Bingo!
That was my reaction when I read the title of this opinion essay in the Washington Post: “Can we find common ground without a shared reality?” The author, Kate Cohen, identified the fallacy at the heart of multiple liberal admonitions to “listen to” and “try to understand” the grievances motivating MAGA Trump supporters. She began by reporting on one such well-meaning example, in a recent book, Kurt Gray’s “Outraged: Why We Fight About Morality and Politics and How to Find Common Ground.”
According to Gray,
Liberals and conservatives arrive at different moral conclusions because we weigh harms differently based on whom we believe to be vulnerable. Take the issue of abortion: I am more concerned for the pregnant person; a pro-lifer is more concerned for the fetus. But we both want to prevent harm.
Gray calls harm “the master key of morality”; it unlocks our understanding of moral judgments. “When someone has an opinion we find immoral, we can ask ourselves, ‘What harm do they see?’”
Cohen says she can try to understand that her neighbor isn’t purposely voting to harm her gay son and teenage daughter, but rather to prevent harms that the neighbor believes are posed by acceptance of LGBTQ+ folks and a woman’s right to make her own reproductive decisions. But then she asks the “bingo” question: “what if the harm she sees … isn’t real?”
Thus Gray points out that antigay crusader Anita Bryant “saw gay rights as a threat to her children” — he’s not saying she was right, just that she was acting from sincere concern. His research similarly refrains from privileging what I would call “fact.” One study he designed flip-flopped gun control statistics to see if people were worse at math when they didn’t like the answer; another, measuring how online outrage is built, included tweets about “the dangers of critical race theory.” It’s the perception of harm that matters…
I think we’re in this mess because one side’s perception of harm is increasingly disconnected from reality. I’d happily live in a world where my neighbor and I could discuss which harms concerned us more: the suffering of refugee children or the burdens on border-town citizens. The livelihood of coal miners or the warming of the globe. But in the world we live in — the world that reelected President Donald Trump — there’s a strong chance she believes that immigrants are eating pets and that climate change is a hoax.
And that –the refusal of millions of people to accept facts, evidence and demonstrable reality and opting to reside in a fantasy universe–is the crux of our current problem.
On this blog, I have repeatedly argued that the information environment we inhabit enables a large percentage of the population to indulge in confirmation bias. Granted, there have always been sources of disinformation, but never before in history has it been so easy to access “evidence” that confirms one’s desired beliefs and prejudices.
Has your life failed to unfold as you hoped? Are you convinced that some “other” is to blame for your disappointments? There are literally hundreds–probably thousands–of websites that explain that the Black person or woman got the promotion because of “wokism,” and why the elevation of that non-Christian is evidence that “DEI hires” have replaced merit.
Is your livelihood or comfort level connected to the prospects of fossil fuels? There are plenty of “sources” that will confirm the perfidy of scientists who are “in on” the “global warming hoax.”
Are you suspicious of all science–especially when it is based on empirical data that conflicts with your “biblical” understandings? “Bible-believing” websites will explain why the doctors trying to explain why abortion bans threaten women’s health and lives are just anti-religious liberals intent on killing babies and allowing women to ignore their God-ordained submissive roles.
Are you uncomfortable around gay folks? Lots of “religious” sites will confirm that they are “ungodly groomers,” (and that all those mainstream media reports implicating youth pastors and other pious church folks are exaggerated).
I could go on. And on.
We live in a world where technology–and yes, free speech–facilitates the construction of fantasy realities. And as Cohen accurately notes, finding “common ground” with folks who live in alternate universes simply isn’t possible.
Thanks to well-meaning liberals trying to reach that “common ground,” we are now inhabiting a country that–as Paul Krugman recently wrote– is being ruled by a mad king living in an alternate reality and a erratic, ketamine-fueled oligarch — and it’s not clear which is the other’s sidekick.
Finding “common ground” with madmen is suicidal.
Hmm. This analysis casts holding the hope of finding common ground as a way forward and out of this mess as the easy (and not actually available) way. What then is the way out of our current rule by the mad king and drug-addled oligarch? We need to see it clearly and get to work.
I just deleted a lengthy comment because it would have had little meaning to even some of you on this blog who don’t have real concerns about keeping what you have now and not needing to seek social services which are ending faster than we could fill out an application. The unemployment applications topped 240,000 this month, no jobless report yet and the “government cost-cutting” South African/Canadian/American/Richest Man on Earth” is giving orders to the DOGE while we are still wondering who IS the CEO of DOGE and where are they and why is Musk giving the orders and leading the first Cabinet meeting of Trump’s 2nd term in the White House?
I am speaking from between the weeds down here at grass-roots level; not from envy, not from seeking more than my share, not seeking social services but from total FEAR and DISGUST at the current state of affairs. In 1954, my 16th year, I spent the summer with my aunt and uncle who were what at that time was called “well-to-do” which meant rich by that era’s standards. I met some of their friends; one of the brothers who owned Chris Craft who built luxury yachts for those richer than them and the son of a family who owned a steel mill company. “Son” had a 9 hole golf course on his estate and Daddy had an 18 hole golf course on his estate. I don’t remember where Jerry and Gypsyanna’s money was from but remember she was drunk and argued that her stereo should be playing records from the middle out to the edge as we listened to the music on her malfunctioning stereo. They all drank, and they drank a lot; one thing they had in common was that none of them looked happy or were satisfied with their lives. My aunt and uncle’s best friends were the Chief Custodian and his wife of the luxury apartment’s where they lived; what great people, happy to take care of the trash and lawn care of rich residents and what fun we had together.
“Thanks to well-meaning liberals trying to reach that “common ground,” we are now inhabiting a country that–as Paul Krugman recently wrote– is being ruled by a mad king living in an alternate reality and a erratic, ketamine-fueled oligarch — and it’s not clear which is the other’s sidekick.
Finding “common ground” with madmen is suicidal.”
It’s always Follow the money! I don’t want their millions, billions or trillions; I simply want to pay my bills and help my family. There is no “common ground” in today’s caste system. As Vern so often says, “I’m glad I’m old!” I’m not suicidal but I am not investing in my health to stay here longer than is necessary.
We live in a world where technology—and indeed, free speech—fuels the creation of fantasy realities. It’s increasingly difficult to find common ground with those who dwell in alternate universes.
Reflecting on Sheila’s post this morning, I recognize that my evolution from semi-conservatism to full liberalism was shaped during the time when anthropogenic global warming was often dismissed as an obscure topic. My background in thermodynamics drove me to learn more about this critical issue; it took considerable effort to comprehend the consensus reached by the scientific community.
This journey unfolded during the Tea Party era while I was living half the year in Southwest Florida. I attempted to educate others, believing that coastal areas were particularly vulnerable to climate change. While some were eager to engage, many others pushed back, even to the extent of labeling my teaching as a threat to Tea Party ideals. This created a considerable amount of drama in my classrooms.
To my astonishment, the Tea Party’s narrative focused less on the need for gun protection and more on the fear of individuals like Musk, Trump, and Vance leading our nation, perpetuating a culture of fear towards those unlike themselves. Meanwhile, my concerns about extreme weather and rising sea levels fell by the wayside.
The real tragedy is that while they fixate on imagined threats from other people, we are collectively ignoring the far more significant danger of civilization’s destruction due to our reliance on fossil fuels. This disregard for pressing environmental threats in favor of personal fears is what truly concerns me.
Oh, so true. I’ve held, for quite a while now, that there is no way a reconciliation of left and right works in our great country because of the abundance of disinformation – and I use that term rather than misinformation as the former is intentional and the latter a mistake to be corrected – available and used in the defense of non-reality, of conspiracy theories. We are simply going to have to throw the bums out, the would-be king and his oligarch court, or this mess will only snowball beyond repair. This is not your father’s Oldsmobile, the saying (and advertisement went, and look what happened to that car); we are in the new era of everything and it is the result of one thing: ubiquitous social media, i.e. the smartphone, the real computer age. There is no time for thoughtful reactions to anything; it is immediate and many (most?) times thoughtless, always as fast as one’s thumbs can tap. Whatever it is, you can count on finding a defense for just about any conspiracy theory, no matter how far from the truth, simply by googling it and getting an instantaneous AI response. Whew! Say it ain’t so, Joe.
Oh, so true. I’ve held, for quite a while now, that there is no way a reconciliation of left and right works in our great country because of the abundance of disinformation – and I use that term rather than misinformation as the former is intentional and the latter a mistake to be corrected – available and used in the defense of non-reality, of conspiracy theories. We are simply going to have to throw the bums out, the would-be king and his oligarch court, or this mess will only snowball beyond repair. This is not your father’s Oldsmobile, the saying (and advertisement went, and look what happened to that car); we are in the new era of everything and it is the result of one thing: ubiquitous social media, i.e. the smartphone, the real computer age. There is no time for thoughtful reactions to anything; it is immediate and many (most?) times thoughtless, always as fast as one’s thumbs can tap. Whatever it is, you can count on finding a defense for just about any conspiracy theory, no matter how far from the truth, simply by googling it and getting an instantaneous AI response. Whew! We do need to figure this out.
Thanks for sharing that anecdotal story, JoAnn. We want you to stay right here to fight the good fight!!
I never could understand why the poor whites from the South fought in the Civil War, so the plantation owners (oligarchs) could maintain their rights to own slaves. After working in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, I can certainly understand the mentality and it’s not just poor whites. I had a buddy who was raised in Augusta, GA by a mammy. I went to the Masters and it’s still a caste system and blacks have made very little headway.
I’m afraid Indiana has much of the same mentality, but they hide it better. If you listen and read enough, it slips out. Sadly, some of the worst racial comments I’ve heard came from local cops and their spouses. The last thing any racist wants to hear is that their black cousins are equal to them. That’s why all these DEI programs are being ordered to disappear. Target marketing to this segment isn’t all that difficult. Ian Haney Lopez wrote a book called “Dog Whistle Politics” and traced its use to Ronald Reagan. Bill and Hillary Clinton used it as well.
Ian’s words:
“Powerful elites exploit social divisions, so no matter what our race, color, or ethnicity, our best future requires building cross-racial solidarity.”
We all know Trump is a racist, but Musk’s beginnings in South Africa, HELLO? He is hard-wired to be a racist, which is why Trump targeted SA with sanctions for believing black Africans in the government were stealing property from the whites. “We can’t have that happening!!”
Meanwhile, in Gaza, we could care less that brown people were being exterminated with our two thousand pound bombs. Has anybody seen the AI-generated video of Trump’s Gaza 2025 after they ethnically cleanse 2 million Palestinians?
If Americans weren’t so racist, the Elite Oligarchs wouldn’t be able to manipulate us so easily. For some reason, poor ignorant white people hate black people. White people who think they are better than everyone else because they have a little money resent paying taxes that fund social programs “they perceive” as going to “lazy blacks.”
The biggest disappointment to the US was Barack H. Obama, who talked about the social and economic classes that had to be elected and then abandoned those programs once elected. He sold us out to get ahead and stay ahead. By not holding the Elite accountable for intentionally tanking the economy, the doors swung open for the con artist Trump to take advantage of ignorant white Americans.
These ignorant white Americans think Trump is an outsider (a populist) who is going to nail the liberal Elite and blacks for screwing them over. Fox and Newsmax are doing their part in the con. However, as we’ll soon see, the ignorant white Americans are the mark in this scheme. The wealthy 0.1% are getting ready to steal at least $4.5 trillion from the Treasury and send us the bill before the economy and the dollar blow up again.
The likes of Anita Bryant and her obsessive message along with her misguided followers … that gays were “God—less groomers” to lure vulnerable children into their lair … did huge harm to mask the true perpetrator of unprotected children. Studies that interviewed convicted felons behind bars for sexually perverted crimes against children found 98% were heterosexual and fit the profile of a pedophile. Any campaign or belief system to the contrary only provides a protected pathway for the unchecked “Pied Piper” to groom not only his victims, but also care givers and even parents. It continues to this very day. Extreme belief systems that deny truth, but for the sake of “THE ONLY TRUTH” … creates a living hell for the most vulnerable.
Fact or fantasy? If you could live in a fantasy world, simply by choosing to, would you? It’s a way to escape from all of that bothersome turmoil in the real world.
Most people can’t afford to do that. We live in the real world because we can’t afford the luxury of traveling across country to see the fearless leader speak in tongues, in person. Many of the true believers are pretty well off, upper middle class cowboys, with the “little women” falling in line right behind them. At least one of those fellow travelers (a woman) took a private plane to be at the January 6th event, which was really “wild”, as promised.
Their fantasy world reinforces their belief that they are better than the libs. It also encourages them to disdain “others” who come seeking more than they have. It’s a zero sum life and if others get more, they get less.
The Brothers Grimm showed us long ago that fantasy might also be fearful. Is this one more lesson of history that we missed?
As long as people think their message is from the god of their religion, finding common ground will be difficult. A major disaster pulls the rug out from the religious differences to solve a problem: war against the nation or natural disaster comes to mind. I would say “pestilence” but a pandemic didn’t even pull people together much.
Hello. I read daily but don’t post often. Has anyone heard of or participated with the Country1st organization? I’m told it’s connected to Adam Kinzinger. More details at
http://www.country1st.com/about
Yesterday I participated in an online Zoom meeting, attended by 500-600 people from across the country – even some from Indiana. After some background about the group and its intent, participants made more than 4000 phone calls to Congressional representatives to voice our concerns about DOGE and its impact on veterans, health research, etc.
Previously I hadn’t taken much action by myself but now I have contact information for my AZ congressmen and plan to involve others in my community to begin to express our concerns about what’s happening. I realize that many of the regular posters here have been more involved to date but I am curious if you know of this particular group and/or have other similar ones to recommend.
Thanks, Sheila, for all that you do!
Lie after lie after lie with no one challenging the lies. People and reporters in attendance just standing there, some nodding their heads in agreement, some with heads down taking notes, too embarrassed to look up. Some laughing lightly, thinking perhaps the laugh will mask their shock at the lies being uttered. “My God, did he just say that? Does he really believe that?” Eventually, the lies don’t matter. Eventually, they are just accepted as fact. Eventually, we end up with a wanna be king and his billionaire henchmen leading our country. So here we are.
I’ve heard the well-meaning advice of searching for ways to come to some form of agreement with those who think so differently from me. And it used to work to some extent. I could, in fact, have intelligent conversations with my conservative family members and friends and sometimes find that common ground and move on. Not anymore. Now when they say, “in truth, we all want clean air and water, safe food, and healthy children, right? We can at least agree on that, right?” my answer is “no, we can’t. Not anymore. Because I can’t trust your sources at all, and you won’t listen to or trust mine. When I hear you spout that vaccine side effects are far worse and kill way more people than the disease itself, there is no way I’m going to agree with you that “we all just want our children to be healthy.” When you state that third world countries need to take care of their own, even when dealing with life-threatening, pandemic level diseases, rather than receive USAID help and efforts, well, I’m sorry, there is no way we’re ever going to find common ground. You can’t tell me that you voted for him because you care about the precious life of babies, then say something like that to me.
Cohen’s point is spot-on. Those who live in alternate universes can not comprehend empirically based information, and thus simply disparage what points any “woke” person presents. They may as well live on a planet on which copper relates oxygen in one’s blood.
According to well-meaning neighbors, I survived a massive heart attack 3 years ago, only because they prayed for me, the skill of the cardiologist at the ER at a very nearby hospital was just a side issue! Or, maybe their god guided his hands to save this sinful bastard of an atheist! So, it’s not a doctor’s skill anywhere, it’s just their god in every single medical situation of what we see as important, anywhere in the world? Good thing their god has steady hands.
I’ve previously mentioned the fellow who had to stop a conversation when I mentioned the word”evolution,” because his minister would not like him to simply consider the possibility that it is at all real.
Mind control of a sort? You bet. And every Sunday, he goes to church to have his indoctrination reinforced.
Todd, Peggy and RiverGirl each made excellent points today that I agree with.
Ignorant radical right wingers that like to label educated, anti-discriminatory people as Woke need to look in the mirror to see the IB or IAH staring back at them. The label of Woke beats the hell out of the labels IB or IAH.
You all need some Ben Shapiro for a dose of reality.
Get real people
Hey! Becky is back! Goodness! Missed her pithy commentary based on… Ben Shapiro? Why don’t you share some of his intellect with us? Or, perhaps you are among the “Do your own research” cabal – aka “I’m clueless, but will convince you with my fact free charm and wit!”
“The refusal of millions of people to accept facts, evidence and demonstrable reality and opting to reside in a fantasy universe–is the crux of our current problem.” And the firm position in that fantasy’s ‘rightness’, exacerbated by notions about what it means to seek common ground, like say, starting with some shared values and expectations hardly helps. And then there are false equivalencies…..too far a reach for common ground when we seem not to be on the same planet; it baffles my mind.
I think at this point I just have to agree to disagree with some individuals. The longer I’m on this planet the more I understand the viewpoints of George Carlin and it gives me peace to know I’m not the only one who thinks things are messed up and not likely to improve much with human beings at the wheel. Not because we can’t but because we choose not to. Archeology has shown that there are several civilizations before our own on earth that we know very little about that collapsed. At some point I just see us as just another civilization joining the dirt heap.
So you know… enjoy the short life you have and love who you love fiercely because you have a front row seat to all this chaos.
A big thank you to Becky for verifying everything that’s been said today!