The NYT article about Mariama Ba made me cry. Then again, everything has been making me cry lately. A single too-squishy blueberry in my cereal this morning was the last culprit. But anyway. Now I want to reread Une Si Longue Lettre but in English, sans blueberries.
also, your take about being anti-intuitive, wonderful!
also, very much appreciate this: "At a moment, when it seems like vengeance and mean-spiritedness are ascendant, where is there space for kindness and care?"
Love that saying -- Proceed as the way opens. Thanks for sharing.
One rec I'm sharing with people who are grappling with how to be creative during difficult times is Beth Pickens' Your Art Will Save Your Life. It's 46 pages and packs a punch. It's been helpful for me to read as I think about many of the same questions you posed.
Loved the Quaker quote. Unfortunately I feel about Quakerism the same way I do about Buddhism: If we all lived our lives in that manner the world would be a better place; however, those that live their lives in that manner are often steamrolled.
Hey Chris, like you, many of my friends are struggling with the reality of the election results,and what it means for our country, and our morality, going forward. I read this comment on The Free Press and am posting it here. Not as an “in your face” move, but in attempt to see another perspective. I think that if our country is to come together (and I think we should), it is imperative that each side understands the other. I don’t think we’re as divided as those in power want us to believe we are.
Issues aren’t always black and white. I know many conservatives who support the LGBTQ community, who are members of that community, and who are pro-choice. I know many progressives who are pro-life and don’t want biological men participating in women’s sports or invading women’s safe spaces (locker rooms or bathrooms).
We, as a people, don’t always fit neatly into pre-determined boxes. We are unique, complex, and dynamic beings with unique, complex, and dynamic opinions and beliefs.
Okay…enough opining. Here’s the comment ;). (What resonated with me the most was this line: “Voters want to know how a candidate will give them a better life and, increasingly, they have learned to tune out the rest as noise.”)
Copied and pasted from a commenter on The Free Press
WHY TRUMP WON
While the legacy media has a meltdown searching for hitherto undiagnosed psychoses in the electorate to explain its embrace of a Hitlerian strongman, the truth is much simpler than their fictions.
This election is a reminder that after all the manufactured drama and overheated rhetoric, politics is still about issues. Whether you agreed with him or not, Trump ran a substantive campaign based on issues like the border, inflation, crime, and war.
Harris ran on vibes, celebrity endorsements, name-calling (“convicted felon”, “fascist”), debunked hoaxes (“very fine people”), and platitudes (“democracy”). She would neither defend the Biden-Harris record nor say what she would do differently. When she did talk about specific issues, they were often stolen from Trump (child tax credit; no tax on tips; border funding).
On the one issue where Democrats had an advantage, abortion, Trump deftly got ahead of the issue by rejecting a national ban and removing problematic language from the GOP platform. Harris wore out the issue by blatantly lying about Trump’s position and by exhibiting her own party’s extremism (nobody needed to see an abortion truck at the DNC).
While Trump expanded his coalition with MAHA (health) and DOGE (government efficiency), Harris concluded her ersatz campaign by going all in on demonizing her opponent, pretending Madison Square Garden was a Nazi convention.
The fact that voters saw through it should be reassuring, even if you don’t agree with the result. Voters want to know how a candidate will give them a better life and, increasingly, they have learned to tune out the rest as noise.
While the legacy media creates excuses and impugns the motives of voters to explain why Trump won, the reason is simple: Trump is the candidate who spoke to voters’ concerns directly.
Hi Nard. Something I believe pretty deeply is that there's no way to win an argument with an internet stranger and that face-to-face communication allows for the nuance and back and forth necessary to have a real conversation about heated topics. I don't know you other than as a person who reads my newsletter and occasionally comments (which I appreciate) so I won't try to wade into a full debate or even conversation here.
But since you're posting this publicly on my Substack, I don't feel like I can not respond at all. What I would like to say, respectfully, is that I think what you've posted here does not hold up to factual scrutiny. Both U.S. presidential candidates put forward clear policy proposals, all you had to do to see either one was go to their websites. Harris had detailed domestic, foreign, and economic plans (including expanding home ownership to first time buyers). Trump also made no secret of his policy proposals like mass deportations and imposing tariffs.
The bigger thing that I want to push back on though is the way you framed what a middle ground, things not being black or white, looks like. I certainly agree with the sentiment that political rhetoric has become overheated and extreme and we'd be much better served by substantive conversations and discussions about how to find issues and policies that advance the country rather than just a single party or politician's image. But your use of "biological men" and "invading women's safe spaces" is honestly scary and troubling to me because the grey area/middle ground you've staked out there as your chosen example involves using a vulnerable group (trans folks) as a kind of scary bogeyman rather than neighbor and fellow citizen just trying to survive and live their life. Again, I don't know if it's at all possible to convince you over the internet, but I'd encourage you to look at statistics on violence against trans people and suicide rates (both unfortunately very high and common) and then compare that to documented instances of a trans person being the aggressor or perpetrator (vanishingly rare, almost to the point of not being documented at all).
All of which is to say, I appreciate your overall goal of dialogue and understanding, and I hope that you will consider where that understanding can happen on areas that don't result in innocent, vulnerable people being put in danger or harm's way.
Again, I think it's almost impossible to get into issues productively over the internet so I'll just leave it here and say that I desperately wish I could just be a silly clown goof boy and hope to go back to writing about being humiliated by a goose attack or something next week.
100%. Sometimes we agree, sometimes we do not, and that’s ok. I appreciate you, your humor, and your perspective. Thank you for your thoughtful response. Yours is one of my (and many others) favorite stacks. Thank you for always being you and being true to your beliefs. I really do believe there is more that binds us than separates us, and to have a reasonable discussion, is important for all of us.
You’re wrong. Trump ran and won on emotion, fear, propaganda, lies and extreme denigration. Thats what people seemed to respond to with the reptilian brain. There were no concrete issues or solutions except promising deportations, killing, retribution and rewards for sycophants. I’m sorry for all of us and for the world. Gloat now…apologize later.
Thank you for this. I really appreciate it and needed it. And thank you for introducing me to Kareem Rahma! What a delight.
The NYT article about Mariama Ba made me cry. Then again, everything has been making me cry lately. A single too-squishy blueberry in my cereal this morning was the last culprit. But anyway. Now I want to reread Une Si Longue Lettre but in English, sans blueberries.
Thanks for this post. It helped.
HOW DARE YOU BE TOO SQUISHY, BLUEBERRY!!!!
actually we call them "bloobs" around here but YEAH
Thank you so much for Rusty's piece.
dear chris,
love all of this! those subway takes! incredible!
also, your take about being anti-intuitive, wonderful!
also, very much appreciate this: "At a moment, when it seems like vengeance and mean-spiritedness are ascendant, where is there space for kindness and care?"
love you!
love
myq
100 % AGREE
Oh noooo
Love that saying -- Proceed as the way opens. Thanks for sharing.
One rec I'm sharing with people who are grappling with how to be creative during difficult times is Beth Pickens' Your Art Will Save Your Life. It's 46 pages and packs a punch. It's been helpful for me to read as I think about many of the same questions you posed.
Thank you for the recommendation, Megan! Looking forward to reading it
I love your questions ♥️
Loved the Quaker quote. Unfortunately I feel about Quakerism the same way I do about Buddhism: If we all lived our lives in that manner the world would be a better place; however, those that live their lives in that manner are often steamrolled.
It's a tough dilemma, that's for sure. I think I'd rather risk being steamrolled and try to make things better. But that's a lot easier said than done
I've have “the best way out is always through” framed and hung above my office door (thought that was a funny placement).
It has helped in some really difficult moments.
I love that. Also so funny to have it hung above a door! The best way out of the room is literally through that door
This is a good saying for people like me who keep asking themselves what might have been.
Yes, definitely. No point in constantly looking back since we can't change that, just take the next step. - what I assume a wise Quaker would say
Hey Chris, like you, many of my friends are struggling with the reality of the election results,and what it means for our country, and our morality, going forward. I read this comment on The Free Press and am posting it here. Not as an “in your face” move, but in attempt to see another perspective. I think that if our country is to come together (and I think we should), it is imperative that each side understands the other. I don’t think we’re as divided as those in power want us to believe we are.
Issues aren’t always black and white. I know many conservatives who support the LGBTQ community, who are members of that community, and who are pro-choice. I know many progressives who are pro-life and don’t want biological men participating in women’s sports or invading women’s safe spaces (locker rooms or bathrooms).
We, as a people, don’t always fit neatly into pre-determined boxes. We are unique, complex, and dynamic beings with unique, complex, and dynamic opinions and beliefs.
Okay…enough opining. Here’s the comment ;). (What resonated with me the most was this line: “Voters want to know how a candidate will give them a better life and, increasingly, they have learned to tune out the rest as noise.”)
Copied and pasted from a commenter on The Free Press
WHY TRUMP WON
While the legacy media has a meltdown searching for hitherto undiagnosed psychoses in the electorate to explain its embrace of a Hitlerian strongman, the truth is much simpler than their fictions.
This election is a reminder that after all the manufactured drama and overheated rhetoric, politics is still about issues. Whether you agreed with him or not, Trump ran a substantive campaign based on issues like the border, inflation, crime, and war.
Harris ran on vibes, celebrity endorsements, name-calling (“convicted felon”, “fascist”), debunked hoaxes (“very fine people”), and platitudes (“democracy”). She would neither defend the Biden-Harris record nor say what she would do differently. When she did talk about specific issues, they were often stolen from Trump (child tax credit; no tax on tips; border funding).
On the one issue where Democrats had an advantage, abortion, Trump deftly got ahead of the issue by rejecting a national ban and removing problematic language from the GOP platform. Harris wore out the issue by blatantly lying about Trump’s position and by exhibiting her own party’s extremism (nobody needed to see an abortion truck at the DNC).
While Trump expanded his coalition with MAHA (health) and DOGE (government efficiency), Harris concluded her ersatz campaign by going all in on demonizing her opponent, pretending Madison Square Garden was a Nazi convention.
The fact that voters saw through it should be reassuring, even if you don’t agree with the result. Voters want to know how a candidate will give them a better life and, increasingly, they have learned to tune out the rest as noise.
While the legacy media creates excuses and impugns the motives of voters to explain why Trump won, the reason is simple: Trump is the candidate who spoke to voters’ concerns directly.
Hi Nard. Something I believe pretty deeply is that there's no way to win an argument with an internet stranger and that face-to-face communication allows for the nuance and back and forth necessary to have a real conversation about heated topics. I don't know you other than as a person who reads my newsletter and occasionally comments (which I appreciate) so I won't try to wade into a full debate or even conversation here.
But since you're posting this publicly on my Substack, I don't feel like I can not respond at all. What I would like to say, respectfully, is that I think what you've posted here does not hold up to factual scrutiny. Both U.S. presidential candidates put forward clear policy proposals, all you had to do to see either one was go to their websites. Harris had detailed domestic, foreign, and economic plans (including expanding home ownership to first time buyers). Trump also made no secret of his policy proposals like mass deportations and imposing tariffs.
The bigger thing that I want to push back on though is the way you framed what a middle ground, things not being black or white, looks like. I certainly agree with the sentiment that political rhetoric has become overheated and extreme and we'd be much better served by substantive conversations and discussions about how to find issues and policies that advance the country rather than just a single party or politician's image. But your use of "biological men" and "invading women's safe spaces" is honestly scary and troubling to me because the grey area/middle ground you've staked out there as your chosen example involves using a vulnerable group (trans folks) as a kind of scary bogeyman rather than neighbor and fellow citizen just trying to survive and live their life. Again, I don't know if it's at all possible to convince you over the internet, but I'd encourage you to look at statistics on violence against trans people and suicide rates (both unfortunately very high and common) and then compare that to documented instances of a trans person being the aggressor or perpetrator (vanishingly rare, almost to the point of not being documented at all).
All of which is to say, I appreciate your overall goal of dialogue and understanding, and I hope that you will consider where that understanding can happen on areas that don't result in innocent, vulnerable people being put in danger or harm's way.
Again, I think it's almost impossible to get into issues productively over the internet so I'll just leave it here and say that I desperately wish I could just be a silly clown goof boy and hope to go back to writing about being humiliated by a goose attack or something next week.
100%. Sometimes we agree, sometimes we do not, and that’s ok. I appreciate you, your humor, and your perspective. Thank you for your thoughtful response. Yours is one of my (and many others) favorite stacks. Thank you for always being you and being true to your beliefs. I really do believe there is more that binds us than separates us, and to have a reasonable discussion, is important for all of us.
You’re wrong. Trump ran and won on emotion, fear, propaganda, lies and extreme denigration. Thats what people seemed to respond to with the reptilian brain. There were no concrete issues or solutions except promising deportations, killing, retribution and rewards for sycophants. I’m sorry for all of us and for the world. Gloat now…apologize later.
No gloating. Just trying to appreciate and understand both sides. I think that is the only way forward.