Hello friends! I'm excited to share this conversation, and promote this new documentary from my longtime friend Kristi Kendall, especially because it's fundamentally optimistic! And man, do we need some of that right now, don't we? Start off 2024 with a vision of your fellow Americans that looks nothing like what the fear industrial complex wants us all to believe.
There is much truth about the media’s role in the majority of the divisiveness. I had to take a step back and wonder why people were so hateful - they were news watchers. Most Americans are somewhere in the middle of the extremes they show.
One of the scariest things for our future is how our educational system, at all levels, is forcing students/young people to self censorship because they don't want to deal with the blowback, both with their professors beliefs and the broad culture of the school body. How administrators are ignoring this for their own virtue is depressing. There are great educators out there but your job is to pass knowledge and keep people thinking and expressing, not mold citizens to your personal beliefs. Discourse needs to be taught in a respectful manner.
The Mercatus Center, "the world's premier university source for market-oriented ideas" . Proudly supported by the Charles Koch Foundation. Keeping the world safe for billionaires.
Good video, lots of great points made by all three. I will add that one major cause of our toxic discourse is the politization of all of life. Both the left and right are guilty of this over the years, and 24/7 news and the internet turbocharged the issue. We need a return to the compartmentalization of politics. The model of this can be found in the old Looney Toons Cartoons specifically the characters of Ralph the Wolf and Sam the Sheep Dog. Sam and Ralph treated the idea of a predator trying to grab a sheep and the guard dog as an actual 9-5 job, The two of them show up at the pasture together, talking cordially about family, and plans etc. like any other coworkers. The two of them literally clocked in and then as the day went on they engaged in the usual cartoon violence, with Ralph trying to eat the sheep and Sam stopping him. When the lunch whistle sounded, they sat down at the break table and ate together. When the final whistle sounded the two of them would clock out and travel home continuing the conversation they had prior to clocking in, the pasture left behind for another day. This is the way in fact political discourse did work years ago. William Buckley and Kenneth Galbraith argued fiercely on Firing Line but off the set they were best friends, the respective families often vacationed together. Tip O Neal and Ronald Reagon battled fiercely in DC but had drinks after hours. What they understood was that politics while an important part of life where just A PART of life that had a specific time and place. This allowed the two men to make compromises on a lot of issues. Any large diverse society is going to have extensive disagreements, that is why politics is best dealt with locally, much easy to advance an agenda if most of the community are on the same page, something you cannot achieve in a society of 330 MM people of many faiths, races, ethnicities. Just reality folks.
How uplifting...and really doable solutions. Thank you for reminding us of higher attitudes we can use to work through things together. Terrific collaboration. Kudos to all involved! First generation daughter of immigrants (Soviet Hungary; my father fought in the '56 Revolution) here, and completely agree that our attitude toward the rights ...and our responsibility to maintain them...here seem to be more meaningful to me than to others I know who grew up with the usual American experience.
I think we’re experiencing a soft civil war right now. Look at the immigration issue. Officially, immigration is the issue of the federal government. It’s not a state issue, and it’s not a city issue. No matter what side of the debate you find yourself on, you can’t deny that the federal government, state governors and city mayors have been opening defying one another. We essentially have the federal government completely ignoring illegal entry. We have cities and states that have declared themselves “sanctuary” cities/states. Why is the fed allowing this? And on the flip side of the coin, we currently have state governors bussing illegal immigrants outside their states. Why is the fed allowing that? Texas has even lifted their own national guard against the border patrol. Then you have Colorado who has taken it upon themselves to remove a candidate from a federal ballot, and Oregon who won’t even hear the case! This is an open rebellion within the government. We are in a civil war of sorts.
Movie needs to get out to general public. Americans coming together with respect for one another and some common core beliefs is our hope for the future of our country.❤
The country did not become THIS divided due to the Media. It became this divided because of Education. With that in mind, one is forced to ask... what has changed in Education so much to the point it drives such drastic division? Media doesn't drive such conviction in shaping one's worldview, only education does that.
Great video! I would have liked to have heard more of Ben's opinion on the DEI capture of our institutions, especially given his family background having came from a Marxist oriented society. Keep up the good work! You might want to look into an interview with John Wood Jr. from Braver Angels. I'd also recommend a conversation with Hyrum Lewis and Verlan Lewis, who wrote "the myth of left and right", and make a good case that what's driving our polarization is purely tribal rather on any specific policy issues, since if you look back historically, you'll see both sides flip flopping on the same issues.
Social trust is usually highest among middle class a group of people who feels that they belong and benefits from existing society. If middle class will lose their trust, then it is over. We will have, as Lenin put it more than 100 years ago, a “revolutionary situation”.
