It is not an American Carnage?

“This American carnage stops right here and stops right now,” declared trump after he took the oath of office of the presidency.  He won not by painting a picture of optimism and rosy future but through grim portrayals of immigrants, Mexicans, blacks, gays, minorities, other countries ...

His rhetoric and actions have caught on all over the world, perhaps demonstrating in an ironical manner how much America is indeed a beacon to the world!

Why the rise of trump and trumpism when life has never been this good for humans?

So why is that we – mostly in the developed world – often have a negative view on how the world has changed over the last decades and centuries? Why we are so pessimistic about our collective future?

Yeah, why?

Apparently, "the gap between individual optimism and national pessimism is getting larger."

One tip comes from the observation that, according to studies, the gap is larger among people who have more exposure to news media. And the media – certainly social media – tend to emphasize the gloomy and the gory over the sunny and the sublime. Good news is not news, media executives often mutter. And it takes just a minute on Twitter or cable news to confirm the old adage: “If it bleeds, it leads.”

Depends on the media that we are exposed to.  The media that I read, watch, and listen to reinforce my understanding that we humans have never had it this good.  Even in the US, will women want to live in the 1950s that trump seems to think was when America was great?  Will blacks want to re-live the 1950s?  

Does one want a reminder on the awful conditions in China in the 1950s?  Or how poor South Korea was even compared to North Korea?  

Once we systematically look around the world and examine the evidence, there is no denying the fact that life has become immensely better.  Which means, it is not exposure to the media but exposure to some kinds of media that is the problem.

Add to this a second psychological bias neuroscientists are discussing: because our species has evolved to fend off danger, we tend to be more sensitive to bad news. We react more acutely to pictures of starving children than to reports of improving nutrition levels in Africa. And, of course, we tend to remember those horrible pictures much longer.

trump tapped into these emotions.  American Carnage, he declared.  Only he can make everything alright, he claimed.  63 million voted for him!

never mind what people’s daily experience at home and work suggest; just keep repeating that business elites or immigrants or foreigners are making things worse – much worse! – and sooner or later voters will believe you.

What a shame! 

I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore

Sometimes, I feel like I should grab the Bernies and the Trumpsters and shake them to get their attention.  And then I want to tell them, "enough with your pessimism and doomsday sloganeering.  The end is not anywhere near."  If only they understood how hundreds of millions around the world will gladly trade places with the Bernies and Trumpsters who are being hysterical!

Greg Easterbrook writes that somehow optimism has become uncool in the country known for its boundless optimism:

An April Gallup poll found that only 26 percent of Americans call themselves “satisfied” with “the way things are going” in the United States. It’s been this way for a while: January 2004, during the George W. Bush administration, was the last time a majority told Gallup they felt good about the nation’s course.

For a decade now!

"Objectively, the glass looks significantly more than half full," says Easterbrook with a whole bunch of evidence.  He then quotes that rich dude from Omaha:

Recently Warren Buffett said that because of the “negative drumbeat” of politics, “many Americans now believe their children will not live as well as they themselves do. That view is dead wrong: The babies being born in America today are the luckiest crop in history.”

 Exactly!  I complain about many public policy issues, yes, but--as I often comment to students--this is the best time ever and the "good old days" were actually bad old days.  But, somehow, the Bernies don't get it (I have complained enough about the Trumpsters already!) and they are actually mesmerized by a candidate who proudly favors socialism!  Glenn Reynolds has a great line in his op-ed warning the Bernies not to be a sucker for socialism:

Under capitalism, rich people become powerful. But under socialism, powerful people become rich.

Reynolds adds later on:

But at least in America, becoming powerful isn’t the only way to become rich. Under socialism, you’re either powerful, or you’re poor.

He goes on to list some of those socialist experiments, including Venezuela.  In this blog, I have cried enough for Venezuela, and the horror stories keep growing in that rapidly failing state.  The story of the 14-year old described in this essay on how Venezuela is falling apart will make any decent human angry like hell.  That 14-year old, who died because of a shortage of his anti-epilepsy prescription drug, is but one story from Venezuela.

Maybe the angry Bernies should spend a week in Venezuela, and the pissed off Trumpsters should experience daily life in Russia.  That will be quite a reality check on their views of the world.