I made the mistake this weekend ( as I often do during big NFL games) of getting on Twitter. While on the site, I made the wonderful decision to comment on a post having nothing to do with football. I simply expressed my confusion at the vitriol aimed at the vaccine hesitant. I don’t know what I was expecting, I know that Twitter is certainly not the venue for thoughtful nuanced discussion, at least I expected a cogent answer. The responses I received ranged from deranged to non-sensical to down right authoritarian. What was missing was any hint of reflection. From either point of view, pro or anti vaccine. Each responder was completely and utterly certain their ideas, no matter how vague or contradictory, were the one and only truth.
The have always considered the left to be the more inquisitive side of the political equation. Not that lefties couldn’t be dogmatic at times, but in the US, during my lifetime, I always considered them the side that was willing to look at outsider perspectives. The right had rigid either religious or economic dogmas that left no room for exploration or questioning. The hand of the market or the hand of God would take care of things. The left was willing to look in depth, at counter intuitive ideas and root causes. Now, the “T”ruth is taught to you at University and by the DEI trainer and in the pages of the New York Times. If his royal highness Dr. Fauci decrees it, it is so. No need to question, to think for yourself. Neither he or Madame Walensky are capable of falsehood. Masks were bad then they were good. No dishonesty, same as the numbers needed for herd immunity.
This all follows the pattern of the last, two years especially, but really the last eight or so . Whether you prefer to call it woke, or “the elect” as John Mcwhorter does or “the successor ideology” like Wesley Yang, their ascendant ideology requires a great deal of faith. You’re to believe, without question, their obtuse and ever changing set of norms. To question is heresy, and heresy must be hunted down and purged. Examples must be made, and most importantly, wrong ideas must be kept from the ignorant masses.
The paternalistic nature of the left is now the worst I've seen in my lifetime. I used to think that the Bloomberg soda ban was the height of ridiculous nanny state pageantry. Now the educated class has decided that us rubes should not even be allowed to make our own health care decisions. The people who were able to work from home and order everything in, who called us poors heroes for bringing them their shit they didn’t need to help them deal with all the stress of being able to stay perfectly safe at home. Now, a couple of years later, we should be fired and ostracized if we don’t get a vaccine that seems to stall, at best, long term spread. A vaccine I have, and would encourage anyone my age to get. The yuppy class has decided that we are a dirty scourge, my neighborhood, full of people who want to kill their grandma. Then in the next minute talk about how they support the working class. It’s either not true, or they don’t actually know anything about, or anyone from, the working class. Staying out of other peoples business is an important value in my world. You do you, I’ll do me, and we’ll be cool.
The other issue I see this so glaringly in is education. If the Dems continue with, what appears to be their current strategy around education, I don’t see how they expect to retain working class voted. As far as I can tell their current strategy is “We know what is best for your kid. We know better than you, and we’re gonna do what we want to do and hide it from you if necessary”. You would think that with the mass exodus from public schools over the last two years the Dems would understand this is a losing strategy on education. I fear that that is not the way the party functions anymore. I think they’re utterly at the mercy of the third of the country that are educated, true believers, and are going to leave us at the mercy of the Republicans after 2022 and 2024. The Republicans have no plans to attack any problems the working class face. But when presented with the option of the plans they hate, or no plan, many regular people are gonna opt for the party without a plan. At least you don’t know it’s bad. That’s better than something you know you don’t like, in many folks' estimations.
My hope is the rational part of the left will assert itself and reign in some of this insanity. I think radicals and revolutionaries play a part in a functioning political society. They shouldn't control the politics though. The part of the left, I still believe the majority, that believes in free speech and a vibrant marketplace of ideas, must stand up for itself and bring debate and compromise back to the party. Will the Republicans follow suit? I don’t know. I know that it’s the right thing to do. I think it can bring many of the Obama-Trump voters back. Maybe stop the hemorrhaging of Latino and Asian-American voters from the party. Affirm a commitment to merit and hard work as a determent for outcome and not identity. I fear the choice by the time my grandchildren are looking for a college they will have the choice of a right wing Christian religious school, or a left wing woke ideology religious school.
An education is valuable thing, both in term of future monetary earnings, but also the pursuit of knowledge is a wonderful thing. To spend a number of post high school years in pursuit of knowledge is a great privilege most people in this country don’t get to experience. What a university education is not, is a measure of intelligence. I know averages tell a different tale, but those averages are deceptive. Beside that, averages tell nothing of an individual. College is also not a measure of worth either. Sadly, I fell many of today’s educated class believe that it is. The pandemic has certainly proven that. Us uneducated kept right along going, while the educated hid and withdrew. Now those same people want to decree they understand the world better. They will never understand the world the way that we do. How can you understand the world better if you hide when it’s at it’s roughest. What’s an exercise in theory for them, is an exercise in reality for us. We kept the world running during pandemic, now that Covid is endemic, we can still make our own decisions.