Union Forever

Coming Together for the Struggle Ahead

We have passed the breaking point for social media. Many of these tools are literally designed to be addictive, and the method for doing so is fear, hatred, and division. We have hacked our own brains.

But we will always need technology to communicate, and here’s an example of using the YouTube algorithm well: Rebecca Watson is a superb science communicator, normally a fierce debunker of pseudoscience and bogus health fads (her online name is “Skepchick”).

I don’t agree with everything she says, here or elsewhere: the word “fascism” still seems like a wrong fit for what is happening in the USA, and she was too gleeful about the assassination of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. But this is a more emotional and uplifting discussion about building real community, and finding hope with like-minded people.

I would suggest (she doesn’t) that it is also necessary to reach across the gulf and build connections with people who aren’t like-minded.

Let me know your reaction…is she right? And to what extent can we build community with Americans we disagree with?

Follow Skepchick for a smart approach to science and our current reality deficit.