As long as we are reflecting...

I don't know if there is a lot of value in writing about politics right now; the election is Tuesday and most of us Oregonians have already dropped off our ballots.

However, if I am going to advise Harvard undergrad, Princeton MA and PhD Cornel West to take some time to reflect, I might as well keep going on that. 

There is plenty to reflect on.

As an aside, I was pretty sure he was an Ivy League PhD, but I thought I should check the details. Wikipedia informs me that he is on his fifth marriage after four divorces... that sure sounds like someone who would be more aligned with Republicans.

Anyway, some other trends in this election round include members of marginalized groups who have been supported more by Democrats criticizing Democrats for not doing enough.

This has included transgender people claiming they are being betrayed by various candidates not insisting on full sports participation for transgender athletes, even if in other ways said candidates are very supportive of their rights and even if not going to the mat may just mean leaving participation rules up to local sports bodies (remembering that sometimes the reasons the complaints start are that the local sports body was allowing transgender athletes to compete).

There is a kind of interesting thread on it here: 

https://x.com/Chinchillazllla/status/2114767071649104281 

There are people in this thread whom I do take with a grain of salt, but I think there are some reasonable points and a mostly respectful discussion.

That means that at least at the point that I posted this, it had not been discovered by worse people.

The other thing I am seeing is supposedly Black men angry that it is Black women being elevated and that Democrats will not get their vote unless they do something for Black men.

There are some interesting things in there. First of all, I don't know how much of it is real. Sure, we had a few data centers temporarily offline and it was beautiful, but there are still a lot of bots out there. Such bots do impersonate different races and genders.

In addition, Steve Bannon had declared Black men were the key, so were going to be targeted. Have those efforts been working? 

Certainly Black men are not immune to misogynoir, just like they are not immune to anti-Blackness. They could be falling for propaganda that would be against their self-interest. That is possible, but it mainly being bots and trolls is also possible.  

However, that is very interesting in light of parts of Project 2025 relying on Black people "rioting" so that martial law could be declared. They have not been taking the bait, but complaints about Black people not participating in demonstrations... are you feeling they should be doing the labor or are you hoping that it leads to martial law?

https://x.com/Chris4Perkins2/status/2115413763234881654 

I mean, there is just a lot to think about. You can't take everything at face level, though even things at face level can be pretty bad if you really think about it.

What can we learn from this?

First of all, you need an understanding of civics and the racist, misogynist structure of society to be able to have a good analysis. It's too baked into our culture to be ignored, but a lot of the smooth functioning of our culture has depended on ignoring it.

We need to get past that. I can sympathize if it hurts, but it's still necessary.

Also, and this feels like it is behind most of what I say, we have to care about each other. 

If I only care my specific interests in whom I support, I am most likely to be voting against my interests. Even the people who think they are supporting their own financial interests are most likely going to be giving more power to people who will exploit their voters, consolidating their own cash and power as much as possible, to ridiculous extremes. 

That's how it's been working and it's pretty noticeable.