The moment Obama caved on the Democratic Party playbook on race — he put Trump on the path to the presidency. And the Right treating Bush like the Second Coming of Christ — set the stage for the rise of the Rock Star they spent the next 8 years railing against.
Exponentially exacerbating the very problems you’re fighting against — is not smart.
Just what would it take to have that conversation?
If you’re unwilling to put the time & effort into understanding how to address your concerns more effectively — just how concerned could you really be?
How would you tell the story of America’s decline over 30 years in the Gutter Games of Government? Give it a go. I’ll be happy to show you the courtesy so few have shown me — in 20 years of telling undeniable truth that takes both parties to task:
And being practically spit on for it.
Anyone wanting to know the truth would not behave in ways that ensure they never will. If you abandon your critical thinking skills the moment you even perceive a threat to your interests — doesn’t that bring those skills into question?
How can you expect anyone to admit when they’re wrong if you won’t? And every time you allow emotion to run roughshod over reason, you further calcify habits at the other end of the spectrum from these:
Rather than assert that all opinions are equal, students in seminar learn to judge opinions on the basis of the reasons given for those opinions.
Nobody ever had to explain that to me. I’m sure you all feel the same:
And yet here we are
For the record . . .
I’m not singling out the people below — I’m just using these examples as illustrations about a widespread problem that’s only being looked at in a limited light.
But we’re all here because we share some important things in common: a commitment to reason, curiosity, independence, decency, and a hunger for honest conversation. In our upside-down world, holding fast to these ideals can sometimes feel lonely.
More than ever, we crave the company of people who share our core values.
— Bari Weiss: Welcome to Year Two
It’s a nice gesture for Bari to bond with her audience. But what people crave is the company of those who see themselves as they do — never mind their record doesn’t remotely reflect their claims.
Following facts going the direct you desire — doesn’t count.
Anybody can do that.
Without “commitment” and “holding fast” — it’s just wishful thinking, and it shows!
I’m sure it’s intoxicating to amass a following and feel like you’re making a difference. But I’m gonna weigh your impact partly as a reflection of your community:
How people behave — not what they believe.
If you can’t get that right, I don’t care how big your following gets — you’re taking this nation nowhere. Not in the right direction, anyway.
By being in bondage to baggage and baseless beliefs — painfully obvious lies become calcified as fact. We could do something about that:
But you’re busy
The problems that plague America are interrelated — and anything short of addressing that is going nowhere. If you want to start solving problems, first you need to clear the clutter that’s crippled this country.
To do that, you don’t go after everything, you go after one thing that ties to everything.
I’ve got an idea — and it’s got teeth
There’s a way we can harness folly from the past for the benefit of the future. It’s as out-of-the-box as it gets, but rooted in timeless truths America made outdated.
In a blurb on yet another book on cognitive dissonance, a science-fiction writer wrote, [the author] has seen the future.” If he had, he’d know his book has no chance of achieving its aims.
Conventional methods have repeatedly failed. Why would you believe next time will be any different?
But integrate those same tools into an unconventional framework for honest debate — and it will be different.
Everyone is trying to plow through problems when you should be going around them (think asymmetrical warfare).
My idea calls for fiercely independent thinkers (to be fully realized), but right now — one will do. I have a very specific target audience, so it wouldn’t take much. One email could set off a chain of events that could open the door to the kind of conversation this nation’s never had.
Why is it that smart people believe false things? And why is it so difficult for many of us to change our minds?
Most importantly, what is the antidote?
I tried telling you months ago.
Perhaps you didn’t see it. Fine, but including yours — there are only 6 comments on your article. When I sign up to be 7, how ya gonna miss that?
Curious writer & author . . . Fueled by free thought, inquiry, mischief & reason . . .
Countless times I’ve seen such claims — and how lovely it’s all framed in the imagery below (and I mean that sincerely).
But what you do when put to the test is what determines your sincerity.
Wish I had a ready-made solution, could probably make a bundle . . .
I’ve got a ready-made solution — and you just might make a bundle. Righting the trajectory of America by changing the dynamic of debate could be pretty profitable.
You can run with my idea and reap the rewards — all I want is a nation that returns to sanity. Perhaps you’re the right person with the wrong approach — while I’m the wrong person with the right one.
I may be a nobody — but this nobody was way ahead of everybody.
As I said in my doc:
At the heart of why we fail to live up to our potential as a society is because we excel at polluting even the purest form of fact.
How can we possibly solve serious problems when we refuse to adhere to some semblance of the fundamentals of making sense?
— Richard W. Memmer: Epilogue
Unlike Most of America
I Don’t Have Situational Rules
Debunking the WMD delusion & Trayvon tale is a conduit for showing how this nation systematically derails debate.
“Everybody believed Iraq had WMD” is not a valid argument any more than “armed only with Skittles.” By the way — how many of you know what Trayvon actually looked like?
It’s not the kid on People magazine I assure you.
I’m not interested in defending Zimmerman — my aim is to expose the irrational behavior of blindly defending Martin and the damage you did by doing so.
The Right wants the Left and the black community to get its act together on matters deeply woven into the fabric of America’s long history of brutality and disgrace:
Slavery, Jim Crow, lynchings, murder, decades of civil rights violations, questionable shootings, and so on.
While the Right won’t even look at the material properties of a tube. What’s wrong with that picture — and this one?
Hmm, so the dimensions exactly match the tubes used in Iraq’s history of manufacturing the Nasser-81mm artillery rocket (a reverse-engineered version of the Italian Medusa)
What I Do Takes Work: Time & Effort to Think It Through
A bit about work
Work is a Journey on Which You Welcome Challenge
Work does not instantly respond — work digs to discover and inquires to clarify. Work is difficult and demands discernment. Work wonders, pauses, listens, absorbs, and reflects.
Work does not rest on who’s right and who’s wrong: Work wants to know if there’s something more to see, something to learn, something that sharpens the mind. Work never stops building on the foundation of your own work and what you learn from the work of others.
Work works its way through material that is not easy.
Work recognizes complexity and the demands of in-depth explanation. Work will go on a trip to ideas that take time and effort to understand. Work knows that you can’t see your way through to a solution without understanding the different dimensions of a problem.
Work does not defend before you consider
Work does not race to conclusions — work arrives at them through careful consideration. Work is willing is rethink what you think you know. Work takes integrity, courtesy, curiosity, courage, and decency.
Work comes with the willingness to be wrong.
Work is not self-satisfied. Work does not sling snippets of certitude — work crafts argument on the merits. Work is an exchange where each party takes information into account. Work does not issue childish insults — work demands that you act your age.
You’ll find that work is far more fruitful and fulfilling than ease.
Work rises & falls
As this is the prism through which we work:
How we weigh what we see and measure our response. We’ll fall short from time to time — but those willing to work will keep each other in check.
Work respects your intelligence by using it.
And shows respect to others as we work our way to mutual respect. Work won’t be pretty and might even get ugly — but work will do what it takes to work it out.
And if you wanna start solving problems — work is what it’s gonna take.
Let’s get to work
Shall we? . . .
One Voice Became Two 