The Witness Chronicles April 24, 2023

An I’m sick of Trump rant, another climate piece, and a comment about going viral

The Witness Chronicles was created to showcase some of the writing I do on Medium.com covering politics, global events, and climate change. This week I’m sharing three articles that hit these topics. Trigger warning: I am a liberal Democrat and proud of it. You don’t have to agree with me but I hope you’ll read with an open mind.

This newsletter is produced by The Grasshopper.

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First, I want to talk about the experience of going viral. An article on Florida and climate change I published last week on Medium and republished in the last Chronicles has gone relatively viral with nearly seventy thousand views as of now, Sunday afternoon. If all those views were on Medium it would have been worth something like $3000 to me. But nearly all were external views, which are outside of the payment system, so it was a tiny fraction of that.

But then Medium Boosted the piece, which is their current curatorial thing that selects pieces for promotion. It’s the first time I’ve been Boosted and I was very curious how it would affect the numbers. So far it has added about 5000 views that are paying reads, so I’m pretty happy with that. And they are still coming in.

If this is all a bit arcane to you, it’s really an example of virality and how it multiplies the impact of the piece. And I can take it a bit further. Because the Medium article had my pitch for The Grasshopper in it, it has drawn about 50 new subscribers to the newsletter. If that was all I got out of it, I’d still be a happy camper.

It makes for an interesting week for a metrics geek like me.

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If you’re a fan of the former President, you won’t like this. There, I gave you a trigger warning. Lol.

How Much Longer is This Trump Thing Going to Last?

People, we need a break, a permanent one

It needs to be said. We’ve been held hostage by a stooge for over six years and, frankly, that’s more than enough. The guy is a scam artist and a good one. I’ll give him that. But we have things that need to get done, important things, and he and his rabid followers are in the way.

Think about this: he is about to be tried in a civil suit accusing him of rape. Despite his highly paid lawyers’ efforts, it has been found to have merits and will proceed this week. Rape.

I could go on about the numerous other criminal charges he will likely face in the coming months, or even weeks. They are serious and verge on treason.

He has called for violent insurrection that led to deaths, not out of some legitimate outrage, but to protect his own ego. An ego that tells him he cannot possibly, ever, lose.

The man is mentally ill and close to being a sociopath. Close? I’m being generous. He could care less if anyone around him would die as a result of his words and actions. That sounds like a sociopath to me.

Think about the words you just read. All of them are true and on the record. And this man is seriously running for President. And one of the two major political parties in this country are all in on supporting him, despite the fact that he would turn on them in a minute if they so much as questioned anything he did.

We should all be ashamed. 

The guy is going to go, one way or another. And if he doesn’t it will be because he has succeeded in turning our country into a dictatorship, a distinct possibility. If you think that is a good thing, you might want to consider the fact that he does not care if you have ideas about anything.

In dictatorships, ideas get you thrown into prison or worse.

While I’m laying out facts about this monster, remember: he is buddies with Vladimir Putin, a man who is directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands, mostly his own citizens, and is indicted for war crimes.

Donald Trump admires him.

War crimes. Rape. Lies. Scams. Sociopath. These are not words that should ever be associated with a man vying to lead our country again.

Have we learned nothing from watching this happen? Apparently not, because we are constantly subjected to his face, his hair, and his hateful rants and something like 30% of American voters support him.

Ask yourself, why? Ask them why. And then wait.

You’re not going to get an answer that is not racist, paranoid, or logical. 

This needs to stop.

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Earth Will Be Fine, Humanity Not So Much

34% of all the food we produce in the US is wasted

I’ve been observing and writing about climate change for over twenty years and there are a few takeaways as we find ourselves in the thick of it. We’re not destroying the planet. We are destroying our ability to live on it and we’re taking a lot of species with us. As many as half of all of them.

We talk about things like biodiversity, feedback loops, and complex systems and our situation now is right  in the thick of it. Whether we survive or not, we are setting biological evolution back millions of years through mass extinctions. Those lost species represent the culmination of the almost incomprehensible interconnectivity of everything.

Buddhism and science are in confluence about many things. This is driven by their exploration of our relationship with the world and the understanding that everything is dependent on everything else. That connection brings us to chaos theory, that cliche that the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in China might change the weather in the US.

You might say that everything is constantly changing all the time as we alter basic elements of the system. That’s normal but the scale of our destructive actions is almost beyond comprehension. We surpassed a global population of eight billion human souls this past year.

At the same time scientists estimate we need to produce 180% of the food and resources we currently have to support that population. We’re not making it and people are dying or losing their homes and livelihoods as a result. There are so many alarming indicators it is almost impossible to grasp it as a whole system.

The climate movement doesn’t need to prove it exists any more. We’re way past that reality. What we need to be doing is looking at how we will live in this changed environment. Because of the economics of power, politics, fossil fuels, and an insatiable need for more things, we are literally doing nothing in relation to the size of the challenge.

The stat about food waste in the US is a staggering number in a world where many people are starving. Americans suffer from two social diseases that keep us from taking collective action. We are too addicted to materialism and comfort and we are incredibly selfish when those things are threatened.

I’ve written recently about an example of that selfishness and denial in an article about the reality in Florida that they refuse to deal with. That’s one tiny example of our failure to envision how human life works in this newly emerging world. 

If a homeowner loses their home due to an extreme weather event and wants to rebuild, it’s just one more sign of our stubborn resistance to change. But there is something else. We personalize these disasters when we insist on ignoring reality when it hits us personally.

That’s a destructive social disease called denial. It’s not a matter of needing more knowledge, it’s a matter of not wanting to accept that knowledge. It’s everywhere. Turn on PBS and they’ll assault you with endless horrifying facts about climate change. I no longer believe that is the right approach.

We need to be changing the way we think into a mindset that says the things we do for others are far more important and fulfilling than the things we do for ourselves. I am perfectly aware that this is inconceivable in a wealthy society like the one I live in. Too much of our self-esteem is measured in stuff, money, and comfort that says a 4000 sq ft house is twice as good as a 2000 sq ft house, even if only two people live in it.

Think about this. Like a lot of our choices it makes no sense whatsoever, but it is just one example of our societal selfishness. In the housing example above the counterpart to that thinking is the burgeoning tiny house movement, especially among younger generations. It represents a craving for simplicity, simplicity that is easily within reach of many in the West.

Unfortunately if we act on that craving we are seen by society as failing at the so-called American Dream, a dream that has brought these nightmares down upon us. The answer to living with a changing climate is right in front of us but we can’t imagine or see it. It’s called reality and we work very hard to fend it off.

In spite of all this doom and gloom, I see movement towards simplicity and a less material world among generations who often grew up with abundance. In recent years we have seen some leadership in government tell us to always take care of ourselves first. They use failed economic theories like trickle down to have us believe we can buy our way into happiness and prosperity.

But those ideas come from a generation that lived most of its life on a different planet. Younger generations have grown up knowing these changes are real and are developing a pent up desire to do something, anything.

I hope I’m right.

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One of my goals with The Grasshopper and The Witness Chronicles is to encourage writers to publish your stuff. Another is to help you earn money from your work. My viral experience this week is an example of what can happen if you stick to it, find your voice and subject, and persevere. There are all kinds of rewards.

See you soon. Did you write today?

Martin (no hate please)

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