There are Two Dots in our Political Reality

John Kallio
Jul 21, 2017 · 3 min read

If you’ve never seen any episodes of the hit Adult Swim Cartoon Rick and Morty you really should. Its brilliant. A mad scientist, Rick, and his grandson Morty have all kinds of crazy adventures. Its a brilliant, fast-paced, funny series that deserves a watch.

This morning, as I’m reading news about Donald Trump’s attempt to seek leverage against Robert Mueller and his team to influence the Russia investigation, I’m reminded of the Rick and Morty Season 2 Episode 1,“ A Rickle in Time”.

In this particular episode, Morty and his sister Summer start arguing about the past. Specifically — who was responsible for what chores while time was frozen. Both Morty and Summer remember it differently. Rick finally declares Morty is right, causing Summer to doubt her own memory. This doubt leads to a a split in very fabric of reality.

Two dots. Two realities.

Luckily, Rick is able to detect the presence of this these alternate realities thru a handy machine that outputs the number of realities in dot-form. “Oh crap! Two dots! This never needs to be more than one dot! ” screams Rick when he realizes what’s going on. Throughout the hilarious episode, reality continues to break apart as everyone involves becomes more and more uncertain in their actions.

Today in our politics, there are two competing realities. One in which things are true, and one in which everything is uncertain. In one reality, there is no scientific consensus on climate change, evolution is just a theory, inauguration crowd size is made-up by the media, and voter fraud cost Trump the popular vote. And as of today — Robert Muller’s impartiality concerning the Russia investigation. Its all helped along by the idea of “fake news”. In this reality, nothing can be known with certainty and everything requires more investigation and study.

Trump doesn’t need to convince his base that there is no “Russia Story”. He just needs to create uncertainty in Mueller and his team’s ability to be impartial. It won’t be difficult. They are a base that has shown a remarkable ability to let the slightest doubt about facts frame their politics and policies.

Two dots. Two political realities. On one dot, we believe with high degree of certainty the facts laid out before us. On the other dot, Republicans are so uncertain about anything, there can be no facts. We see Trump try to attack the impartiality of Mueller and are bemused and bewildered. They see it as more doubt in a story that was already fake news.

In “A Rickle in Time”, Rick warns, “Uncertainty is inherently unsustainable. Everything is — or isn’t.” Ominous words when applied to politics. We need to find a way to get back to one dot in politics. Agree on common held beliefs in facts and science.

What can we do? How do we get back to one political reality? As Morty says, “Whatever we do, we have to be certain. I think I’m certain we’re ‘effed in the ‘a”. At least until we are all living in the same reality.

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