2 Comments

Thank you for the insightful analysis. I don't know whether to be pessimistic or optimistic. Some unknown event may arise to bring us together as a nation or the centrifugal forces may strengthen and create two uneasy nations sharing the same flag and continent but to all intents and purposes estranged from each other. Some seem to want that. E pluribus pluribis.

Expand full comment
author

Hi Ilo, I worry about this, too. It’s funny you use the term centrifugal forces because that’s one way I’ve thought about the effect of the internet media ecosystem on American society and politics. I wrote about it in some of the first Destabilized posts, one of which initially had “centrifugal” in the title, but I ended up changing it. The first of those posts is this one: https://destabilized.substack.com/p/meta-messages-and-the-internet-part. One important question about this election is whether it represented a kind of move to marginally greater unity or, alternatively, just the movement of a small group of voters from one coalition to the other. It doesn’t matter it terms of who wins various elections but it has longer term significance as you point out.

Expand full comment