Another Go-Around

Back when I was in college, one of my friends was adamant about the idea that people did not know themselves. He insisted that the only way to understand what one would do in a given situation was to be actually be in that situation. Just to make him angry, the rest of us invented a game called: What would you do?

It was a simple game. One player would propose a scenario, and the other players would say what they would do in that scenario. Our other friend would angrily stomp out of the room whenever we started up a game in his presence.

One day, a bunch of us were engaged in this game of idle speculation about outlandish circumstances when someone posited: "Hostile aliens have come to Earth intent on wiping out humanity. You have the opportunity to communicate with them. What would you do?" I was something of a misanthrope when I was in college; I was generally convinced that the extinction of humanity was likely the best thing for all involved. So when it was my turn, my answer was a somewhat snide: "Ask if they're taking applications."

In the intervening years, I've gotten better. I understand that people are not usually jackasses deliberately, and that everyone has their own outlook on the world, in which they're the hero of their own story. As a general rule, people are more likely to be thoughtless, than deliberately cruel.

From time to time, however, I make the mistake of reading the news.

Republican Representative Clay Higgins of Louisiana decided that in the wake of Donald Trump's bizarre comments during the debate with Vice President Harris about Haitians eating people's pets, the bomb threats that followed, and Senator J. D. Vance saying that creating stories like that was in the service of drawing media attention to suffering Americans, to take to X and say:

Lol. These Haitians are wild. Eating pets, vudu, nastiest country in the western hemisphere, cults, slapstick, gangsters.

All these thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20th.

I'd ask what the United States, as a nation has done, that Congress has elected politicians like this. But a nation gets the legislators it deserves, and the United States is no exception. Sneering racists vote, and their votes count just as much as anyone else's, and so there are going to be politicians, even those who one would think wouldn't need to, who are going to signal to that constituency that they're seen and valued.

And because every seat in the House of Representatives is valuable, the parties aren't going to openly move to discipline them. Because blackmailing the other party into something or other, or passing messaging bills, is far more important than basic civility. And for the public at large, nothing is worth the risk that the other guys might be able to advance their legislative plans.

There's something sad about the idea that Americans are so afraid of one another that they'll put up with open hatred of people from elected officials. But the problem is the same as it always is, I suppose. The United States may be the wealthiest nation on the planet, but no-one seems to actually be secure in that. Donald Trump is able to gin up fear and loathing of people seeking refuge because those selfsame people are the easy answer when someone in a blighted and crumbling ex-manufacturing town asks: "Why is my life so terrible?" Someone has to be to blame, and immigrants who can supposedly be rounded up and sent packing are obvious candidates to share that blame.

And a lack of empathy breeds a lack of empathy. Even in me. At least for a time. Eventually, my irritation will burn itself out, and a level of understanding will return. As long as no murderous aliens show up in the meantime, it will be okay.