Excellent article, Michelle. Very good points here. I agree that many people are unaware of the social and political turmoil the US caused in Latin America. Those in power wanted (and still what) to keep us ignorant of all that, so we don’t look like ‘bad guys.’
This is one of the best articles I've read on the election results, Michelle. Thank you for sharing your clear, incisive thinking with us. I'm still struggling to believe it happened, and glad I have another country to call home.
You can’t change human nature. Emotions drive everyone and some of those emotions are there for our safety. The insights you share are remarkably dead on. I wrote two posts to cover the same things. Combined we have something! https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/emotions-drive-us?r=3m1bs
This is the sort analysis which only comes from a well educated individual choosing to use their knowledge as a means to understand and engage life’s problems, rather than submit to and only curse them. Here are my “take-aways”:
Naturally, education comes from a variety of sources, not just the formal ones. Intentional choices are almost always better than those made unaware of motivation; or a lack of it, such as failing to understand how not choosing is always, in essence, a choice.
Understanding is rarely as simple as it might seem to be; arising more easily for those less hypnotized by any biases associated with their circumstances. Accepting the reality of a circumstance does not require submission to it. Challenges appear more onerous when understanding lags and emotional/conceptual bias leads. And engaging circumstances with understanding is always the better choice.
About 20 years ago, I stopped asking friends, family, dates, etc any questions I figured they were likely to answer with plausible lies. I end up evaluating past behavior and drawing my own conclusions. The part that kills me is how so many people have their ego invested in being right. I don't, I think it's normal to get things wrong and learn from it. I'm definitely in the minority with that though.
My checking account tells me I'm a foundation member, but your posts encourage me to upgrade to paid. Are my contributions siphoned off to a fake account?
There's a lot about this I don't understand, but I just verified that you are, indeed, a foundation member! Thank you for that. Please ignore whatever Substackery is telling you that you need to pay more. I assume it's something automatic? :)
Michelle, you’d need to go further back to fix immigration. There a great book by historian Erika Lee, America for Americans, which lays out the history of xenophobia in America that started well before the founding of America and details how immigration has been affected by xenophobia all the way up to now.
Excellent article, Michelle. Very good points here. I agree that many people are unaware of the social and political turmoil the US caused in Latin America. Those in power wanted (and still what) to keep us ignorant of all that, so we don’t look like ‘bad guys.’
THIS!
Thank you!
This is one of the best articles I've read on the election results, Michelle. Thank you for sharing your clear, incisive thinking with us. I'm still struggling to believe it happened, and glad I have another country to call home.
We could go to Europe because Harrie is Dutch ... but our grandkids are here!
You can’t change human nature. Emotions drive everyone and some of those emotions are there for our safety. The insights you share are remarkably dead on. I wrote two posts to cover the same things. Combined we have something! https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/emotions-drive-us?r=3m1bs
This is the sort analysis which only comes from a well educated individual choosing to use their knowledge as a means to understand and engage life’s problems, rather than submit to and only curse them. Here are my “take-aways”:
Naturally, education comes from a variety of sources, not just the formal ones. Intentional choices are almost always better than those made unaware of motivation; or a lack of it, such as failing to understand how not choosing is always, in essence, a choice.
Understanding is rarely as simple as it might seem to be; arising more easily for those less hypnotized by any biases associated with their circumstances. Accepting the reality of a circumstance does not require submission to it. Challenges appear more onerous when understanding lags and emotional/conceptual bias leads. And engaging circumstances with understanding is always the better choice.
Wow, thank you for this!
Notes like this make me work a lot harder!
I vibe this.
About 20 years ago, I stopped asking friends, family, dates, etc any questions I figured they were likely to answer with plausible lies. I end up evaluating past behavior and drawing my own conclusions. The part that kills me is how so many people have their ego invested in being right. I don't, I think it's normal to get things wrong and learn from it. I'm definitely in the minority with that though.
I am really into mottos and have several of them. One of them is "Don't believe everything you think!"
As I had on the wall of my cube back in my wage-worker days, “All broad, complex problems have simple,easy to understand, wrong answers.” 😐
I agree with all your points, well researched and executed. But I wonder, how many really care these days?
Well, I suppose I can gauge that by how many people keep subscribing to me :)
lol, that's heartening.
My checking account tells me I'm a foundation member, but your posts encourage me to upgrade to paid. Are my contributions siphoned off to a fake account?
There's a lot about this I don't understand, but I just verified that you are, indeed, a foundation member! Thank you for that. Please ignore whatever Substackery is telling you that you need to pay more. I assume it's something automatic? :)
Excellent, Michelle!
Michelle, you’d need to go further back to fix immigration. There a great book by historian Erika Lee, America for Americans, which lays out the history of xenophobia in America that started well before the founding of America and details how immigration has been affected by xenophobia all the way up to now.