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Maxwell Seymour's avatar

Thank you for writing this article. I found it very informative. So many links to explore!

For context, I have been a liberal my entire life, and in more recent years considered myself firmly on the Left. However, I have been struggling to understand the phenomenon of how American liberals, and even large swaths of the organized Left, have completely reorientated. Even though it was Trump who initiated Operation Warp Speed, it is Biden who is pushing relentlessly for vaccine mandates. Safety and efficacy questions aside, the burden of these mandates fall most harshly on the working class—the very same "heroes" who worked tirelessly during the first year of pandemic before vaccines were available. Now, in a very shocking and grotesque display of bigotry, American liberals have turned sadistic towards the unvaccinated who they now see as right-wing fascists and their ideological enemies. In reality, the unvaccinated include a very diverse group of people including gays and lesbians, people of color, highly educated people, the laptop class, and laborers—their neighbors! While they enthusiastically punch down at these people who were once honorary members of their esteemed political party, they now kiss up to the political "elite," the biomedical authorities, the "experts," and the technocrats.

As a retired shrink, have you any theories of what is going on and when and if it can be remedied. Is this going to be the rest of my life?

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Michelle Rabin Ph. D.'s avatar

We am delighted to see that we are in agreement in lots of arenas. What a coincidence that we both experience Negril as our happy place!

Regarding climate change however, that's where we have the biggest difference. I choose to respect the 97% of the global scientologist who have concluded that we cannot protect the planet from current climate change with existing technologist and that we are at high risk for the planet to become uninhabitable in many areas around the world. I wholeheartedly agree that innovation can provide the solutions however. I also agree about the necessity to use nuclear energy but I insist that we design improvements that can prevent catastrophic failures of the system. The current designs have been around for 50 years and desperately need updating their safety and resource needs. I'm not a fan of Bill Gates but he had an amazing project with China apparently to build an innovative nuclear plant that is 100% safe and actually used spent fuel rods to accomplish the power source. Each rod would produce energy for 25 years. Now that's a win/win for sure. Cleaning up the waste and putting it to use.

I agree that political tribalism is a serious problem and actually a threat to our very democracy. I believe decisions should be made based on what's best for all Americans and the planet. Whether one is a democrat or republican should be irrelevant in those critical decisions. To be a citizen of the world should NOT interfere with the appreciate, participation and respect for each culture around the world. Each is precious and should be preserved.

So yes, I think we agree more than we disagree. It's always a pleasure for me to engage with people who are respectful, thoughtful, curious and bright. That's how we bridge the political divide. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts and feelings. If we lived nearby, I'd be inviting you to meet for coffee/tea or a hike perhaps:)

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