TIL: More Offensive Words

Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer.

I first wrote about the loss of values in American politics in 2011, with "Civility: What's Not To Like?". But "civility" was not the first word to transform from being a value to being offensive. I wrote in 2017: For me, "it started with 'tolerance'. Long ago, I was surprised to learn that tolerance is not universally considered to be a virtue. (Tolerance was imagined to be synonymous with approval - approval of gays, of Muslims, of sin.) Then, I learned that 'compromise' is not universally considered to be a virtue, either. (Compromise was imagined to require a surrender of principle.)" That article was called, "Now Kindness is a Dirty Word, Too".

Now in 2025, I learned a whole bunch of other words that have transformed from being values to being offensive. Also, I learned an explanation of what's behind it.

Generational Income, Wealth, and Home Ownership

When I read something that changes my mind, I sit up and take notice. In two recent posts on Facebook, I said I learned, contrary to my earlier beliefs, that younger generations in America are doing OK compared to older generations, at least as measured by income and wealth. I used the two graphs above as evidence.

I Still Believe in Empathy

I've been keeping a collection of civic virtues that I once thought were generally non-controversial in American politics, but as I get older I'm finding aren't universally valued at all. Civic virtues like tolerance, compromise, and civility, even virtues like kindness, and democracy itself are no longer valued by some.

TIL: Manufacturing in America is Going Strong

The appeal of MAGA is an imagined past where America used to make things, before globalization took all the manufacturing overseas. Today I learned that the basis for that belief is just wrong. The graph above shows why. America is still making stuff — about ten times more today than we made in 1947, in inflation-adjusted dollars. That's stuff made right her in the USA, not in China. What gives? Why don't we have ten times more Americans working to produce those goods? That's because of a growth in productivity. While we're making ten times more, the number of Americans working in manufacturing has stayed pretty much flat from 1947 to 2025. Productivity growth through technology, not globalization, is the more important story here.

TIL: The "Migrant Crisis" is Self-Inflicted

Source: Carlos Barria / Reuters.

I learned more about the so-called "migrant crisis" from an article in "The Atlantic" from almost a year ago than I've learned from anything else since.

TIL: The Evolution of Morality...in Politics

Source: The New Yorker.

In a book review in "The New Yorker" of Hanno Sauer's new book "The Invention of Good and Evil: A World History of Morality", Nikhil Krishnan writes:

It was five million years ago, Sauer tells us, that creatures rather like ourselves, having only just evolved from some now extinct ape, started to develop the psychological dispositions that made them capable of coöperation. Unlike the chimpanzees and bonobos of the dense forests around central Africa, our ancestors had to survive in exposed grasslands. Coöperating for mutual defense against our predators, and for collectively pursuing prey, was our way of compensating for our new vulnerability. Among the dispositions that emerged to help us get along, Sauer writes, was the capacity for altruistic behavior: “putting aside the interests of the individual in favour of a greater common good.”

Source: Nikhil Krishnan.

In short, according to this theory, there was a competitive advantage for our species to cooperate. Today, when we're good, it's because we evolved that way. So, how do we explain wars? Or even closer to home, how do we explain the rancorous divisions in America's body politic?

Two Days, Two Presidents, Two Value Systems

Two social media posts in two days.

One President with some Girl Scouts, pitching a documentary about our oceans.

One pitching guitars for $1,500 (or, if autographed by the Grifter-in-Chief himself, for $10,000).

I miss one of these guys.

Democrats Have an Image Problem

Democrats seem to have the advantage on the issues. But Republicans have the advantage on messaging. Let's consider Missouri. Voters there voted like Democrats on the issues. But they voted for Republicans for office. They passed some pretty liberal Constitutional amendments while voting by a 19% margin for Donald Trump for President, and by a 14% margin for Josh Hawley for Senate.

Lessons from November 5th

It's now one week since Election Day. Mark Leibovich in "The Atlantic" goes all the way back to Hillary Clinton's close loss to Donald Trump in 2016 to explain the source of the Democrats' defeats in 2024.

Leibovich: "Democrats engaged in no real reckoning after 2016. Essentially they became a party that defined itself in opposition to Trump, just as Republicans have been defined in submission to him."

Greatest Political Comeback

Jim Jordan: "This election was the greatest political comeback we've ever seen."

Well, maybe not. Nixon's win in 1968 was arguably bigger after Nixon's defeat in 1962 and pledge to the press, "You don't have Nixon to kick around any more, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference." Biggest comeback and, later, biggest eventual collapse. Maybe something still to look forward to.

The Forest Was Shrinking

"The forest was shrinking
but the trees kept voting for the axe.
Because his handle was made of wood,
he convinced them he was one of them.”
— Turkish Proverb

My Instant Election Analysis

My instant election analysis:

November 5th was a Huge Disappointment

November 5 was disappointing, but not a surprise. It's certainly not like 2016, where the result did catch me by surprise. This time, I took a wait-and-see attitude. Two weeks before the election, I told someone struggling to be optimistic that "the most I can offer is what keeps me from despair. The odds are pretty much 50/50. That's not a reason to be optimistic, but it's equally not a reason to be pessimistic."

Now that the results are in, and Donald Trump's win over Kamala Harris is certain, it's time for despair. Hear me out.

TIL: A Parallel Between Hezbollah and the GOP

The current issue of The New Yorker has a story by Dexter Filkins on the growing risk of war between Hezbollah and Israel in Lebanon ("Will Hezbollah and Israel Go to War?"). It delves deeply into not just the current crisis, but the entire history of Hezbollah, which was founded in 1985. Hezbollah has had the military aim of destroying Israel ever since. It has adopted a political strategy inside Lebanon as well, preventing the existence of a functioning government in that nation. American politics aren't explicitly addressed in Filkins's article, but I recognized a similarity between Hezbollah's tactics and the GOP's.

TIL: Why Democrats are Losing

Homeless man in downtown Phoenix

They say, when you're explaining, you're losing. Here I'm going to be explaining what I learned today about why Democrats are losing. That should tell you something about how stupid I am. But here goes anyway.

TIL: US is Choosing to be Poorer

Donald Trump might be the Xenophobe-in-Chief, but both political parties are moving to the right on immigration. This will have a negative impact on GDP, posing threats to everything from Social Security to housing.

Guns: Adding Insult to Injury

Source: Nationhood Lab.

The last few days have seen a confluence of gun tragedy. A shooting death in the church of Joel Osteen ("church" used loosely) in Houston and a shooting death (and 21 wounded) at a Superbowl rally in Kansas City. More and more, mourning for the dead has barely begun before new dead take their place in the headlines.

TIL: The Bestest Good News for our Times

Today's bestest good news: Today I Learned that so-called peak carbon emissions may be at hand, thanks to the growth of solar and wind power.

A Reverie of Hot Vernor's Ginger Ale

Jim Schutze, retired Dallas journalist, still shakes his fist at the sky in Facebook posts. Yesterday's rant caught my attention.

I ordered two twelve packs of Vernon's ginger ale from WalMart.

They said they would send me Vernor's ginger ale. They sent me Canada Dry.

Canada Dry. For Vernor's ginger ale.

OMG. Is this how it is now? I think I'm about done here.

Source: Jim Schutze.

That triggered a long-ago memory.

One Argument Against Electric Vehicles

I'm feeling optimistic today. I know, my style here usually leans towards the negative, so regular readers who did a spit-take with their morning coffee just now are forgiven. But, this morning I'm believing in American ingenuity, in American can-do spirit, in an expression attributed to Winston Churchill, "Americans will always do the right thing, after they have tried everything else." What am I optimistic about today? Electric vehicles.