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Normal Is What Got Us Here
It’s looking like the country managed a dismount — but sticking the landing requires some difficult truth-telling
Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.
To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies — all this is indispensably necessary. — George Orwell, 1984
We’ve heard a lot of 1984 references over the last few years. Usually it’s been accompanied by some form of the White liberal pearl-clutching that has grown so familiar these days. If I had a nickel for every opinion piece feigning shock at what’s going on in this country, I’d have enough money to relocate to a nation that practices direct democracy in their political elections.
As I look back now on the America I have always known, I want to be surprised at where we are. I even want to be surprised at how many people are surprised at where we are. But I know better. I know that American political culture is, in fact, a series of tacit agreements…
