A (possibly final) call to the Seed
The word on the street is that our weekly gathering at the Seed may not happen any more after this week. The election has made our traditional Happy Hour routine seem a little out of place these days. A group of loud, diverse, well-traveled folks gathering in a bar with cheap baskets of hot wings and pull tabs. Around our table, all kinds of languages are heard, from Japanese to French to Arabic. There have been times when our discussions have gotten political, and those around us could've found the things we said offensive. In all that time, though, our presense was tolerated, and our patronage was appreciated.
But now it feels different. The election made a lot us feel like we're an unwelcome minority. It has exacerbated a divide between those of us who have a world view based on actually having seen the world and those of us whose world view is based on stereotypes, fed to us through a media that avoids nuance. The British lament at how little we, as Americans, understand the rest of the world, but when they decide to tell us that, Americans just respond based upon their own silly stereotypes of British people.
A lot of people are asking themselves now, how do we change this? How do we win the battle to get people to recognize the fact that what the British (and the rest of the world) thinks does matter, and that it does affect us?
I disagree with a lot of what I hear from some on the left today about dumbing down the message to appeal to those that don't know the difference between Slovakia and Slovenia. Those of us who wanted a change in the Oval Office this year were right to demand a change. Just because that didn't happen doesn't mean that we need to start believing in different things. It's a challenge, but I think it helps to realize that we're sometimes focused too much on the wrong things.
At Reload, we like to pick on the religious right a lot. But these people are not the reason that George Bush is still in the White House for another 4 years. The reason that Bush won is because, to the large numbers of Americans that see the world in stereotypes, John Kerry fit the stereotype of the weak Frenchified liberal. Not all of these Americans are stupid either. Many of them just never have this stereotype properly challenged. So even among those that don't mind gay marriage and abortion, or would prefer that we not run huge deficits, many were still voting for Bush, because with a war going on, you can't have a windsurfing Frenchman in the Oval Office.
If we want to get out of this sad state of affairs, however, we can't let our stereotypes of these voters affect our ability to change their stereotypes of others. These people are not as dumb as we make them out to be, and they're nowhere near as radical or closed-minded as the small subset that does deserve to be ridiculed. For now, it looks like the Reload crew will be doing the first of the five stages of recovery by ourselves. But I hope before too long that we can do the last four stages drinking alongside our NASCAR-loving friends.
But now it feels different. The election made a lot us feel like we're an unwelcome minority. It has exacerbated a divide between those of us who have a world view based on actually having seen the world and those of us whose world view is based on stereotypes, fed to us through a media that avoids nuance. The British lament at how little we, as Americans, understand the rest of the world, but when they decide to tell us that, Americans just respond based upon their own silly stereotypes of British people.
A lot of people are asking themselves now, how do we change this? How do we win the battle to get people to recognize the fact that what the British (and the rest of the world) thinks does matter, and that it does affect us?
I disagree with a lot of what I hear from some on the left today about dumbing down the message to appeal to those that don't know the difference between Slovakia and Slovenia. Those of us who wanted a change in the Oval Office this year were right to demand a change. Just because that didn't happen doesn't mean that we need to start believing in different things. It's a challenge, but I think it helps to realize that we're sometimes focused too much on the wrong things.
At Reload, we like to pick on the religious right a lot. But these people are not the reason that George Bush is still in the White House for another 4 years. The reason that Bush won is because, to the large numbers of Americans that see the world in stereotypes, John Kerry fit the stereotype of the weak Frenchified liberal. Not all of these Americans are stupid either. Many of them just never have this stereotype properly challenged. So even among those that don't mind gay marriage and abortion, or would prefer that we not run huge deficits, many were still voting for Bush, because with a war going on, you can't have a windsurfing Frenchman in the Oval Office.
If we want to get out of this sad state of affairs, however, we can't let our stereotypes of these voters affect our ability to change their stereotypes of others. These people are not as dumb as we make them out to be, and they're nowhere near as radical or closed-minded as the small subset that does deserve to be ridiculed. For now, it looks like the Reload crew will be doing the first of the five stages of recovery by ourselves. But I hope before too long that we can do the last four stages drinking alongside our NASCAR-loving friends.
posted by thehim at 8:42 PM
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