Going through American Horror Story: Cult right now, and I'm really impressed with it. I think it represents the splintered nature of our society quite well, even if there are a few strawpeople.
It's strangely cathartic to watch, too. The bewilderment we felt in 2016 is there.
I think its most impressive feat, though, is giving me a way to sort of(?) understand all the people who fell into the orbit of the groups showing their asses right now.
It also convinced me that the weaponized anger of the Left is only making things worse.
That's a lot to put at the step of an over-the-top basic cable horror anthology, but our stories can help clarify our values more than anything.
I'm not saying that we shouldn't feel anger: we do, and we ought. But we're giving ourselves over to it in destructive ways.
We're tearing apart any chance of restoring a bond with our fellow Americans. We make it feel like there is no way back from the actions others might regret. We've even lit our own on fire over all kinds of stuff.
I don't have answers about how to wield anger responsibly. I have my own problems with it, for sure.
But I also know how dangerous anger can be if you give it enough oxygen. I see way too many people in its grip without something to balance it, and that's scary.
@jakebe At the risk of sparking its own wildfire, have you watched the Contrapoints episode on Canceling?
I think she covers this fairly thoroughly and, IMO, pretty well, including owning up to many of her own past failures.
@orrery I haven't! But I did listen to the Invisibilia episode about callout culture here:
https://www.npr.org/programs/invisibilia/601968934/invisibilia-for-april-13-2018
@jakebe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjMPJVmXxV8
Be warned: it's movie length, but IMO it was worthwhile.
It feels like, more and more, we've abandoned our values of compassion, respect, and even tolerance for pure unfiltered anger. Anger when shaped in the service of justice can be a powerful tool to temper out corruption. But this...this is a wildfire. It just burns.