probably my favorite thing abt being a millennial is that i can lie on my resume abt shit like being proficient in excel bc i have the common sense to just google anything i dont know how to do which gives me a giant fucking edge over gen x in the job market bc somehow that strategy never occurs to employers and my underqualified ass looks like steve jobs every time i use a youtube tutorial to make a spreadsheet
Everyone in my office sings my praises for what I can do with excel for this exact reason, even though I joke with them that “I have no idea how to do that – but give me half an hour and an internet connection and I’ll figure something out for you.” I even once specifically said in response to my grandboss commenting on my excel skills, “You do realize that I just like…google stuff when you ask me to do something with excel that I don’t know how to do, right?”
But his praise didn’t change at all. There was no “Wait, that’s all it is?”
Instead, he said “Yes, but the fact that you think to do that – and that you know exactly how to phrase your searches and how to sift through the results to get the right answer, and you then integrate what you’ve learned and use it going forward – is still so much more than any of the rest of us [the other 5 ppl on my team are all mid-40s and up] can do. To you, it’s “just googling stuff,” but it’s still a unique and valuable skill you bring, so don’t shrug off the compliments so cavalierly, okay?“
And this was coming from an executive with an MBA. Don’t undervalue your googling skills, kids. It’s not lying if you know you can figure it out.
top tier search skills: finding the source of a rare meme
If Robert Mueller finds that Trump
colluded with Russia to fix the 2016 election, or even if Trump fires Mueller
before he makes such a finding, Trump’s supporters will protect Trump from any
political fallout.
Trump’s base will stand by him not
because they believe Trump is on their side, but because they define themselves
as being on his side.
Trump has intentionally cleaved
America into two warring camps: pro-Trump and anti-Trump. And he has convinced
the pro-Trumps that his enemy is their enemy.
Most Americans are not passionate conservatives
or liberals, Republicans or Democrats. But they have become impassioned Trump supporters or Trump haters.
Polls say 37 percent of Americans
approve of him, and most disapprove. These numbers are the tips of two vast
icebergs of intensity.
Trump has forced all of us to take
sides, and to despise those on the other. There’s no middle ground.
The Republican Party used to stand
for fiscal responsibility, state’s rights, free trade, and a hard line against Russian
aggression. Now it just stands for Trump.
Pro-Trump Republicans remain the
majority in the GOP. As long as Trump can keep them riled up, and
as long as Republicans remain in control of at least one chamber of Congress,
he’s safe.
“Try to impeach him, just try it,” Roger
Stone, Trump’s former campaign adviser, warned last summer. “You will have
a spasm of violence in this country, an insurrection like you’ve never
seen.”
That’s probably an exaggeration,
but Trump (with the assistance of his enablers in Congress) has convinced his followers that the Russian investigation is
part of a giant conspiracy to unseat him, and that his enemies want to replace him
with someone who will allow dangerous forces to overrun America.
Sure, this paranoia is based on the same racism and
xenophobia that has smoldered in America since its inception. Trump’s strategy
is to stoke it daily.
Sure, American politics had
polarized before Trump. Trump’s strategy is to exploit and enlarge these divisions.
A few months ago I traveled to
Kentucky and talked with a number of Trump supporters.
They looked and sounded nothing
like traditional conservative Republicans. Most were working class. Several
were members of labor unions. All were passionate about Trump.
Why do you support him? I asked.
“He’s shaking Washington up,” was the typical response.
I mentioned his lies. “He’s telling
it like it is,” several told me. “He speaks his mind.”
I talked about his attacks on
democracy. “Every other politician is on the take,” they said. “He isn’t. He doesn’t
need their money.”
I asked about his campaign’s
possible collusion with Russia. They told me they didn’t believe a word of it.
“It’s a plot to get rid of him.”
By making himself the center of an
intensifying conflict, Trump grabs all the attention and fuels even greater passions
on both sides.
It’s what he did in the 2016
election, but on a far larger scale. Then, he sucked all the oxygen out of the race
by making himself its biggest story. Now, he’s sucking all the oxygen out of
America by making himself our national obsession.
Trump received more coverage in the
2016 election than any presidential candidate in American history. Hillary
Clinton got far less, and what she got was almost all about her emails.
Schooled in reality television and
New York tabloids, Trump knows how to keep both sides stirred up: Vilify,
disparage, denounce, defame, and accuse the other side of conspiring against
America. Do it continuously. Dominate every news cycle.
Fox News is his propaganda arm, magnifying his tweets, rallies,
and lies. The rest of the media also plays into Trump’s strategy by making him
the defining controversy of America. Every particular dispute – DACA, the “wall,” North Korea, Mueller’s investigation, and so on – becomes another aspect of the larger national war over Trump.
It’s the divide-and-conquer strategy
of a tyrant.
Democracies require sufficient
social trust that citizens regard the views of those they disagree with as
worthy of equal consideration to their own. That way, they’ll accept political
outcomes they dislike.
Trump’s divide-and-conquer strategy is to
destroy that trust.
So if Mueller finds Trump colluded
with Russia, or Trump fires Mueller before Mueller makes such a finding, the
pro-Trumps will block any consequential challenge to his authority.
Nothing could be more dangerous to
our democracy and society.
Trump has intentionally cleaved America into two warring camps: pro-Trump and anti-Trump. And he has convinced the pro-Trumps that his enemy is their enemy.
I think my favorite part of the Lord of the Rings film by Peter Jackson is at the beginning of the movie at Bilbo’s birthday party the sheer amount of joy and happiness Gandalf get’s by making fireworks.
Like look at this adorable wizard I strive for this level of happiness