I’ve kept this quotation in front of me for many days and consider it worthy of sharing. It comes from the New York Times.
Post-truth is pre-fascism, and Trump has been our post-truth president. When we give up on truth, we concede power to those with the wealth and charisma to create spectacle in its place. Without agreement about some basic facts, citizens cannot form the civil society that would allow them to defend themselves. If we lose the institutions that produce facts that are pertinent to us, then we tend to wallow in attractive abstractions and fictions. Truth defends itself particularly poorly when there is not very much of it around, and the era of Trump like the era of Vladimir Putin in Russia is one of the decline of local news. Social media is no substitute: It supercharges the mental habits by which we seek emotional stimulation and comfort, which means losing the distinction between what feels true and what actually is true.
Re-posting this breaks my resolution to refrain from referencing Herr Drumpt ever again but I do so because the problem is not just T***p but rather what T***p represents. The most horrifying aspect of the T***p era is not misogeny or racism or corruption: it is that more Americans voted for this abomination to represent their lives and futures than had ever voted before .. except for the decent man who won the election by a wide margin.
Consider the revelation that 71 million Americans concluded that D. J. T***p is a good, honest, and selfless man, anointed by God, and deeply concerned about the well-being of all Americans.
Ha!
A Celebration of Reading 