Interesting conversation b/t @ezraklein & @EricKlinenberg about the need for social solidarity during crises & the difficulty mustering it in the US. vox.com/podcasts/2020/…
Lots & lots of overlap with a piece I wrote recently that kind of fell between the cracks. The themes I was fumbling around with in that post seem more & more important these days, so here it is again ICYMI: vox.com/science-and-he…
I can't imagine a more extreme demonstration of the fact that Trump's instincts -- which he very much shares with the conservative base -- are, at root, not only ugly but *maladaptive*. Belligerence, zero-sum thinking, obsession with dominance -- they don't work.
The US keeps handing the reins to reactionaries who fuck everything up, leaving a wreckage of corruption & suffering. Then decent people spend years cleaning it up. Then we do it again. That's the entire 21st century so far.
I keep hearing people talk as though the death toll from the virus will pierce the information fog & show how disastrous RW governance is, how useless royalism & racism are when it matters. I wish I had any such faith.
