The Larger World

Oh, God, It’s Echo Chamber Discourse

Or, Why You’re Not Allowed To Get Sick Of Us

Ever since Bluesky started gaining users in the aftermath of our nation’s–how shall I put it–fall into the abyss, right wing and centrist types have started up again with the concerns that those unhappy with the–well, fall into the abyss–are cocooning themselves in an echo chamber, cutting themselves off from the exciting new currents in right-wing thought that might be appreciated more if only they’d listen.

My reaction to that reminds me of a quote from my favorite pop culture creation.

Doctor, I am well aware of human characteristics. I am frequently inundated by them, but I’ve trained myself to put up with practically anything. –Spock

Anybody concerned* about alleged echo chambers fail to recognize that right-wing thought isn’t exactly a closely guarded secret outside of social media. Thanks to our nation’s bigots and the chuckleheads who allied with our nation’s bigots because they believed–wrongly–that the bigots know the secret of making eggs cheaper, we’re about to get more than we can possibly stand of right-wing thought and praxis. It’s already everywhere. You can’t swing a fungo bat without hitting it. It’s spread around the world like an oil slick, which is appropriate because many of its leading funders fill their coffers by spreading actual oil slicks.

Right wing folk, here’s the news. We’ve heard you. We know what you think. And before you tell us that there’s more to it than we know, we already know that there’s less. Your economics is made of nonsense. Your views on medicine and science aren’t even sound enough to be wrong. Your understanding of the Western philosophy you’re so chauvinistic about is rudimentary at best. You don’t so much think as repackage intellectual-sounding excuses for pointing at people you don’t like and going “Ew!” Bottom line, there’s not much to know about you. You’re not deep. You’re unworthy of attention, yet you constantly demand it. It’s so…Trumpesque of you.

Well, sorry not sorry, but we’re tired of you. We still have the right–Supreme Court cases pending–to be tired of you. And if we want to hang out somewhere you aren’t and tell you to fuck off, then in lieu of the predictable whining why don’t you try actually contemplating something? Your topic: you’ve earned this.

*I’ve come to hate the word “concerns.” By using it to put a phony softness on their bigoted talking points, (e.g. “I don’t hate trans women. Perish the thought. Me, a bigot? No. I just have concerns about men in women’s bathrooms.”) conservatives have ruined it. It’ll be a generation or two at least before it can be rehabilitated.

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