, dry, and not something you can easily fit into a single meme. Most political experts know at least some of it, or have access to people who do, which means that when they exploit that ignorance they are generally doing so in bad faith.

They know better. And they don't care.

How to handle that is something we have been struggling with for a while now, and Trump's win has truly set us back.

Not in the sense of 'Democrats lost out'. This isn't about partisan differences. It's about America as a whole, and his win has set us back in numerous ways.

Not least because there will be even more power hungry and immoral copycats who see his success and think that's a strategy worth emulating.

A generation of ambitious individuals who think that cynical lying, false promises, and blatant emotional manipulation of people's worst traits are the key to getting what they want.

Which is why I want to focus more on that aspect. On those potential copycats who see what Trump has done and are thinking about doing the same.

Or rather, I want to focus more on the enablers and strategists who come up with these plans.

Because if their goal is simply getting into a position of power, then (at least right now) it looks like they succeeded.

But the how impacts how successful they will be, and starting off with a start like that sabotages all your future efforts.

That's the part I wanted to talk about, though even though I can see what I am trying to say, putting it in words is a challenge. I keep falling back on some of that Catholic upbringing, and start talking in religious terms.

So let's go with that.

Let's talk about the Kingdom of Heaven. Let's talk about "a process, a course of events, whereby God begins to govern or to act as king or Lord, an action, therefore, by which God manifests his being-God in the world of men."

It's spoken of like a utopia, a perfect place that is unlike this cruel, cold, and careless world. Many people of faith long for it, and justify all sorts of things in order to try to make it manifest faster.

And I think Trump's election puts any such thing even further out of reach.

That's quite a contrast to his christian supporters, many of whom think his electoral victory is somehow a 'victory for God' instead of a huge setback.

So I figured I'd explain my thoughts a bit.

God, as far as I can tell, does not want mindless minions.

If I look at the history of religion, what I think he wants is something more like 'mindful people knowingly and willingly choosing good.'

If we look at how a child grows into an adult - when they are young, the parent establishes the rules and enforces them. The child often doesn't know or understand why they matter, and do as their told (or face punishment).

But as they grow and mature, the child turns into a teenager and starts testing their boundaries. Starts figuring out which rules actually are good and which ones aren't relevant. They sometimes make bad decisions, but in the process they gain experience and start internalizing their own rules.

Then, when they make decisions, they are doing it because of their own internalized rule... and not 'because Mom/Dad said so'. Nor is it 'because I will go to jail if I do it.'

Getting to that point means tolerating exploration, experimentation, and letting people figure things out for themselves... but they pay off is that you don't need to have some external force constantly enforcing behavior.

People choose to do so willingly. Because they've decided it's a good idea.

The thing I dislike about these so-called 'christian nationalists' is that, just like al Qaeda and other fundamentalists, they are trying to take away that choice.

Instead of letting people learn for themselves and internalize their own moral code, they keep trying to treat people like toddlers who don't know what's good for themselves. They think they have to enforce 'God's will' - which really seems like their own interpretation of what God wants, since I think if God cared more about enforcing rules than respecting choice that He would be far more direct about things.

I've said it before, and I know it goes against most of the thinking for people like that, but their emphasis on this shows a tremendous lack of faith.

They clearly don't believe God's will can manifest unless they force it on everyone else.

But that's enough about that.

This concept, btw, is associated a bit with the idea of what truly gives people confidence.

Because true confidence doesn't come  from 'never facing any sort of obstacle or problem'.

It comes from knowing that you have the skills and resources to handle any obstacle or problem.

The second requires far more work. It means building up those skills and resources. It means teaching people, helping them grow, letting them build experience - even experience that isn't always positive.

I bring that up, because if I were to envision a 'Kingdom of Heaven' it would be one where people are knowledgeable, experienced, and skilled... to the point where they are not tempted by demagogues and power hungry manipulators. Where fear and hatred have no power.

Where they know what that path leads to, can recognize it when they see it, and reject it.

If we had more people who could do that, then it wouldn't matter what cynical lies and misinformation are spread on the internet. In fact, it would backfire and cause people to reject them for it.

And from that perspective - the Kingdom of Heaven is long, long, loooooooong way away.


 

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