This Week In PurpleAmerica (11/27-12/1)
The Blowback
It’s been an interesting week here at PurpleAmerica. We published three different articles (not including this one) and received a LOT of feedback on all of them. While this is great for my engagement counts, it isn’t always the greatest to be on the receiving end of anonymous trolls spewing acidic vitriol because you don’t agree 100% with their agenda, and counsel them to moderate their tones some. To those people, I offer the following previous PurpleAmerica Articles:
Toxic Activism: When Devotion to a Cause Turns Bad
In Need of a Sister Souljah Moment: Democratic Leaders Need to Call Out Zealotry that Goes Too Far.
Which Team Are You On?: Our Political Rhetoric Now Mirrors Sports Fandom Instead of Practical Governing.
An Assholism Epidemic: It was on The Wane; Recent Events Have Caused it To Explode.
And there are a whole catalog of other posts they can browse that basically reflect on much of the same main thoughts:
To win in politics, you need a majority.
You don’t get to a majority by being uncompromising or adamant.
Not everyone is on board with every issue progressives put forth, and liberal political fortunes would go up considerably if they tempered some of their more extremist activist notions.
This is a consequential election. If Joe Biden loses, you can kiss those issues you care about good bye, watch Trump roll back all of them, and may never see Democracy again for some time.
Which brings me to the three posts from this week. Two had a particularly political bent:
The Myth of the ‘Post Truth’ Era: We’ve Always Lived With This, Some People are Finally Recognizing it.
An Open Letter to Progressives: If You Want to Fight in 2024 For What You Truly Believe in, STFU Until 2025.
Now, the first of these was actually a focus on that last word in the title, “Era.” There is no “Post Truth Era” because in the sense the idea that people did things and ignored objective facts for various political agendas has always been around. But people today like to believe this is unique to this timeline somehow. What is unique is the ubiquity of social media to spread it, immediately and without constraint of location. What I wasn’t expecting was a horde of liberals sending me hate mail calling me ‘Fascist’ because I don’t believe in the ‘Big Lies’ of the right. Like they totally missed the whole point of the article, by focusing on only the “Post Truth” part of it (I’ll add, it was easily identifiable who did and did not actually read the article). The deluge of linear, simplistic, one dimensional progressive toxicity was on.
But it was the second that really pissed them off. Namely, telling them to STFU in an election year. What most of the young progressives on Threads/X/Instagram and other social media sites don’t get is that most people are not activists. In fact, hardcore activism, regardless of who is doing it, turns most voters off completely. This is an incredibly consequential election and we really need Joe Biden to win it. To do that, we need to win in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada and preferably Ohio and Georgia to be safe. These are all places where the more extreme liberal (Marxist even?) shit doesn’t play well, and costs us votes. If we don’t win there, Donald Trump becomes President and rolls back everything they care about. You can’t rack up millions more votes in NY and CA and win an election. You need 270 Electoral Votes, which means you have to bite your tongue, put on a happy face, and do stuff to appeal to the middle of the country and the middle of the electorate.
You’d think pointing that out and saying “temper some of your most activist impulses so we can win, and then you can shout them out from the rooftops after November for all I care” would give them a moment of pause and reflection and say “Maybe he has a point, winning politically is more important than trying to win over GenZRadical451 with some clever quip” but no. The barrage of hate from the left is overtaking my inbox. I expect this from MAGA nuts (who regularly send me shit, particularly whenever I repost that MAGA is a Cult) but really, when they do it to someone who is on their side, who really wants Biden to win and who is sympathetic to their cause, trying my best to tell them the best way to get things done, it makes me a little downhearted. I mean, they don’t seem to get what they are doing is hurting them politically, and that if they lose they are not going to be reflective about it at all, but just say “The whole country must be Fascist!” It’s not, but when you go to the length they do, anyone to the right of Cori Bush seems to be Fascist to them.
I digress.
Oh, and the Third article was my rebuttal to Rolling Stone’s piece “The Greatest 200 Songs of the 1980s)1 My list of the Top 200 Songs of the 1980s was a much more conventional list for people who you know, actually remember the 1980s. The feedback I got on it was generally positive. Sure, everyone could quibble with who was placed where and what songs didn’t make the cut (some responses in my emails were right on the money on some oversights—my bad) but generally, people agreed. Special shoutout to JohnLCorbett on his take about “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” needing to be higher. In light of this last week, I’m inclined to concur; Everybody does indeed want to rule the world. Sorry for the shortchanging there.
PurpleAmerica’s People of the Past Week
The Good
Rosalyn Carter. Carter died this week at the age of 96. Polite, hospitable to a fault and delightful as a person, the relationship her and President Jimmy Carter had for over 75 years was enviable to anyone. R.I.P Ms. Carter and God Bless. You set the standard.
The Bad-
Henry Kissinger. This week, Kissinger died at the age of 100. A lot of liberals are distastefully dancing on the man’s grave. Much of what he did should be viewed in the context of the Cold War and specifically the Vietnam War. He was a master statesman, set the standard for diplomacy which is still followed today, helped open up China to the world and advised most every President through the end of the 20th Century. Some of the actions he took could be considered war crimes, though he was never charged nor convicted. He also won the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating an end to the Vietnam War. He was no saint, but he’s not the devil the left portrays him as either.
The Ugly—
Elon Musk. I’m just going to leave this here:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/29/investing/elon-musk-dealbook-summit
Have a nominee for us to consider? Send an email to purpleamericanunity@gmail.com!
PurpleAmerica Pop Culture Random Top Five
This week: The Top 5 Holiday Songs:
Rocking Around the Christmas Tree (Brenda Lee). Every time I hear this, I think of Kevin McAllister in Home Alone dancing, making the robbers think there are more people there than just him.
The Chipmunk Song. (Alvin and the Chipmunks). “I still want a hula-hoop…”
Jingle Bell Rock (Bobby Helms). A cheery, chipper song for the holidays.
The Hanukah Song (Adam Sandler). This still makes me smile.
All I Want for Christmas is You (Mariah Carey). Admit it. You like the song. It took 27 years for it to finally hit #1 and gets more popular every year. It may be the only song to catch the greatest selling song in history, White Christmas, which also continues to sell songs every holiday season.
PurpleAmerica Cultural Corner
44 years ago this week, Pink Floyd released “The Wall.” It is considered one of the greatest rock albums of all time.
My own love of music began the first time I heard “Another Brick in the Wall.” But recently with Roger Waters’ more troubling recent positions, I haven’t been able to appreciate the album like I once did. It’s a story I chronicled here:
Thing is, in re-reading this, it’s surprising to me how much polling trends of Gen Z are following Waters’ example. From my standpoint, its a little distressing. I encourage everybody to read this piece and let me know your thoughts.
PurpleAmerica’s Subscriber Mail
When we here at PurpleAmerica Respond to the Teeming Millions (well, we’re still working on that first million)
Normally I would have no problem posting some subscriber mail. This week though— there hasn’t been anything constructive sent my way, just an avalanche of hate. So in light of that, we’ll get back to this next week.
Have a question you want us to answer? Email us at purpleamericanunity@gmail.com
PurpleAmerica’s Historical Note from This Week
Today, December 1, is World AIDS Day. As AIDS becomes a much more manageable disease and people living with HIV can now live longer lives, it’s easy to forget how horrible the start of the AIDS epidemic was in the 1980s. Getting AIDS was akin to getting a death sentence, likely within a year. It spread rapidly and the cultural fear was pervasive.
So for this week’s Historical Note I want to bring attention to a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle named Randy Shilts.
Shilts was a seasoned journalist, and covered most of the local political beat for the Chronicle. In the early 80s, he was front and center for the early days when AIDS (then called “gay cancer” or “GRIDS” for “Gay Related Immunodeficiency Syndrome” as it first became prevalent in the gay community for various reasons) started growing. He documented how the epidemic began, how it spread, local policies (or lack of them) that contributed and how the disease exploded nationally. He was deeply critical, not just of the actions of public health agencies who were underfunded and incapable of handling the epidemic, and of the Reagan Administration and federal agencies who were not sympathetic to a group of liberals suffering from a disease spread through what was considered “immoral conduct” at the time, but also the gay community who after years of being closeted and finally coming out were being asked to close bath houses, practice monogamy, wear condoms and roll back some of their more excessive indulgences (which they roundly and consistently rejected). The result was that the epidemic continued and expanded to the point it was in every state, most countries and was endemic by the end of the decade. His book, “And the Band Played On” is considered the seminal journalistic record of the epidemic and is one of the best books I’ve read about journalism, public policy, government and bureaucracy to this day. If you don’t have time to read the book (which believe me, is well worth your time), HBO made a dramatization of it which was outstanding.
Randy Shilts died of AIDS, February 17, 1994, R.I.P.
PurpleAmerica’s Dad/Uncle/Cheesy Joke of the Week
What’s Red, White and Blue at Christmas?
Santa looking at the “Naughty” list.
And with that…
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Footnotes and Fun Stuff
Note: Rolling Stone’s list clearly was not the greatest 200 songs of the 1980s. Not by a longshot.