Our Matrix Sucks

As it describes itself, "The Bulwark is a news network launched in 2018 dedicated to providing political analysis and reporting free from the constraints of partisan loyalties or tribal prejudices." Its editors and contributors do span a reasonable range of American political thought, at least broad enough sampling of the center-left and center-right. Of note, Bill Kristol, the very same person who helped immensely the project to foist Sarah Palin's canary-in-a-coalmine version of skin-deep dumb on our political firmament, is doing penance flagellating the Trump-era GOP as an editor-at-large.

Introductions aside, I do appreciate The Bulwark's generally actually fact-focused approach to the news of the day. In this era where many in the political maelstrom and their media enablers pit us against one another because it sells, I especially liked a story this week that reassured me and pissed me off all at once.

Entitled "Unplug From The Matrix", the story by Gregg Hurwitz and Marshall Herskovitz (the fourth and fifth Beastie Boys, I believe) simply and concisely lays out the many ways the majority of Americans are in violent agreement about the issues of the day, as backed by polling. So concisely that it's easy to repeat:

• We believe hard work and innovation should be rewarded.
• We believe everyone should play by the same rules, that the same laws should apply to all, regardless of race, religion, or background.
• We believe in opportunity, that everyone should have a fair shot to earn a sustainable living for themselves and their family. And that working Americans have not received that fair shot for a generation.
• We believe in laws and stability and want a competent, fair, and just legal system with enforcement that protects us all equally and is deserving of our respect.
• We believe in the right to hold opposing views.
• We believe in borders around our country and in a lawful, regulated, and humane immigration system.
• We believe that children from every community should have access to quality education.
• We believe the stain of slavery and racism has not been lifted from America, in spite of the great progress that’s been made.
• We believe affordable healthcare should be available to every American, regardless of pre-existing conditions, and that prescription drugs are too expensive.
• We believe in preserving our oceans, land, and skies for future generations.

There's not a lot to argue with there, no pun intended. Why, then, do we have so much angst, choler, and anger loose in the land? Herwitz and Herskovitz blame four factors: social media tech giants, mainstream newsmedia, politicians, and lobbyists. Per the authors, "These groups have created a Matrix-like information universe that monetizes, thrives, and feeds on our dissent and pain, and keeps us compulsively focused on our few areas of disagreement rather than our overwhelming similarities, until disagreement is all we can see."

The diagnosis seems logical, the remedy far less clear. It starts with conclusively and overwhelmingly defeating Donald Trump and aggressively cleansing our body politic from the people and institutions that support and enable him. A truth and reconciliation program, only one that lands a lot of people in jail or unable to show their faces in polite society. 

That's a start.