Garbage
The Trump campaign hosted a rally at Madison Square Garden the other day. Twenty thousand people filled the arena and it was buoyant with a celebratory atmosphere. Thousands more rallied outside.
Some Democrats called it a Nazi rally.
Inside the rally, a comedian made a joke about a floating pile of garbage in the middle of the ocean. “I think it’s called Puerto Rico,” he said.
President Joe Biden, in a public video call, seemed to say that, actually, it was Trump’s supporters who were garbage.
Trump responded with a garbage truck photo op, which his campaign has been milking for every pixel.
The trash twist to this week’s news is fitting for the garbage fire that is our current political discourse, which has adopted the language of social media. We might not know how to talk to each other, but we do know how to dunk on each other. We are polarized and dug in. We are billowing with outrage and alarm. We are certain that the other side is evil and dangerous.
Trump is a fascist.
Kamala’s a communist.
Trump is Hitler.
Kamala’s the antichrist.
Illegals are overrunning the country.
Democracy dies in darkness.
Insane!
Epic.
Fraud!
Lol.
It’s all so very dumb.
By adding fuel to the garbage fire, we’re all getting burnt. We might have hoped that having some Big Smart People play more of a role in the social media discourse would improve things—instead, it has just made them dumber, too.
There’s no quick fix for the garbage fire, but you have a choice. It may be too late to improve the tenor of this election, but it’s not too late to participate in a media system that encourages quality and depth, that rewards trust that’s built and sustained over time, and that gives power to independent thought. You can opt out of the stupidification. You can join a growing movement of the smartest minds in culture. You can take back your mind.
The garbage will continue to burn, but you don’t have to be touched by its flames.
Got it. You’re the Elon Musk of Substack. You suddenly appeared in my feed out of nowhere with your creepy followers. I guess there is no escape from the MAGA cesspool of right wing propaganda.
That WAS a hate rally. And everyone who’s not a gaslighting fascist knows it.
Hamish - on one hand you're correct. The discourse isn't that great and the moderators don't enforce a meaningful discussion. On the other hand, I think you're doing a bit of "false equivalency." Trump is objectively cruel, and his supporters at those rallies laugh at his cruelty.
Biden, as a president, should not have said that Trump supporters are garbage, but then, what do you suggest we call people who don't support him - but revere him with cult-like intensity - a candidate guilty of rape, who has made his entire brand one of disrespect, lies, and cruelty yet calls it "love"?
Look, I know you're trying to hype Substack, but saying Biden's one comment (which I would submit is objectively true) is equal and opposite to Trump's avalanche of Hitler-style hatred, is an unwarranted stretch.