Since having a kid, it has been harder to listen to the news. Sometimes the blow of one story after another, each making realer how terrible the world can be, is too much and I prefer to listen to music. Or, to turn off the noise and enjoy the silence.
This has worsened since the presidential election. Trump’s many problems have likely drawn a lot of clicks for news outlets. They’ve also made more acute the already chasm-like divisions that have always haunted our society. It’s also far easier to find me cursing the radio.
There is a sort of pseudo movement that claims to counter Trump and the many things that people perceive him to stand for. Some people call it a “resistance” and this name has stuck. The problem with this idea is that it implies that instead of standing for something, it only stands against.
Writing about this recently, Umair Haque published a post that is potentially controversial in its criticisms, but that I find ultimately constructive. It is with this last point in mind that I share Haque's writing. I guess I'm just thirsty for something that instead of adding to the drip drip drip of negative, also points to a way to build upon the debris. The resistance needs to coalesce and I’m hoping that it’ll happen soon.
A quote from the point in his post where he justifies the need for opposition instead of just resistance:
This has worsened since the presidential election. Trump’s many problems have likely drawn a lot of clicks for news outlets. They’ve also made more acute the already chasm-like divisions that have always haunted our society. It’s also far easier to find me cursing the radio.
There is a sort of pseudo movement that claims to counter Trump and the many things that people perceive him to stand for. Some people call it a “resistance” and this name has stuck. The problem with this idea is that it implies that instead of standing for something, it only stands against.
Writing about this recently, Umair Haque published a post that is potentially controversial in its criticisms, but that I find ultimately constructive. It is with this last point in mind that I share Haque's writing. I guess I'm just thirsty for something that instead of adding to the drip drip drip of negative, also points to a way to build upon the debris. The resistance needs to coalesce and I’m hoping that it’ll happen soon.
A quote from the point in his post where he justifies the need for opposition instead of just resistance:
What does opposition do that resistance doesn’t? It offers a positive agenda for a better social contract, embedded in institutional transformations. Like, for example, everything that Dems don’t ever propose: real universal healthcare, public media, public higher education, debt relief, real safety nets, and so on. A social contract — whole and full and true.
