Geoff Manaugh / knows the score*. Your outrage is exactly what they want:
… an endless landslide of trivial distractions has been steadily eliminating the ground needed for systemic political change. People who might once have been an opposition—or, even better, people who might once have been leaders capable of articulating a clear way forward, rather than a muddled, shy, often weirdly apologetic way to resist someone else’s initiative—are left genuinely believing that if only Mike Pompeo could be forced to admit that an NPR reporter knows where Ukraine is, then some sort of symbolic, magical goal will be achieved.
Remix as necessary for non-USian contexts. Note that he’s not saying you shouldn’t get angry; he’s saying that taking your anger to the birdsite and performing it to your siblings-in-anger is not just useless, but actively counterproductive.
Note also that he’s right.
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BLDGBLOG is of the blogs I’m gladdest to see fire back into life this year; Manaugh was always something of a blogging hero to me back in the day, someone to emulate. He has a deceptively simple “beat” or home topic, often approached from a more-or-less science-fictional angle; he writes clearly and regularly; and he can be quite concise. I am much better at two of these things than the third one yes ok no prize for pointing that out thankyouverymuch. Prolixity is my signature move; other blogs are available!
[ * There is a prize for identifying this cultural reference in the comments, but receiving the prize is contingent on your managing not to make me feel old in the manner of your mentioning it. So good luck with that! ]
