I am a francophile. I adore many French philosphers and authors. I am also in love with the French language as being the proper language for expressing big ideas and exploring political discussions. French is an incredible language for expression because it has such fantastic nuances.
Why am I sharing all of this? Because of Voltaire’s quote, “Certainement qui est en droit de vous rendre absurde, est en droit de vous rendre injuste.” There’s no single ‘correct’ translation for this, as it is a sentiment that is hard to translate, but the one I tend towards is, “If they can make you believe in absurdities, they can make you commit atrocities.’
I’ve been cogitating on what Voltaire was trying to express in this sentiment as I watch all the absurdities that the Tangerine Terrorist and his sycophants have spewed into our national discourse over the last decade-ish. And, then, I go back further to all the absurdities that the rightwing nuts have been spewing into our national discourse since Reagan. And, then, I realize that a certain segment of the US’ population has been primed for nearly 5 decades to believe in absurdities … and my imagination runs wild with the absolute atrocities this segment of the population can and will unleash, if we do nothing to stop them.
I have also been listening to a variety of news outlets over the decades. A couple of them, well, they became so absurd that I stopped listening to them because they were so unabashedly shilling propaganda instead of reporting on anything of substance.
What we have now is a broken system for journalism because we allowed the absurdists to control the newsrooms, allowed propagandists into the media ecosystem and, generally, sold our news outlets to oligarchs rather than investing in news outlets as a public service. Those oligarchs have, in turn, decimated journalistic ethics in favor of their own biases. Journalists and reporters who did not fall into the company (oligarchs’) line were silenced.
One local example was when Robert Pamplin got tired of the ‘negative’ news coverage here in Oregon and started his own newspaper, the Portland Tribune. I guess he got this idea from the Murdoch media empire. If you can’t get good coverage, invent your own good-news coverage.
What I’m trying to say is that local news coverage in Portland took a right-leaning slant that snowballed into the mess we have today. Sinclair bought a bunch of local news outlets. The Oregonian no longer produced a daily paper after switching to a more conservative slant under W, losing revenue due to this rightward slide and being a bit late to adapt to the age of the Internet.
While Portland, OR remains a liberal and progressive bastion, I have noticed that I have to use more discernment when I take in news from various places.
I have also noticed that newscasters, whom I have watched for the last 30 years, are no longer as happy about the way they have to present various issues. Especially when Sinclair was doing all the propaganda-y things under W, during the first TT administration and now. I no longer enjoy learning about things because of the tight lips and stiff necks on trusted faces as they present news with stressors in their voices that were not there in the 1990s.
There was also a shift to coverage of all the horrible things people do to one another rather than discussions about local policies, events and interviews with local politicians and local activists and getting just regular folks’ thoughts. Of course, the Portland Metro area is also dealing with a huge swell in population as people began moving here, even as our local economy and local housing couldn’t keep pace.
People got mean as they percieved (real or imagined) shortages in decent wages and decent housing. Native and long-time Portlanders talk about how people drive more aggressively, are not as friendly. Used to be you’d walk down the sidewalks and nod or wave or say ‘hello’ to perfect strangers. That doesn’t happen as much as the newer people haven’t acculturated to Portland traditions.
So, when people refuse to adopt the customs and culture of their new towns, when oligarchs are allowed to put their thumbs on the scales of our news outlets and when more people believe in absurdities, it becomes even more important to strengthen our sense of community and to support each other while we stand against the coming atrocities.
We must be activists for human rights and turn aside violence with nonviolence. We must zealously advocate for democracy in this torrent of authoritarianism. When we speak out together, when we show that we are not afraid because we are united, the bullies will relent. When we defend the bullies’ targets, we build a stronger community.
We must keep talking, we must keep working, we must keep progressing.
Do not obey in advance.
Illegitimi non carborundum.