There is something to be said for better understanding and empathizing what daily life has been like for a lot of our neighbors and colleagues who never really felt that things were right in our society.
The thing that has set my anxiety on fire isn't that society has problems, it's just how far apart people's base perceptions are. Obviously we've always had crazies, but the capitol insurrection shows just how far removed from reality a huge swath of the population is. We can have debates on how to solve issues of policing, or taxation or health care, but in my mind there is just no justification for the 74M people who think a lying racist moron is the answer to anything. And I genuinely believe that "lying racist moron" is objectively true at this point. He led an insurrection based on absolute lies and people ate it up. They just don't exist on the same plane of reality as I do.
It’s no different than why hitler rose to power and scape goated the Jews.
When people are stretched thin the ugliest in them comes out and opportunistic “leaders” have exploited that for centuries.
You want to fix racism but you’re putting the cart before the horse. Fix the staggering wealth inequality first before you even think about having hope of addressing stereotyping and racism.
Downvote me all you want, but this is history. I’m not saying racism isn’t real, it’s very real and very ugly. It’s part of human nature to stereotype others, just as it’s human nature to fight and hoard resources. We have to combat these innate tendencies as a community by FIRST ensuring that all our people have the ability to live comfortably.
The unfortunate reality for most marginalized communities in the US is that they simply don’t have the time to sit and wait for the economic policies to shift back to favoring the middle class. They have to act now.
What is most disconcerning though, is US people seeming to vote against their own interests. Maybe a third party instead of co-opting those who clearly don't have your own interest at heart. But then we see the predicament since the system/culture/billionaires don't support more parties and hard compromises.
They are voting against their own economic interests, but clearly there are other non-economic interests that are more important to them in play here.
A political platform would be able to reason and explain projects using facts and figures.
Trapped in a one bedroom, working all day, and walking outside sucks. There's nowhere to go except online, and that's full of stressful garbage.
My dream is nature and simplicity.
E.g. If you live in a cold, remote climate this time of year:
Do you have enough food for winter? water?
Will your plumbing freeze? Do you have enough firewood?
Will your access to the outside world disappear based on weather conditions?
... Definitely an extreme case that I describe above, but I certainly would take this set of challenges over what the cities are having to deal with.
I am in Europe though, which makes me feel the main reason for this is lockdown/WFH.
Personally, I feel a bit like I'm going crazy. I really miss getting dressed up for the office and the social outlet of chatting with coworkers. We were flexible re: wfh before COVID but most of us still went in a few days a week.
I love my spouse but miss having more people than just him to interact with!
After that, there were very rigid limitation about at what times we were allowed outside and at what times. At the beginning we were not allowed to be further than 1KM from our house, and only from 06:00 to 10:00 and from 20:00 to 23:00.
For me, it's been really challenging during weeks of BLM protests: the seeming insignificance of tasks at work as compared to the plight of people across our troubled nation. Similarly, during the elections, when it seemed like we could have end up with 4 more years of inaction during a time when every year matters in averting a global warming catastrophe.
It's a bit easier now that the government is better aligned with what I think is a good direction.