Are you really angry about the state of the world? The Supreme Court’s decision on voting rights has been so angry I’d like to spit. Or maybe break through a wall? Definitely spend time railing online. Or maybe I can go for a run instead, or write my feelings? Or call a friend? Any of those reactions is okay. With the exception of railing online, they will help you. In online interactions, studies show that confirmation bias rules the internet, so you’ll feel a bit better, but you won’t change minds.
Being human and living in society, you should feel strong emotions. In many ways, if you’re not angry about the Voting Rights Act, you’re the one who needs to learn a bit more. Since the 1960s, much of the nation’s economic growth has been linked to the civil rights era changes. Racism and sexism cost the United States money. Sadly, we’ve decided that racism and sexism are worth the nation’s future. In being angry about this decision, you’re feeling upset for our whole nation. Your feelings connect with the collective, and so they’re important.
Technology has given us more connections than ever, but studies show people feel more isolated. Knowing more people in a shallow manner is not as satisfying as connecting to a few deeply. But, in a connected society, people need to feel they are part of a whole. So, while social media gives a false sense of the collective, the loss of key rights for a segment of our nation, namely Black voters, reinforces your sense of connection.
The internet has found plenty of ways to disconnect us. Voting rights, for example, have been split down the middle. Literally no republican or MAGA influencer has suggested voting doesn’t matter. Similarly, most republicans are happily finding ways to disenfranchise people. On the left, voting is often framed as an individual choice, of being won over, like each of us must be specially listened to. This type of consumer decision-voting culture is very new in American history.
Given how the Tea Party and then MAGA figured out that splitting a segment loses seats, and that coming together will be victory, I find it interesting that the left has not come to this conclusion. I suspect this is tied to the broader issue with the Left. We’re statistically far more educated. We know the complexity of the world, and it’s hard to comply with people who don’t follow all our views. But I also suspect it has to do with an intellectualizing of elections rather than the blind faith emotions Republicans take to the polls. Cynics and thinkers aren’t going to just do what their pastor told them—they don’t even have a church. In this, the left is marching to its own drum. With no congregation, positions can become your personality, in an interesting, similar-to-MAGA horseshoe way. But what we lose in this factionalism, no matter how necessary it feels, is shared results.
We all lose because some of us can’t accept anything but the purest of options. That moral high ground is often from the privilege of academia or a trust fund. They’re happy to put it on the line because they’re not the ones with their necks out.
I’m going to stop you now, if you’re planning to say something in the comments about the Dems. This is not about them. It’s not about the Republicans. It’s not about MAGA. It’s about us as a people.
We lose our humanity by choosing to stick it to x politicians. We lose our humanity when we pretend theory can save us. We have so little to be joyful for, and we lose even that when the billionaires win.
When you want to say nothing changes or voting doesn’t matter, remember that there are people who lost their vote because their skin was the wrong color. Remember that there are people who fought and died to give us the vote.
Be angry about this. Truly sit with the ramifications for some Americans, particularly if it won't affect you. Listen to people whose rights have been curtailed. Understand their feelings. Internalize them.
