I work a blue collar job deep in a very red state. The guys at work have really enjoyed the last few weeks over the news they’ve been seeing across their Facebook feeds and other preferred outlets. The elation from them is immeasurable. But some of them have relatives or even a wife who work for the federal government. They were discussing how their loved ones are afraid of losing their jobs, and so I take any opportunity I can to have any conversation with them about class politics and shoehorn in any broad analysis of the political landscape of the US. Not specific to the current circumstances, we’ve been having these conversations for years now. They often walk away saying how I’ve provided a new perspective, and that they weren’t aware of something I said and it gave them something to think about, only to turn around the next day as if they hadn’t heard a single word from me.

In these conversations, I’ve found out that of their own admission, some of them have never read a single book in their lives. That they have a difficult time understanding basic principles of science.

I have always tried my best to see the positives in people. To believe that if someone didn’t have knowledge in one area, they may be vastly ahead in another. Like the “hillbillies” who know nothing of the outside world, but understand mechanical systems well enough to keep an engine running with a paperclip and chewed gum.

But that’s what they know. They are not adept at piecing together even the most modest of intertwining political occurrences. What they know in their holler is their neighbor and their cousin. Their adherence to supporting the termination of democracy for the sake of oligarchy is a cultural wave bolstered by the algorithms that feed their scrolling habits. They hang onto anything that carries their ignorances. Many have never left the area and met anyone unlike them.

You’re right that it is maddening, to know that history is happening in front of our eyes. The analogous atrocities we show as examples burning holes in our conscious while we’re diving in all over again, with some people choosing obliviousness and even celebrating for their biases and propagandizing.

I believe that even among the aware, there are those who choose not to believe the worst could happen. They see these events and choose to internalize the roundabout language in the corporate news headlines or from any more relevant politician. It is, after all, a tough pill to swallow. So they too allow themselves to fall victim to shirking the naked obviousness of the direction we’re going.

That is to say, I don’t think we are at the Rubicon yet - trying not to doom post. But I wanted to say it isn’t difficult to understand why other people don’t see it. The world built around them makes it easier to look the other way.