Iran and Israel are exchanging missile fire and drone strikes. This is either the existential struggle of the Jewish people made manifest, or Zionist warmongering that puts the whole word in danger of nuclear conflagration.
It depends which side you’re on.
Meanwhile, back in Washington DC, Donald Trump was having a huge military parade – either to celebrate his birthday, or the 250th anniversary of the US Army.
It depends which side you’re on.
The parade was either a massive success or a humiliating lame duck event.
It depends which side you’re on.
At the same time, the “No Kings” protests were taking place in cities all around the country. It was either the largest political protest in American history, or a massive anti-climactic non-starter.
It depends which side you’re on.
A “political assassin” allegedly killed two people in Minnesota on Saturday. He is either an ultra-right wing MAGA type, or a Democrat who worked for Tim Walz.
It depends which side you’re on.
I’m sure you get the point by now.
Noam Chomsky famously said…
The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum
…and he was totally correct. But that has evolved. We’re well beyond that now. There is no longer a “spectrum” of permissible opinion, only a series of on/off switches and yes/no tickboxes. There is no longer debate, only name-calling and echo chambers.
The pick-a-side meta-narrative is all-encompassing and swamps every issue from every angle. Every breaking news story is immediately, violently and finally divided into two camps, and each camp is supplied with evidence to support their chosen point of view.
The divide is brutally policed, with each side seeing the other as barely-human functionaries of a life-destroying other.
More dangerously, not only do neither side debate the evidence of the other, but increasingly they can’t even see it. The other side probably lied and made it up, after all, that’s the kind of thing the other side does.
Hellbound and Down 