Inequality, Distrust, And the Myth of the “Far Left” in America
How the GOP works hard to make sure most Americans can never have nice things
It’s a well-known psychological fact that we humans do not interact directly with the world around us. Rather, we create models in our minds about how the world works, or ought to work, and we evaluate and filter all the signals that flow into our sensory organs (sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches) under the influence of these models.
The models in our heads include various level of detail and abstraction. For example, you probably have a model for how to open a wine bottle. That is something you know because, at some point in the past, you learned it. So now you can retrieve it from memory when you need it.
At a higher and more abstract level, you have a model in your head about how America works. It’s a much more complex model, probably in the form of a narrative — a story with heroes and villains, victories and defeats, an origin story about how we got here, a situational story about where we are now, and an alternative-futures story about where we’re heading, including models of futures we want to achieve and futures we want to avoid.
These models inevitably and involuntarily shape everything we think and do, from brushing…
