I’ve been finding it very hard to be. I intentionally avoid looking at news most of the time. Everything’s so silly that it just gets boring and it’s hard to do much other than stew or disengage entirely. At least in my country, I can’t think of anyone major working in politics who isn’t completely beneath contempt. Can you? Do any of you see a way forward?
Best shutdown ever.
3 minutes ago, Jon Letendre said:
Best shutdown ever.
lol
7 hours ago, Pokyt said:
At least in my country, I can’t think of anyone major working in politics who isn’t completely beneath contempt.
I tend to form an opinion of various high profile politicians’ character as well. Can’t be helped. I see them say things that just disgust me.
But here’s the thing: I realize that I don’t actually know these people, and that what I’m looking at is, to a large extent, theater. An actor on a stage. So I don’t assign a lot of weight to the impression I come away with, when I see it.
I instead make an effort to look past that stage, at what’s going on behind the scenes. Obviously, there are no cameras behind the scenes. But you do see the effects of whatever is going on back there. You see the decisions that come out.
So that’s the main thing I judge politicians on: the decisions they make. Because those are facts. When Trump says “trade with the EU is no good, I’m gonna get rid of it, bring our jobs back”, that’s enraging. Especially when you’re in the EU, and you want to trade with America. But when, three months later, a trade deal is announced between the US and the EU that doesn’t get rid of trade but instead fixes several problems, that’s a decision. That’s evidence you can assign weight to in your assessment of Trump’s decision making.
Another example: European leaders (my leaders) spent the last two years bitching about Israel committing “genocide” in Gaza. Enraging, because that’s a lie. But then I took a step back, and looked at their actions: nothing. No real changes in EU policy towards Israel. Symbolic political acts, threats, sure. But no action. That didn’t make me change my opinion of how they were behaving, but it made me realize that it’s theater. They don’t actually hate Israel, they’re not antisemites, they have the same fear of Islamo-fascism I have, and the same understanding that we need to keep supporting Israel as me. They just don’t say it, because it doesn’t help them politically to go around saying it. But their actual decision making (the facts, the things an objective thinker can assign weight to) say it loud and clear.
So I don’t worry about it. I don’t think Israel is in danger of being cut off from EU markets (which are a massive economic lifeline they desperately need). I think Israel can count on the support of Europe going forward, in spite of all the theater.
Examples abound of reasons not to fear the decision making behind the scenes, in western governments. All of them, really, except perhaps some of the edge cases (Spain, Greece) where some of the decision makers have shown themselves to be dangerously irrational in the recent past.