Mar 6, 2023·edited Mar 6, 2023Liked by Ross Barkan
Great one. I too am forced to spend a good bit of time way out outside of my NYC home with apolitical types, Republicans, independents, and/or Trump voters, and you're right: most of them don't care about any of this shit (although a few of them do certainly do, but they seem to have their own unique ideas about things that don't fit into a pre-fab box).
I will say that I find most of the people scattered around the proverbial flyover country of the US, politically obsessed or not, to be way nicer these days than the "MSNBC-radicalized" types on the coasts have become. That group, while always leaning a bit smug, have taken to being mean and unpleasant, unreasonable, stubborn, exclusionary, hypocritical and often outright stupid, and I say this as someone who shares their party (and ostensibly their politics). They're forever fighting the paranoid forces in their own heads and on their social media feeds. That Marianne Williamson-on-Fox-News-hot-mic-moment where she discouragingly admits how nasty "lefty" media is to her, and nice Fox is, despite politics, says it all. I'll take Walter Kirn's gregarious welcoming warmth, and "zany" ideas about the kindness of neighbors and strangers over all of them.
Very much appreciate the calm and clear-eyed viewpoint, Ross. I do think it reflects the majority of Americans, both left and right. Unfortunately, there is not much profit in peaceful observations and indifference doesn't attract clicks or views as much as incendiary quotes and predictions. For most of us who deal with what our job, family, and everything else life throws at us on a regular basis, we don't have time for this extreme left or right bullshit.
But Ross, my Montana piece WASN'T written to stir up liberal fears about anything. If it were, it wouldn't have been re-published in populist conservative newspapers, it wouldn't be shared on AR15.com or have occupied the top of Revolver.News.
It was written from a right wing perspective for right wing people—totally outside of your network of "very serious journalists"—yet was more resonant because it was true. If it were truly "designed to inflame liberal fears" it would've been written in the New York Mag or WaPo by someone like you, like a million articles that already exist (for e.g. this one cited in my piece washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/03/08/they-are-preparing-war-an-expert-civil-wars-discusses-where-political-extremists-are-taking-this-country/). These articles fail to impact a single member of the working class you so desperately claim to care about because they are full of tone deaf garbage. My piece didn't pander to the causes you wish it did, e.g. mass immigration, and it worked because it didn't.
Perhaps if people like you helped cultivate insightful right wing perspectives instead of blocking, cancelling, and de-platforming us, you might be able to understand the flyover states beyond "having shopped at Meijer before."
I also was moved by the VF piece written by James Pogue. Indeed, it's a very long piece describing the rich, drug addled clowns, who think running away from the world they created will solve everything. In my opinion it’s a rich satire that skewers a Ponzi scheme organized around land ownership, willful ignorance, and the misappropriation of identity politics. In other words, these are racist dipshits planning to grift a civil war. Their “exit” signifies nothing more than a fervent self serving cultural superiority that is isolated and out of touch by design. It's too bad Pogue didn't profile the underclass supporting these folks but the self absorption and lack of concern for others is clearly evident.
Amen to this, particularly those last two grafs. Having worked in the media for a long time, but also come from a very working class background where most of my friends and family simply didn't care about many of the headlines we liked to run with, I couldn't agree more.
Now that journalism has become entirely professionalized and bourgeois-ified one wonders if many journalists are simply uncomfortable talking to anyone who didn’t go to college. If I were feeling glib I might call it paralysis by positionality, or maybe stultification by standpoint theory.
Pretty sure that the ruling class is seeing us natives getting angry, and are instinctively doing their best to turn the proletariat against itself.
If there is a civil war, it's going to involve more guillotines than AR15s if you catch my drift.
But as my wife said to me the other day, for most people just surviving this predatory system is as much as most can handle. They are left with little energy left to contemplate a better future.
Great one. I too am forced to spend a good bit of time way out outside of my NYC home with apolitical types, Republicans, independents, and/or Trump voters, and you're right: most of them don't care about any of this shit (although a few of them do certainly do, but they seem to have their own unique ideas about things that don't fit into a pre-fab box).
I will say that I find most of the people scattered around the proverbial flyover country of the US, politically obsessed or not, to be way nicer these days than the "MSNBC-radicalized" types on the coasts have become. That group, while always leaning a bit smug, have taken to being mean and unpleasant, unreasonable, stubborn, exclusionary, hypocritical and often outright stupid, and I say this as someone who shares their party (and ostensibly their politics). They're forever fighting the paranoid forces in their own heads and on their social media feeds. That Marianne Williamson-on-Fox-News-hot-mic-moment where she discouragingly admits how nasty "lefty" media is to her, and nice Fox is, despite politics, says it all. I'll take Walter Kirn's gregarious welcoming warmth, and "zany" ideas about the kindness of neighbors and strangers over all of them.
Very much appreciate the calm and clear-eyed viewpoint, Ross. I do think it reflects the majority of Americans, both left and right. Unfortunately, there is not much profit in peaceful observations and indifference doesn't attract clicks or views as much as incendiary quotes and predictions. For most of us who deal with what our job, family, and everything else life throws at us on a regular basis, we don't have time for this extreme left or right bullshit.
But Ross, my Montana piece WASN'T written to stir up liberal fears about anything. If it were, it wouldn't have been re-published in populist conservative newspapers, it wouldn't be shared on AR15.com or have occupied the top of Revolver.News.
It was written from a right wing perspective for right wing people—totally outside of your network of "very serious journalists"—yet was more resonant because it was true. If it were truly "designed to inflame liberal fears" it would've been written in the New York Mag or WaPo by someone like you, like a million articles that already exist (for e.g. this one cited in my piece washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/03/08/they-are-preparing-war-an-expert-civil-wars-discusses-where-political-extremists-are-taking-this-country/). These articles fail to impact a single member of the working class you so desperately claim to care about because they are full of tone deaf garbage. My piece didn't pander to the causes you wish it did, e.g. mass immigration, and it worked because it didn't.
Perhaps if people like you helped cultivate insightful right wing perspectives instead of blocking, cancelling, and de-platforming us, you might be able to understand the flyover states beyond "having shopped at Meijer before."
Ross,
I also was moved by the VF piece written by James Pogue. Indeed, it's a very long piece describing the rich, drug addled clowns, who think running away from the world they created will solve everything. In my opinion it’s a rich satire that skewers a Ponzi scheme organized around land ownership, willful ignorance, and the misappropriation of identity politics. In other words, these are racist dipshits planning to grift a civil war. Their “exit” signifies nothing more than a fervent self serving cultural superiority that is isolated and out of touch by design. It's too bad Pogue didn't profile the underclass supporting these folks but the self absorption and lack of concern for others is clearly evident.
Amen to this, particularly those last two grafs. Having worked in the media for a long time, but also come from a very working class background where most of my friends and family simply didn't care about many of the headlines we liked to run with, I couldn't agree more.
Now that journalism has become entirely professionalized and bourgeois-ified one wonders if many journalists are simply uncomfortable talking to anyone who didn’t go to college. If I were feeling glib I might call it paralysis by positionality, or maybe stultification by standpoint theory.
Pretty sure that the ruling class is seeing us natives getting angry, and are instinctively doing their best to turn the proletariat against itself.
If there is a civil war, it's going to involve more guillotines than AR15s if you catch my drift.
But as my wife said to me the other day, for most people just surviving this predatory system is as much as most can handle. They are left with little energy left to contemplate a better future.
I would not trust Vanity Fair’s take on anything west of Broadway. Reality? They are never there.
"What much of the media often misses, even now, is that most people simply do not care about politics."
Well, that's a pity. Politics has impact on their lives. Do they prefer to ignore that?
But, obviously, some do care about politics:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/06/us/politics/north-idaho-college-republicans.html?searchResultPosition=1