Well, it’s a new year!  Let’s hope it is an improvement over 2021, but with the Oh My! variant – as I have taken to calling it – and the anti-democracy Republicans having a good chance to take back the House and Senate, we in the U.S. may be in for a very difficult and depressing new year.  I do hope we get a version of Build Back Better passed, which would be a positive step.

I haven’t written in a while.  One of my New Year’s resolutions is to rethink this blog.  Bill Maher’s been on vacation, and while Fox “news” is as outrageous as ever, I’m not sure I want to spend my time watching and commenting on it.  Today I will share a variety of thoughts.

Critical race theory is still in the news, although less so.  Too often, I have seen progressive Black scholars and commentators argue that the critics are wrong about it being taught in public schools, that it is something taught mostly in law schools.  I think that misses the point and is also incorrect.  CRT has made great inroads in the college curriculum, throughout all the social sciences and more applied subjects, like education and even nursing.  I teach a little about CRT in my political economy of education course and even in my introduction to research methods.  The 1619 Project is drawn on in some public schools, and many teachers recognize and teach that racism is pervasive, embedded in systems and structures in the U.S. as well as elsewhere.  Those who don’t, should!  State laws recently passed prohibiting this need to be challenged.

It is simply awful that children in U.S. schools now have to engage in active shooter drills!  The Second Amendment never envisioned the crazy gun culture we have.  The Supreme Court seems OK with challenging established precedents like Roe v Wade.  Instead, they should revisit precedents that allow guns to be ubiquitous and others that treat corporations as persons.  To do so means expanding the Court to end conservative domination.

Democracy in the U.S. is in deep trouble.  The Big Lie – that Trump won the 2020 election — is deadly.  One survey said 70% of Republicans believe the Big Lie!  A new poll out today said that has gone down to 58% — but still.  States are passing laws and appointing election officials that will make it easier to not certify the popular vote.  Especially scary was another survey that said 30% of Republicans agree with the statement: “Things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence to save the country.”   These are millions of our fellow citizens.  I really don’t know what can be done, but we ignore this situation at our peril.  Perhaps we need some sort of national dialogue, a truth and reconciliation commission.  I do understand something about the other side – if Trump had been certified the winner of the election and I thought it was fraudulent, I would be outraged.  Somehow, we need to convince millions that the Big Lie is a Big Lie.  But the overwhelming evidence has not been sufficient.

Evidence unfortunately seems beside the point.  Unbelievably, QAnon supporters believe that “the levers of power are controlled by a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles.”  A quarter of Republicans believe this, 12% of independents, and even 7% of Democrats!  Moreover, only 20% of Republican fully reject QAnon conspiracy theories.

Our entire world is in very bad shape.  Humanity faces existential crises – Covid, climate change, other environmental destruction, and nuclear annihilation, among the most immediately threatening – and the outcome is far from certain.  Authoritarianism, fascism, racism, sexism, ableism, poverty, wars are all rampant.

Nonetheless, I am basically an optimist and believe that, over the long haul, humanity has made significant progress.  In much of the world, slavery is outlawed, women and minorities have rights, wars and violence are seen as problematic.  I realize each of these statements can be qualified, but I believe more people than ever before in history want a more equal, fairer, sustainable world.  I have worked in over 30 countries, and everywhere I have encountered many people who believe in the slogan of the World Social Forum that “Another World is Possible” and are struggling to make it so.  However, I am also a realist.  Whether humanity can survive and thrive is far from certain.