American Hypocrite

This is a book idea I keep coming back to, because everything keeps bringing me back to it.

Hypocrisy is baked in to the American way of life and once you see it, you can’t unsee it. It’s everywhere. It was there at the beginning with George Washington fighting for the same freedoms he wouldn’t give to his slaves. And it’s very much on display from both the Left and Right. You’ll never be accepting and open enough for the Left, drawing a line somewhere will surely get you excluded from the inclusive group. The Right seems to be throwing off all pretense of “freedom” and the Constitution in favor of some flavor of Christian Nationalism.

We all do it, we are all complicit. To hold a pure position is impossible. I’m opposed to fossil fuels yet drive a car that burns gas (though, I take the Leaf as much as possible). I don’t want anyone to go hungry and yet through food in the trash. Having principles means you will violate them.

You can’t scroll two minutes through the news or social media without catching glimpses of it. My favorites are the ones complaining about the ills of social media, on social media. Most of the time the most glaring examples are the ones pertaining to politics or religion. This is because of those require making some sort of position statement. And as soon as you do that, there is someone there to point out your hypocrisy. Going to a Climate change conference? You might want to take a sail boat instead of that private jet. Oh wait, is any of that boat made of plastic?

Why American Hypocrite? Because I am an American and a hypocrite. This is a space I know all too well. Also, because Americans do everything bigger and “better” that every other country.

It comes in all sorts of different flavors. Much of it comes from sloppy thinking…