As I reflect on potential revelations from this week’s election result, I’m looking forward to receiving my Amazon gift card for my participation in the largest AI disinformation experiment ever conducted.
Some Americans voted. Others were zombified, AI-influenced shells who shambled into the voting both with glazed eyes, numb hearts. The thrum of amorphous fear propelling their hands to color the bubble that would make their lives worse in measurable ways. I’m certain a close listen would have revealed their mumbled mewling. “But her emails!” they whimpered. A litany of disinformation dribbling from their slack jaws. The economy, inflation, the corrupt Bidens, Jack Smith, witch hunt, Stop the Steal.
They cast their votes, agreeing to surgery, but the information they had on board was a far cry from what would have been necessary for informed consent.
I have had opportunities, over the last many years, to engage with the folks who believe “America wants Trump.” I want to stay this side of sensational, but sticking with the zombie theme, when I have asked, “So what is about Nancy Pelosi that you don’t like?” or “Tell me more. What’s upsetting to you about Hillary’s emails?” or “How does my being married to another woman impact you?” they turn, bare their teeth, and hiss. They don’t know. They don’t have anything like answers to these questions. They just know these are the things they’ve seen on memes and reels and that’s good enough for them…because they already had a vague mistrust of “government” or gay people, or women in power.
They can’t trust “them.”
Meanwhile, we sat over here, heartened by the scores of Republicans, former Chiefs of Staff and others, who have had direct experience with the candidate, who came out publicly to warn of the threat he poses to democracy. We saw dozens of economists, from both sides of the aisle publicly warn of the undeniable danger that Trump’s policies pose to our financial health and welfare. We thought, surely, this will open some eyes.
It didn’t.
Because that information never crossed the wall of lies and obfuscation that have passed as “news” for Trump voters since his first term. And Trump and his team have brilliantly made the truth impossible to discern and unpopular to trust. Any bits that make it through the veil are quickly eviscerated as sour grapes, lies, and leftist propaganda.
Certainly the prospect and, yes, the reality that we live in a country that is rife with sexist, racist, homophobic, disability-phobic and generally other-phobic sentiments and systems, does not sit well in my heart. I don’t pretend that the situation in which we now find ourselves was created by the AI machine. It simply turned what was already here into a white-hot prism of division, taking differences that have coexisted and making them...making you and I...deal-breaking aberrations in need of violent eradication.
You can drive out nature with a pitchfork, yet she keeps on coming back.
The years ahead will be hard, but hard gets a bad rap.
When we let it, hard can be a uniquely valuable invitation. This hard with which we have been presented will invite us to know ourselves deeply, as humans, as communities, as a nation. We will see parts of ourselves that we wish didn’t exist and we will also be amazed at what we can do in community and in our own expansive hearts.
This nation did not capitulate on Tuesday. Trump’s “win” will be a bellows on a centuries-old smolder. The women, the two-spirits, the healers, the artists-- we have been tending that fire for a long time. That part we do know even if this particular threat is new to some of us.
For my part, I will be employing a new mantra. I will ask your grace as I unpack it briefly and invite you to join me if it feels congruent to you.
May I not give in to the intoxicating states of despair, disgust, rage, or revenge. (which make me particularly susceptible to misinformation and disinformation)
(This is not about stuffing down these feelings or brightsiding. It is about giving these feelings a fair hearing and then letting them pass away, as all feelings naturally do. It is about noticing that they are illusions that sap, rather than fuel my life force.)
I will allow my experience to be a pathway to empathy and wise compassion for all beings, including myself. (which will help me to see through levers designed to reinforce the illusion of my separateness)
(I will remember and honor that the people who voted against themselves, which is how I choose to characterize most people who voted for Trump, are in real pain. They are suffering under the delusions of scarcity and fear. I will remember, when I believe those humans are against me, that this, too, is a delusion. I will invite my heart to release its contraction so I may join with them in this grand, global, human suffering that can only be mitigated by surrender to its existence, and deep, abiding, non-transactional love.)
We are headed somewhere rich, somewhere hard that will feel both exhaustingly familiar and exhilaratingly new. A place that will be full of surprises and connection and yes, suffering.
I hope you’ll come with me.
Comments