- According to @MonaEltahowy, Nina Simone said that two kinds of consciousness were raised through her music:#
- You must now come to see us, and see our life circumstances. #
- You must now know that we see you, and the part you’ve played in shaping our life circumstances. #
- During the civil rights movement, the evening news might show video of sheriffs loosing their dogs on protestors or on people lined up to register to vote. In those cases, the first of Simone's two kinds of consciousness were evoked in many places across the nation, historians tell us.#
- And evoking the second kind? I'm not sure. It seems likely that talk of white privilege and structural racism is meant to do that work, but things like that provoke huge resistance.#
- In the first case, people seem prepared to say, "Yes, we see you and the circumstances of your life. Those are not acceptable. Our society should do something to change those circumstances." In the second case, people do not always seem prepared to say, "Yes, I am implicated, I help to create or maintain those unacceptable circumstances, I do nothing to prevent them, I share responsibility and I have to change."#
- You hear stories about people who are transformed by an experience of witness. People who refuse to pay a portion of their taxes, the part they estimate, for example, that goes to arming the nation's armies and fleets for warfare in small, distant countries. But it's not nearly as easy for me to see the second part of Simone's theory in action as the first.#
- The thought crossed my mind that Trump's lies about 3-4 million fraudulent votes having been cast in the 2016 election might have actually cost people their lives. Here's my thinking:#
- Bad actors elsewhere in the world know that the U. S. sometimes puts pressure on them to lay low, to cool it, to cease and desist. They also know that the U. S. is fully capable of looking the other way, intentionally or unintentionally giving them the green light for their predations on the people and economy of their region.#
- Seeing Trump stir the U. S. media and population into chaotic waves of angry discourse over his provocations and pronouncements, and seeing nobody find a way to shame him or shut him up in those years, some of those bad actors elsewhere in the world might rightly have assumed that the U. S. media and political system would be fully distracted by Trump and his backwash for years to come.#
- If so, those bad actors would reasonably interpret that as an opening--intentional or accidental--and they'd get back to doing the devil's work more boldly, more often, even in the light of day.#
- Once they remembered how much they enjoyed their jobs, these bad actors would probably see a need to kill regional opponents who tried to restrain and inhibit them. Some of the bad actors would likely have some of their opponents killed, knowing that the U. S. was busy with Trump's intentional distractions.#
- And thanks to that line of reasoning, if there was actually a way to check those uncheckable facts, I'd be willing to bet money on this: Trump's hogwash about the 3-4 million fraudulent votes in 2016 election almost certainly cost some people their lives, and cost others their hard-earned money, in other parts of the world.#
- His lies and our country's inability to do anything about them. Our institutions, feeble and teetering.#
- According to @MonaEltahowy, Nina Simone said that two kinds of consciousness were raised through her music:#
- You must now come to see us, and see our life circumstances. #
- You must now know that we see you, and the part you’ve played in shaping our life circumstances. #
- During the civil rights movement, the evening news might show video of sheriffs loosing their dogs on protestors or on people lined up to register to vote. In those cases, the first of Simone's two kinds of consciousness were evoked in many places across the nation, historians tell us.#
- And evoking the second kind? I'm not sure. It seems likely that talk of white privilege and structural racism is meant to do that work, but things like that provoke huge resistance.#
- In the first case, people seem prepared to say, "Yes, we see you and the circumstances of your life. Those are not acceptable. Our society should do something to change those circumstances." In the second case, people do not always seem prepared to say, "Yes, I am implicated, I help to create or maintain those unacceptable circumstances, I do nothing to prevent them, I share responsibility and I have to change."#
- You hear stories about people who are transformed by an experience of witness. People who refuse to pay a portion of their taxes, the part they estimate, for example, that goes to arming the nation's armies and fleets for warfare in small, distant countries. But it's not nearly as easy for me to see the second part of Simone's theory in action as the first.#
- The thought crossed my mind that Trump's lies about 3-4 million fraudulent votes having been cast in the 2016 election might have actually cost people their lives. Here's my thinking:#
- Bad actors elsewhere in the world know that the U. S. sometimes puts pressure on them to lay low, to cool it, to cease and desist. They also know that the U. S. is fully capable of looking the other way, intentionally or unintentionally giving them the green light for their predations on the people and economy of their region.#
- Seeing Trump stir the U. S. media and population into chaotic waves of angry discourse over his provocations and pronouncements, and seeing nobody find a way to shame him or shut him up in those years, some of those bad actors elsewhere in the world might rightly have assumed that the U. S. media and political system would be fully distracted by Trump and his backwash for years to come.#
- If so, those bad actors would reasonably interpret that as an opening--intentional or accidental--and they'd get back to doing the devil's work more boldly, more often, even in the light of day.#
- Once they remembered how much they enjoyed their jobs, these bad actors would probably see a need to kill regional opponents who tried to restrain and inhibit them. Some of the bad actors would likely have some of their opponents killed, knowing that the U. S. was busy with Trump's intentional distractions.#
- And thanks to that line of reasoning, if there was actually a way to check those uncheckable facts, I'd be willing to bet money on this: Trump's hogwash about the 3-4 million fraudulent votes in 2016 election almost certainly cost some people their lives, and cost others their hard-earned money, in other parts of the world.#
- His lies and our country's inability to do anything about them. Our institutions, feeble and teetering.#