Yes, Mary. Coalition-building and coalition-keeping needs to be our North Star. Many people were awakened into action post-2016 and started taking clearer moral lines about what our values were and what we were not willing to silently accept. That has been a good thing in my opinion, but too many people have adopted a Down with Oppressio…
Yes, Mary. Coalition-building and coalition-keeping needs to be our North Star. Many people were awakened into action post-2016 and started taking clearer moral lines about what our values were and what we were not willing to silently accept. That has been a good thing in my opinion, but too many people have adopted a Down with Oppression/Colonialism/Capitalist/Patriarchy!!! mindset - or something close to it - to feel good about themselves, and are finding that it just doesn't work when applied to notably complex situations. It is easy and necessary to take a clear line against MAGA or any number of American domestic issues, because they are so off-the-charts insane and dangerous and by their very nature destroy nuance anyway. Applying this lens to a stubbornly cyclical and entrenched problem of violence in the Middle East? Not so much.
Yes, Mary. Coalition-building and coalition-keeping needs to be our North Star. Many people were awakened into action post-2016 and started taking clearer moral lines about what our values were and what we were not willing to silently accept. That has been a good thing in my opinion, but too many people have adopted a Down with Oppression/Colonialism/Capitalist/Patriarchy!!! mindset - or something close to it - to feel good about themselves, and are finding that it just doesn't work when applied to notably complex situations. It is easy and necessary to take a clear line against MAGA or any number of American domestic issues, because they are so off-the-charts insane and dangerous and by their very nature destroy nuance anyway. Applying this lens to a stubbornly cyclical and entrenched problem of violence in the Middle East? Not so much.
Will, once again, you’ve said it so very well. Thank you.