Some Background on this Blog

Much has changed since we on a whim in September 2008 began our tiny blog (if I recall the term back then was microblog). 

This blog was originally inspired by the nomination of Sarah Palin as the Republican party’s 2008 VP nominee.  At the time, it seemed nearly unfathomable that a person without any apparent intellectual curiosity, lacking visible knowledge regarding world affairs (or really much of anything other than grievance), who embraced a sneering disdain for science, with an obviously cynical embrace of evangelical christianism, and who embraced demagoguery as her primary campaign tactic could be a nominee for one of the two major parties.  But she was and in reality she was the canary in the coal mine.

Palinism became the dominant strain in the Republican party.  John McCain and his strain of social and economic conservativism balanced at times by bi-partisan relationships and compromise mostly has disappeared; replaced initially by the deeply cynical Tea Party (recall that allegedly out of control budget deficit?) and then ultimately of course by Trumpism.  A strain of American populism harking back to John Birch, Barry Goldwater and George Wallace which during its emergence following the McCarthy era in the late 1950s and early 1960s was regarded by most as beyond the pale.  Now it is mainstream Republican policy.

Another huge change since 2008 has been the evolution of social media away from things like blogs to new platforms.  In the fall of 2008 Facebook had roughly 100 million users worldwide, today the number approaches 3 billion.  Twitter was a tiny, largely unknown start up, today roughly 300 million use the service. Those are only two of the plethora of platforms that permeate our daily lives. The eruption of social media has followed (or perhaps it is vice versa) the even greater explosion in the usage of smartphones as now most can access information anywhere, anytime and document for better or worse one’s life with the push of a button.

Even in 2008 long form media (newspapers, magazines, news shows with actual reporting as opposed to talking heads spewing hot takes) dominated.  The means by which those media were distributed was migrating rapidly to the internet via websites and blogs but it remained recognizable to those who grew up with Walter Cronkite and a local newspaper.

No more, the traditional long form media model is decimated along with the access to actual journalism it provided.  Now hot takes, memes, and quick often bot generated stories are available on every topic known to personkind.  But often they are superficial and even more so politically biased focused mostly on generating revenue producing clicks.  Media owners have learned the same dynamics which sold those cheap trashy rags like the National Enquirer will sell news- fear, umbrage, violence, titillation, and most importantly conflict.  Depth, nuance, the pursuit of “truth” is too hard to do and take the reader too long to consider.  News has become infotainment.

Social media is a water faucet spewing data but little insight. This does not mean it is bad but it does mean it takes considerable skill to consume it well.  A well-curated twitter feed can be constructive and informative.  But social media also enables that guy from high school to grab a meme or link to some shady or disreputable website and make some outlandish claim thereby providing validation to his “friends” on whatever the topic of the day is.  Perhaps one of his other “friends” might try to rebut the link but the challenge is grabbing a link maybe took that first guy 30 seconds.  Concocting a reputable rebuttal; since now we are all on the same level, one’s credentials become irrelevant it is all about his link versus your rebuttal; takes time, it takes analytical chops and it must be carefully constructed.  Few have the time or inclination to engage in this merry go round especially since one knows that guy from high school is deeply invested in his positions because at this point he has been marinating a long time in the social media infused miasma of whatever political or conspiracy swamp (left or right) grabs him these days.

So that brings me to what I will attempt to do here.  There is a small groundswell back to blogging.  Why because FB and Twitter are built for short, snappy, aggressive and superficial information (or misinformation) sharing.  With a blog one can avoid the superficial hot takes, avoid grabbing a link or photo and saying there! They suck! Take that you ignorant confused moron (to be clear I am saying only I will try!). I will seek something with some more depth.  But I do so with great trepidation.

Social media has been very humbling.  To think one’s insights are worthy of being read is inherently arrogant.  I was used to being considered one of the smart folks in the room.  But no longer, social media levels the playing field as some random friend of a friend has no idea who you are you are just “Trey from Chicago”.  Even worse after having engaged with former classmates, colleagues and family who might have some context regarding me personally at this point they really do not consider my credentials relevant one way or the other, which obviously may speak to me not being nearly as credentialed as I think.  But it also speaks to how folks these days are devolving into tribes and regardless of the “facts” or the “truth” if something does not fit their tribe’s narrative they just will not care.  It speaks to how many seem to follow the Trumpian approach of doubling down on their tribal instincts, never reflect, never apologize just bull ahead.  This by the way is a tried and true PR concept most famously exhibited by Roy Cohn a person Trump greatly admires.  So we shall see.

A further note, this is just a hobby.  The production values here are very limited.  The blog detritus left over from 2008-2010 contains many broken links which will not repaired.  The format is messy.  Previously I had a fellow contributor, Ms. White.  Her stuff was mostly better than mine.  I have tried cajoling her into resuming her posting, thus far she chooses not to do so.  We shall see if this modest effort results in something constructive or merely yet another contribution to the swamp.