Thanks to the rise of the internet and social media, ignorance won this year's elections and ignorance will prevail
A few days is normally a stretch, yet it seems too soon to be bringing up election night. But it has to be talked about, so I guess I’ll begin.
I need to begin by owning up to the fact that I have long regarded Donald Trump as the most despicable human upon the Earth.
Never have I felt before less a part of the fabric of America. Like “we” are the odd ones out, the folks who want joy and unity and honesty and accountability. (I’ll be getting to the folks of South Dakota). What happened is unfathomable.
I’m going to blame the system we’ve allowed and how the internet, along with its social media, has completely fragmented American society. It was only about 40 years ago that 300 cable channels did not exist and neither did the web. With a maximum of only three or four news sources each night, the next day found us all discussing the same issues and items of interest we’d all watched together the previous night.
Those days are gone. GONE. Once, the FCC policed those sources of information partaken by the public. Those days, too, are gone. We now allow lies to become normalized, the basest and most twisted lies. Whoop, there it is, can’t do nothing about it.
And now that those who played that system will have to live with it themselves, it’s highly unlikely they will want it changed. As Samuel L. Jackson, as the computer nerd in “Jurassic Park” said at a crucial moment, “Hold onto your butts.”
Indeed. It’s going to be an ugly and fraught four years.
Ignorance elected Donald Trump and ignorance holds sway right now in America. And until we regain control of our information sources and force them back into truth-telling (and fact-checking), ignorance will continue to prevail.
Ignorance has also gained a solid grip in South Dakota. The voters here just said NO to every last ballot issue except the one to punish poor folks on Medicaid, and further refusing to give any relief to other poor folks paying the same grocery taxes as the rest of us. What set me back was they even said NO to women’s freedom, to women’s rights.
I have tried really hard since coming to this state over two decades ago to make excuses for South Dakotans. Yeah, they vote conservative since that’s about all they’ve ever known, but they’re not rabid like the MAGA bunch. Those days, too, seem to be gone.
Rejecting women’s rights and punishing the poor for being poor … I’m sorry, that is rabid. Only a couple of other states exhibited the same ignorance on women's freedom as South Dakota.
Ignorance rules today and for the foreseeable future. It is really going to be tough sledding for all those of us who despise ignorance, especially those who gloat about their ignorance.
I’m afraid the public acrimony is far, far from over.
Van Carter of Sioux Falls is a retired broadcast journalist and environmentalist who published a green website for 15 years. This essay originally appeared on the Change Agents website.
Photo: public domain, wikimedia commons
