For Arendt, facts and opinions, “though they must be kept apart, are not antagonistic to each other; they belong to the same realm.” A fact (her example is Germany’s invasion of Belgium in August 1914) “acquires political implications only by being put in an interpretative context.” Whoever reports what happened, she wrote, “always tells a story, and in this story the particular facts lose their contingency and acquire some humanly comprehensible meaning.”
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That is what Arendt meant when she argued that organizing people together to change the world—that is to say, doing politics—requires an approach that rejects outright lying while also avoiding a complacent expectation that “the truth” will reveal itself for voters to follow. The narrative wars have begun. If Democrats are smart, they’ll opt for storytelling instead.
It seems strange to me that her point even needs voicing. Narratives are important to politics. Yup, of course. And considering they ostensibly have more artists on their side, you’d think the dems would be better at it.
You’d think but then we have Shumer’s low energy, self fellating victory speech and Jefferies milquetoast stating that no impeachment was on the table when he knows holding Republicans accountable for things like ICE/Iran war was a big deal for Democrats and Progressives. Hell with the Iran war, he could have simply stated they were going to stop it and investigate it and it would have killed two birds with one stone.
But no, they’re just tone deaf AF. I honestly don’t understand it either, I think they’re just too insulated by consultants, corrupted by money, and listening to their Baily’s to understand things.
There are a lot of online petitions calling for Schumer and Jeffries to be replaced. Put your name on them…because one has nearly a million signatures the last I looked. It’s one way of being heard…protests are another. We should be protesting Chuck and Hakeem ruthlessly now, not later, because of their weak-willed bullshit. Jeffries is an idiot if he thinks we want a better economy but no punishment of the felons that put us here.
I doubt they place any stock in those online petitions.
Call your Democratic Reps and Senators, and send emails, that’s what gets their attention.
Not to be combative here, I’m a fan of your comments-- but what makes you so convinced that that feedback mechanism works?
Mostly because I’ve heard from staffers that’s what works. Of course, it only works if they’re receptive. If you have a Democratic complaint, and you have a MAGA congressman or senator, you are probably screaming into the void. And vice versa, to be honest.
And thanks for the compliment. I hadn’t realized anyone was paying attention.
The somewhat less ugly side of “I’ve got mine, fuck the rest of you.” We’ve got the the story-tellers, but it’s the corporate shills that get the funding, and in America, Money is Speech.