Now Is the Time for Viewpoint Diversity to Shine
If last night's outcome shocked you, time to break out of the bubble
This morning, it seemed as if the $3 million brownstones in my neighborhood were sagging with depression. The air was thick and wet, with no chance of rain: heaviness everywhere. My neighbors, among the most privileged people in the world, were bummed.
Look, I am also bummed. I got none of what I wanted last night (including a $3 million brownstone). New York passed Prop1 and Trump grabbed the country by the pussy. But I am far more prepared than last time, for a variety of reasons.
One: I maneuver among the politically homeless, many of whom had moved into new, deep red quarters. So many LGBT and/or feminist and/or liberal folks had traveled from anti-woke to pro-Trump. I had started to feel like the lone old school liberal among them. Thus, last night’s outcome was not a shocker.
Two: I am now aware that Trump Derangement Syndrome is a real thing, and that the liberal media I consumed had worked me into a non-stop froth for four years, preventing me from being able to dispassionately evaluate the policies put forth during Trump’s reign. I am committed to not letting that happen to me again, although it would really help to have better media sources, where journalists weren’t filtering every article through their own limited worldview. An omnivorous media diet is key to viewpoint diversity.
That said, I feel pretty defeated about the possibility of blue reform, if only because of TDS. We can’t calmly take stock of our flaws when we perceive ourselves as being persecuted.
And that’s where the viewpoint diversity movement could, and should, come in, to help us understand one another, to make people feel heard, rather than persecuted. We have to make policy based not just on one narrow vision of how things should be, but based on how things really are—the many different kinds of people, and the belief systems they hold, whom we live among.
The viewpoint diversity movement, the heterodox space, has seemed increasingly like a Republican space, which has been isolating and depressing for me. It has seemed less like a space to engage with ideas than one to dismantle wokeness at any cost. Perhaps Trump’s victory could have an upside, and bring more liberals into the viewpoint diversity fold.
I fear that the hammer about to come down on gender ideology will interfere with my mission to help liberals understand what they’re participating in, to change course. But then again, the Democrats have had years to walk it back on this issue, and while they’ve been refusing, digging in their heels, so many kids and families have gotten hurt. I understand why so many people have abandoned them. I understand why the imposition of gender identity, and gender medicine, onto children has to stop, and that will happen now, even if it’s not the way I want it to.
But listen, if you’re unbearably depressed today, watch The English Teacher on Hulu. It’s a great show, particularly how it handles wokeness among the kids.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Rebukes? Diversity of viewpoints? Please share in the comments.
Though someone was deeply offended when I said this earlier today, I’ll say it again, because I need it to be true: It’s gonna be okay.
I love your sentiments and as a therapist I am encouraging my very fearful clients today to remember we have survived for thousands of years. We are innovative, creative and able to handle this. We can tolerate varied points of view and allow it to transform us into better humans. TDS is a very real and I also believe a very crafted and perpetrated syndrome by the media to stir up and divide us. It is almost impossible for those in my life with it to see that, however. It feels so "real" to them. It's gonna be a challenging time in my practice!
Thank you. You summarized many of my feelings. I’ve been unchangingly anti-Trump for decades, I’ve been on the left for decades. Because I voice my distain for identity politics on the left that have been front and center the last few years, I’ve been called a Nazi and a bigot. If I say “look what we’ve been doing” I’m told to “look at what they’ve (the Rs) been doing”.
I can deal with being politically homeless, but I’d like to at least find shelter away from both extremes, especially as we deal with what comes next.