It’s good to see people typing about what I’ve been typing about here for the past few years.

Please read this.

A warning from Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Stephen Hawking

Dear Trump voters. I love you. But please tell our President to shake his head, because his brain is stuck. Please tell him to quit thinking about a wall or drilling. Please tell him start telling people the truth, that the jobs lost aren’t coming back.

Please tell him to invest money in our country, starting with the poorest areas first. Tell him to invest in TerraPower, battery storage, wind and solar, clean soil, and green houses. Tell him to help people get healthier.

Trump people. I love you. But please get that a wall is a waste of money and time. Our problem isn’t Mexicans, it’s politicians who operate in the past. Investing in what I’ve just laid out will make our country strong. It’ll create community. It’ll bring us all together. Walls and drilling rigs will only divide us and make us weaker.

paulie says

February 21, 2017 at 8:15 am

Howdy brother Scott,

Resist the urge to withhold love. Trump voters believe in America too, their beliefs are just different.

If I read between the lines in what you wrote I sense a commitment to abandon them, set them aside? Steve Phillips sort of said the same thing in his piece today in the New York Times. Here’s the link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/21/opinion/move-left-democrats.html

I think turning away from Trump voters is a mistake. While I don’t think a concerted effort should be made to win them back, as Steve writes, I think the conversation with the right has to continue. Because as Gore Vidal said, the very definition of liberalism is the discussion of all thoughts.

I think it’s really important to ask Trump voters about jobs, for example. Ask them where they think jobs are going to come from given Trump’s policies? If their answer is drilling, point out the deleterious effects that has on our planet. Point out that once the drilling rigs are in, people aren’t needed to man them.

If they feel the answer is to repeal and replace Obamacare, point out that Republican’s plans are based on increasing HSA accounts. While that’s great for wealthier folks, most don’t have savings to begin with. So any solution based around HSA accounts just doesn’t square with where folks are economically.

I think we also can’t ignore the role social media and the Internet is playing in our lives, as Nicholas Carr writes in his seminal book The Shallows – What The Internet Is Doing To Our Brains.

I’ve written here that social media is a social disease. What I mean by that is that most now see the world through a 4″ screen. They’re seeing the world through their social feeds. This narrows our scope of reason, promotes group think and all but eliminates the role of critical thinking.

We’re now outsourcing our memory to Google. By doing so we’re relying on Google for history, when we should be relying on historians. We’re relying on their, filtered version of the past. Using Google for a map is fine. But using it instead of our brains is not exercising our brain muscle. When we don’t exercise a muscle, it gets weak.

By spending so much time on social and relying on it for news and information, we’re making our bubble bigger. As our bubble gets bigger we disconnect from nature and our surroundings, as brother Jonesy opined in our chat yesterday. It’s everywhere now, people staring into their screens while waiting for the traffic light to change or their food to arrive. That means we’re missing out on what’s going across the street, or with the person next to us. We’re not feeling each other. Or as Sherry Turkle writes, we’re Alone Together.

So brother Scott, please keep the conversation going. Talk to them as if you were talking to someone you don’t know about the benefits of 29″ mountain bike. When talking to someone don’t answer your phone. Give them your undivided attention. You may not convince them of anything else other than your concern for humanity. But that’s a start.

Comments

Scott Hansen says

February 21, 2017 at 1:19 am

Well written piece as always. I have a hard time with loving Trump people. Not sure we share any values. How is possible to feel this way when your core says that the Trump doctrine is nearly 100% wrong and evil.
Thanks for sharing.

- paulie says
  
  February 21, 2017 at 8:15 am
  
  Howdy brother Scott,
  
  Resist the urge to withhold love. Trump voters believe in America too, their beliefs are just different.
  
  If I read between the lines in what you wrote I sense a commitment to abandon them, set them aside? Steve Phillips sort of said the same thing in his piece today in the New York Times. Here’s the link:
  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/21/opinion/move-left-democrats.html
  
  I think turning away from Trump voters is a mistake. While I don’t think a concerted effort should be made to win them back, as Steve writes, I think the conversation with the right has to continue. Because as Gore Vidal said, the very definition of liberalism is the discussion of all thoughts.
  
  I think it’s really important to ask Trump voters about jobs, for example. Ask them where they think jobs are going to come from given Trump’s policies? If their answer is drilling, point out the deleterious effects that has on our planet. Point out that once the drilling rigs are in, people aren’t needed to man them.
  
  If they feel the answer is to repeal and replace Obamacare, point out that Republican’s plans are based on increasing HSA accounts. While that’s great for wealthier folks, most don’t have savings to begin with. So any solution based around HSA accounts just doesn’t square with where folks are economically.
  
  I think we also can’t ignore the role social media and the Internet is playing in our lives, as Nicholas Carr writes in his seminal book The Shallows – What The Internet Is Doing To Our Brains.
  
  I’ve written here that social media is a social disease. What I mean by that is that most now see the world through a 4″ screen. They’re seeing the world through their social feeds. This narrows our scope of reason, promotes group think and all but eliminates the role of critical thinking.
  
  We’re now outsourcing our memory to Google. By doing so we’re relying on Google for history, when we should be relying on historians. We’re relying on their, filtered version of the past. Using Google for a map is fine. But using it instead of our brains is not exercising our brain muscle. When we don’t exercise a muscle, it gets weak.
  
  By spending so much time on social and relying on it for news and information, we’re making our bubble bigger. As our bubble gets bigger we disconnect from nature and our surroundings, as brother Jonesy opined in our chat yesterday. It’s everywhere now, people staring into their screens while waiting for the traffic light to change or their food to arrive. That means we’re missing out on what’s going across the street, or with the person next to us. We’re not feeling each other. Or as Sherry Turkle writes, we’re Alone Together.
  
  So brother Scott, please keep the conversation going. Talk to them as if you were talking to someone you don’t know about the benefits of 29″ mountain bike. When talking to someone don’t answer your phone. Give them your undivided attention. You may not convince them of anything else other than your concern for humanity. But that’s a start.

A warning from Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Stephen Hawking

Comments

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