Anger and hatred are different emotions, but they are connected. Anger is one of the easiest emotions to provoke, and once provoked can be easily directed at a target. All it takes is naming a scapegoat, and the cancer starts.

Unfortunately what this breaks is far from easy to repair.

For example, a populist politician seeding doubt into politics undermines trust in the entire system, not just the part he's calling out. He undermines confidence in leadership, which includes his own.

There's no clearer example of insta-hypocrisy than a person accusing anyone else of virtue-signalling.

(Yes I recognise the implicit irony of this post.)

Wow, everything's better with a subwoofer! I've wanted one for nearly 30yrs. Finally got serious about it, and found a good used one for a reasonable price.

I'm just trying not to regret not doing this earlier.

Recently I heard "visionary" defined as a direct, decisive, dominance-oriented leader. Like: "Of course he can't see the big picture! He's a visionary!"

I realised that I disagree with that definition with my whole self. If someone can't see -- indeed isn't even trying to see -- the big picture, they're not a visionary to me.

To me, a visionary is someone with a 360-degree view: opportunities, benefits, costs, challenges, unintended consequences...who still fosters a specific call to action.

Perhaps the strangest trend on social media people putting significant effort into an image based on a dramatic quote or a song lyric which actually has nothing whatsoever to do with their life.

I'm left to guess how -- or even if -- it applies to them.

Someone I'm close to recently spoke positively about shame. Like, there are good reasons and uses for shame.

I'm going to be clear: the only way you can talk positively about shame is if you're comfortable with control and manipulation.

Any system that depends on shame is fragile. Its people are fragile. Their relationships and affiliations are fragile. Shame is unpredictable except that it is destructive.

*Most* people I share my life with know this, and are working to remove shame's power.

Parents have implicitly trusted education as a thing that is done with their children by experts.

I think this is behind the large current push to "parental rights" -- a recognition that parents, by choice, have been largely disconnected from their children's schools.

But rather than processing that, parents are being ushered into outrage by motivated politicians sowing suspicion and fear about educators, and education in general. So the system becomes the scapegoat.

#education
#politics

Media literacy: when a diaper ad says that it "prevents up to 100% of leaks," that is not actually a statement.

It surprises me that this kind of crap is still being pulled in ads. Sadly, I expect that it still works on people, instead of repelling them from the blatant attempt at manipulation.

The manufactured crises of "reality TV" were never a good idea. But it's infinitely worse that now they're dominating #politics, too.

#politics

It seems like everyone has a different strategy for dealing with a loose-cannon chaos-agent like Trump.

And not one of them works. It's bizarre and uncanny.

I just deleted my Mastodon account. I keep feeling like I'm spreading myself too thin, and the instances I tried didn't live up to their potential.

Maybe you can relate?

It's crucial to continually curate our attention.

Generosity in communication is to accept that it happens on the receiver's terms.

"You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make."

— Jane Goodall

I was at a wedding reception tonight, and just remarked to the person I was sitting beside that the horseradish was particularly potent, right before I accidently scooped a whole forkful into my mouth.

[cue sound of a steam-whistle]

#polltics

The right is seeking winner-take-all totalitarianism. They're playing for keeps, so to speak.

But they don't really want this kind of the-buck-stops-here responsibility.

Why do I say that so confidently? Well their hero is Trump, the poster-child of 100% power, 0% responsibility.

Trump finds bizarre ways to take credit for good things that had nothing to do with him, and equally bizarre ways to scapegoat others for bad things of his own making.

He found an exploit and hacked it.

I'm watching the right breach all manner of rhetoric guardrails with eagerness and impunity.

Deceit.
Projection.
Overreaction.
Paranoia.

I find it reprehensible. So for me to engage in the same tactics would make me a hypocrite.

This is why I want language I use to be measured, mindful and accurate.

But I'm concerned that this quest for accuracy and balance moves too slow for populism.

I was at an Indigenous event this past weekend, and I saw a child in meltdown. It was late, it was loud, there was a lot going on, so it wasn't overly surprising.

A woman in this child's life was standing near saying over and over, in a calm voice: "Let it out. Let it all out."

That really stuck out to me. The affirmation of emotion, the permission to express it, the sustained comforting presence, and the signal to witnesses that this is all in-bounds...there was so much care in that moment.

Current protests in Canada are are striving to pit parental rights against LGBTQ+ rights.

NPD leader Jagmeet Singh offered this succinct comment on the situation (from the CBC):

"We want parents involved. I think it's a bit of a red herring argument. There's no question that parents should be involved in everything that their kids are engaged with at school, that parents should be incorporated," he said.

"It's also important to acknowledge that for some kids, home is not always a safe place."