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Current Events
My prayers go out to all the victims of the terror attack in Istanbul. Besides that, as is usually the case, the year closed with little interesting news.
However, as the new year dawned, I read a piece that got me thinking about last year's politics. It led me to some introspection.
I feel like partisanship morphed from bickering into punch-throwing last year, mostly due to the election, but the tendency carried over into intra-party and intra-community battles as well. Trump Trainers against #NeverTrump. Clinton supporters against Sanders supporters. #BlackLivesMatter against #AllLivesMatter. The Alt-Right against SJWs against whoever either group was mad at this week.
If you're like me, you're sick of it.
I think a lot of us reduce people to their political views. I'm not immune: sometimes I get so caught up in attacking the actions and principles of others that I forget to divorce the person from their position. Often, I think my statements are deserved, when they aim at real corruption or evil and seek to call it out, but certainly not all of them. If you've completely escaped this common tendency, I salute you, and I'd love it if you told me how you did it.
I believe that social media drives this trend of mushing together person and politics. Twitter, Facebook, and its ilk flatten people to a couple pictures, a really brief bio, some interests, and a TON of thoughts. The thinking, expressed in status updates and tweets, becomes the person in the eyes of all their friends and followers. But it isn't. And when the thinking is political, or otherwise controversial, it devolves into side-taking that feels personal.
I really hate it.
Josh Barro's piece that I mentioned above deals with "no-choice politics." It uses this term to describe the choking political atmosphere of 2016, and points specifically to two situations: the 2016 Election, and Brexit. In both of these situations, due to the partisanship and doomsday rhetoric in the media and public square, voters reacted against the lack of a good choice by making the choice that would "blow up the system."
Destruction of institutions, rather than redemption or reform, breaks down the very fabric of our society. This is not a sustainable political trend. No-choice politics always leads to bad choices.
This year, I want to work on engaging with people as people, and with positions as positions. And most of all, I want to move away from no-choice politics and find common ground with others, while remaining strong in my principles.
There's always a better choice. I want to seek it out. Will you come with me?
Movie of the Week
I saw Passengers this week. It's the story of two interstellar travelers who wake up early from their hibernation on the way to another planet, and have to deal with the trials of a failing ship together.
First, the good. The design of the starship and the world the movie creates are both wonderful. The script is mostly nimble, and the direction has its moments of excellence – like a character struggling to stay alive when the gravity turns off while they're swimming. I wanted to see more of these characters and this world, and that is a testament to Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, who both knock their roles out of the park.
The twist in the movie is shocking if you've seen the trailers, and I'll leave it at that. But the twist, along with several unintentionally funny or awkward moments in the script, made it clear that this movie could have benefitted from a rewrite. The shock is spoiled for the audience at the end of the first act, and would have had real punch with one simple change: make JLaw the main character and turn everything in the first act into a flashback directly after the twist is revealed.
If you're looking for something to see in early January, since I don't expect anything else that month to be very good, I'd recommend this movie. 3/5 Stars.
Sports
Hey, those were two exceptionally boring College Football Playoff games, weren't they? And LSU-Louisville wasn't much better. Oh well, at least we have a few good games left, and they can be found in this Weekly Update.
Outside of that, we have NFL playoffs coming up, with my Dallas Cowboys setting their sights on the Super Bowl. I'm pumped. And college basketball teams are beginning conference play, so I'll start watching those gaHAHAHAHAHAHAHA KIDDING. Though my Baylor Bears are doing really well, I'll care when we play Kansas. Otherwise, see you in March, college basketball.
Etc.
I'm contemplating a move for this Weekly Update to Medium very soon. It's a sleeker site, more social, doesn't push me to post on Google+, and so on. Let me know what you think!
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