it almost feels like having conviction (or passion) about this peak of presidential politics is the most midwit thing you can do right now.
and not caring is also not cool. both are true. but, to me, investing much energy into the state of things of 2 people “running” for president right now is like playing the claw machine at the arcade 1,000 times to try and win a PS2 when a PS5 exists for half the cost.
there's some sunk cost fallacy here: people have invested so much emotional energy and intelligence (bummer!) in the 24/7 narrative of presidential politics over the last 9 years. one does not easily give that up. identity, like with lots of things, is all wrapped up in it.
"the world is ending" is a seductive narrative on its own. pair that with, "and you (yes, you!!) can do something about it" and you've got a Tyson-level jab and uppercut.
so I’ve gotta watch my desire to point that at this campaign right now.
my guess is most of us probably think the immediate world around is good and useful and then look up and out at the bigger world and get really down on everything.
I wanna be optimistic in the right direction at the local and global level. these next 8 days, and whatever comes after, don’t seem like they’re going to have as big of a meteor impact (“if _ is elected, everything is finished”) as the narrative is pushing.
nothing new under the sun (https://x.com/EpsilonTheory/status/1849857007698022454).
and interestingly, of course the world can end by some string of bad politics and people. but i think it's more useful to have a heavy filter for when it's snake oil and when it's legitimatedetermining threats (or truth!) is so hard and my gut just says this next 8-day narrative is discounting that and trivializing it.
this post was first a xtwitter thread.