Blog

I didn’t say much, these last several years.

But I decided to try an experiment, here. I like to think about politics, and I like to develop my political thinking, but I have no outlet for it. None of the people in my immediate, day-to-day life would tolerate my political meanderings, and as mentioned in my First Post, expressing myself politically with sincerity in my current living situation might actually cause problems for me.

So I’ve decided to just write random political rantings and reflections here on this blog, anonymously. I won’t try to limit myself to questions of immigration policy, despite this website’s stated focus. Maybe at least once a week? Let’s try.

So, these days, what’s on my mind? Obviously, the war in Ukraine. A half-formed thought.

It’s an important question, but difficult to ask: how is what’s happening right now in Ukraine qualitatively different from what happened in Iraq about 20 years ago? Except for the minor difference that we (Americans) are on the other side? I don’t raise this question because I am trying to defend Russia’s actions in Ukraine, but rather to make sure you can empathize with some of the never-resolved discomfort I felt about that other war. There are other differences. The US-led coalition was “bigger” or broader. The US military seemed at least somewhat more competent – perhaps at some things. But not more competent at all things: more competent killing people? Yeah, maybe; more competent not getting killed? Yeah, definitely; more competent at getting praised and welcomed with open arms by the liberated populace? Uh… not really. But mostly these are quantitative differences, not differences in the moral foundations of the enterprise.

Another thing that’s been on my mind over the last two years is the COVID thing. And the end of Trump’s presidency. A half-formed thought.

Conspiracy-thinking is a type of hypochondria at the level of society, instead of at the level of the individual. It’s an apophenic search for meaning where meaninglessness is the more rational explanation, and a kind of default assumption of malignancy. That said, between the excessive reactions to COVID on the one hand, and the explosion of conspiracy theorizing on both the left and right in our political space, I would dub our current era the “Age of Hypochondria.”

First Post

I built this website some years ago, but it had no “blog” attached to it. It was just a minimalist political platform that I never used, never publicized, and only sparingly maintained.

Last week, something happened that crystallized for me a growing desire to express myself politically, somehow, somewhere. So I decided to start an explicitly political blog. What better place for it than as an adjunct to my moribund political platform website?

I already maintain two personal blogs. One is for my creative writing, for journaling my day-to-day life, for photos I take and things I do and for my friends and family to see what I’m up to. Another blog is for my hobby community, where I prefer not to be “too transparent” in my online persona.

But in both blogs, I deliberately refrain from overt political statements. Part of the problem is that my friends and family are ideologically diverse – and I’d prefer not to alienate any of them with my own strongly held political opinions. Lately, too, I actually live somewhat in fear that if my neighbors, friends and coworkers knew my actual political stances, it could put me at risk of – for lack of a better word – “ostracism” – if not something worse, like losing a job or not being able to call on neighbors for help in a time of need.

The crystallizing event was conversation which I witnessed at work, between a coworker and a local resident. The local resident and my coworker, call them L. and J., were discussing the first presidential debate, between Biden and Trump (they are both Trump supporters, wearing buttons and with bumper stickers on their cars).

J. said, “You have to be ready – I know it’s scary, but you know, Biden might steal the election.”

L. said, with a dead-serious face that brooked no argument, “It’s gonna hit the fan. We need to start rounding up democrats and shooting them, now.” This is not an idle threat from L. – a well known gun collector and local 2nd amendment nut.

They looked to me for endorsement, as if this were an unassailable proposition.

I had to say nothing. Pick your battles. Don’t jeopardize your work relationships with political argument. Even my silence was probably viewed as problematic.

I was stewing inside. I need to have some kind of outlet to discuss these issues.

I must be clear. L. and J. are perfectly kind and reasonable people, in many respects. Indeed, my coworker has been generous to a fault with me personally, and is remarkably “live and let live” with respect to the people actually encountered day-to-day. Yet when confronted with a monstrous, amorphous other, “democrats,” baser instincts apparently kick in.

To those reading: if I have sent you a link to this, it’s because I trust you and need to express myself. I actually want you to share – on facebook or other social media or political forums. But, please do not link my name to this website. I’m going to run this blog anonymously.

I don’t know how often I’ll post here. I expect I might post fairly often for the next few months, as the election plays out. I might let it fall dormant again, after that.