The Real "Civil War" is Reality Versus "Bubble World"

 

The New York Times trumpets the coming American "civil war." Business Insider asks where such a civil war will likely break out. Bloomberg offers an unhelpful poll announcing that 43% of Americans think a civil war is "somewhat likely" in the next 10 years. So is a comet hitting the earth, and I suspect that you'd get 43% of Americans to agree to that too.

This is some silly shit.

Much of the vitriol in modern American political discourse is the product of “bubble culture.” The Democrats who call Republicans “fascists” on Twitter, aren’t just using Twitter as a medium, they are literally living inside Twitter, and acting as if the “mean Tweet,” MAGA right is the reality of their political adversaries. The same is likely true of Republicans who call Democrats “libtards” or “communists.” Both sides -- and particularly both sides' journalists and public intellectuals -- live in insular, virtual bubbles, retweeting articles and tweets and memes, as if doing so is not just politically effective, but life itself. 

Everyone would be happier and more hopeful about their society if they put their phones down and looked around at their neighbors. My next-door neighbors are liberal Democrats. Our kids grew up playing together. They are some of the nicest people I know. My backyard neighbors are very conservative Republicans. Their daughters babysat for my kids. They are also some of the nicest people I know. I’m about the most conservative Catholic middle-aged white man you could imagine. I’m also the guy who quit my BigLaw partnership at 59 to teach English at a Catholic school on Milwaukee’s south side, who now mentors dozens of black and Mexican students every year, who shovels snow for my elderly black neighbor (but only if I get up early enough, otherwise my liberal neighbor does it!). 

In other words, liberal Democrats aren’t the caricatures we see on right-wing Twitter; conservative Republicans aren’t the caricatures we see on left-wing Twitter. There is no “civil war” in the real world. It's a "bubble-culture" phenomenon. Put the phones down and go lean over your fence and have a conversation with your neighbor. You might be a lot happier about America. Trust me.