The propaganda war isn’t over what we’re being exposed to. It’s over what we’re exposing ourselves to. So there’s a strong element of complicity in what we believe, be it about global warming, vaccination safety, Gaza, of what have you. Those on the left are fully capable of checking out Fox News. But they won’t. And if they do it’ll only be to mock. And those on the right are fully capable of checking out MSNBC. But they won’t. And if they do it’ll only be to mock. Each of us belongs to a base. And the only way we can switch from one to the other is if we go on some kind of vacation for a couple of years, forget who we were, and then become not reborn but born as if for the first time.

This is why, if we’re to be capable of independent thought, we need periods of non-partisanship. So, for example, the longer the interval between elections, the greater the probability of a change in government. Not because, as the talking heads would have it, people want a change for change sake, but because most of us are one issue voters, be it about immigration or abortion or climate change or Gaza … And so there has to be time enough for our particular grievance to emerge. Biden couldn’t plug the border. Or he backed the wrong horse in Palestine. Or …

And it’s always what the party in power did wrong that trumps whatever the alternative will do worse. Biden let the Russians take a third of Ukraine. Trump will invite them to take it all. Biden gave the IDF the means to kill or maim 100,000 Palestinians. Trump will tell the Israelis to clear the Strip for seaside retirement condos.

Government is forcibly imposing the will of some on others. If it isn’t it isn’t government. It’s something else. Entreaty perhaps. So to say that one government is better than another requires an indexical. Better for whom? The problem is that if I allow myself to be an x-greater-than-one issue voter, each of the alternatives gets mixed reviews. Biden will do what he can to protect women’s reproductive freedom, but he has Palestinian blood on his hands. So it’s a good thing I can’t vote, or wouldn’t if I could. Because if I could, would, and did, I couldn’t answer to any of my friends for my complicity with at least one abject evil.

Categories: Everything You Wanted to Know About What's Going On in the World But Were Afraid to Ask, Social and Political Philosophy

Tags: Biden, climate change, Fox, Gaza, IDF, MSNBC, Trump, vaccinations