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Chinese visitor to Washington believe Americans prefer simple untruths [1]

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Date: 2023-05-08

A group of Chinese tourists take photographs on the National Mall with the U.S. Capitol in the background. Robert Alexander – Getty Imagaes

David Dodwell, Executive Director of the Hong Kong-APEC Trade Policy Study Group Published: 7 May 2023

This depressing observation seems to have been front-of-mind for several friends who have had the dubious pleasure in recent months of visiting the United States in general, and Washington in particular. Most doors to officials were closed. Those who left doors open showed more interest in lecturing than listening. I would add three further thoughts: that 21st century social media has greatly powered this effect; that certain types of people prefer simple untruths to complicated truths; and that even among those perceived as experts, fallibilities like confirmation bias allow them to build narratives on evidence that cannot survive scrutiny, and on aggressive motives that are of their own imagining. With this Washington consensus pushing the world in a very dangerous direction, how to bring speculation down from fever pitch, and to get more moderate, fact-based thinkers back into the room, has become an urgent question. Not very long ago a senior US military officer who should know better discussed not just whether there is a danger of military conflict with China, but suggested that conflict over Taiwan may take place as soon as 2025.

This article was inspired by the writer's fear of pending armed conflict between the US and China over Taiwan. I don’t share that fear. During the 45’s* administration several US Navy vessels were “involved in accidental collisions” with commercial vessels in the china sea, ten sailors lost their lives in one such collusion.

Photos show how close Chinese warship came to colliding with US destroyer, Thu October 4, 2018

U.S. destroyer McCain collision which killed 10 sailors caused by 'sudden turn', March 7, 2018

There were several more such incidents, I don’t recall all the details. The point is if armed conflict were the intent, there has been plenty of opportunity. Both The US and China have political gains to be made by incidences, as long as there are open communications to preclude unintended escalations.

My real interest in this piece is in the second paragraph, “certain types of people prefer simple untruths to complicated truths.” That statement can easily translate to internal US politics. The word “prefer” is the operative word in this particular statement. The “types of people” alluded to can be identified as conservative politicians.

The phenomena Mr. Dodwell identified as confirmation bias is party politics. The disease of party politics that is at the center of the GOP’s intransigence can be traced back to Newt Gingrich in the early 1990s, when the then house speaker placed destroying Bill Clinton above good governance and won. The impeachment of Bill Clinton was accompanied by the end of political compromise and the rise of political culture wars.

The US State has not been dismantled, but it has been severely damaged by conservatives’ quest for power at all cost. Long accepted domestic and diplomatic norms were deliberately attacked and/or neglected intentionally by conservatives to harm political opponents or directly or by harming their constituents. The attacks were so blatant and anti-democratic that the majority of voting Americans did not believe that conservatives would go through with their threats.

But go through with them, they did. If not for the ill-fated Jan 6 coupe attempt, they might still be piling transgression upon transgression, with the majority of Americans still not believing that conservatives would actually dismantle our Democracy. As I am one of the long term voter and observers of this gradual dismantling of our system of governing. Something that was so revolting that my emotional distaste for what was happening caused me to conclude that it could not happen. That was a near fatal error.

Part of that complacence comes from the fact that our system is imperfect, and every American citizen can find something about it that is objectionable and is worthy of our outrage and public protest. But that is by design, so we accept it and wait our turn at the knob. That works as long as we all stay actively involved and use our votes at every level of government to register our disgust or approval. The objective of active participation is not to win, but to influence policy. Politicians will do anything that they perceive will get them votes for reelection in their districts, but if they are winning by a narrow margin, they are less likely to support extreme or purely partisan initiatives.

In order to return “complicated truths” to the fore of our politics, we must become sophisticated voters.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/8/2167998/-Chinese-visitor-to-Washington-believe-Americans-prefer-simple-untruths

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