Category: The Current Situation

2024 will be an election year in the U.S., and it’s probably be a nasty one. One particular candidate — who faces a boatload of indictments, pretty much committed an act of treason (and possibly more than just that well-publicized one) — still has plenty of followers who see him as either a means to entrench their lofty position in society, or as an avatar into which they can channel their resentment.

That candidate has already campaigned on the fear of rising crime, with crime often being a code word for “the coloreds.” The Southern Strategy still lives.

But actual crime, it turns out, has been dropping:

The problem is that it’s all too easy to sell the idea of rising crime. The general perception, according to a recent Gallup poll, is that crime is up, in spite of the actual numbers. And for those who keep carping about “the illegals” contributing to the not-rising-but-rising crime, the numbers say that they’re may be less of a problem than other groups.

Expect a nastier news cycle in the new year.

Recommended reading

• ABC News: ‘It is historic’: US poised to see record drop in yearly homicides despite public concern over crime
• Axios: Border cities see homicides rates drop
• New York Times: After Rise in Murders During the Pandemic, a Sharp Decline in 2023
• The Guardian: ‘Sitting on a powder keg’: US braces for a year, and an election, like no other

---

Thanks to Los Angeles’ best blogger, Tony Pierce, for the find!

Meteorologist Chris Gloninger quit his job reporting the weather on Des Moines TV news because he’d been receiving death threats for talking about climate change during his weather reporting. This is yet another concerning data point in the general anti-science, anti-media trend being fomented by an aggrieved sector of America continuing its cult-like turn.

In spite of the evidence all around us, from a century’s worth of temperature tables to the increase in the number and size of forest fires, rising sea levels, and more days when it’s too hot for planes to take off, too many people see the world through a warped ideological lens and choose to defend that view with threats and violence. To quote the AP article Harassment of TV meteorologists reflects broader anti-science, anti-media trends:

Gloninger’s experience is all too common among meteorologists across the country who are encountering reactions from viewers as they tie climate change to extreme temperatures, blizzards, tornadoes and floods in their local weather reports. For on-air meteorologists, the anti-science trend that has emerged in recent years compounds a deepening skepticism of the news media.

Many meteorologists say it’s a reflection of a more hostile political landscape that has also affected workers in a variety of jobs previously seen as nonpartisan, including librarians, school board officials and election workers.

For several years now, Gloninger said, “beliefs are amplified more than truth and evidence-based science. And that is not a good situation to be in as a nation.”

For more, see this MSNBC piece, Meteorologist on receiving death threats over his climate crisis reports:

But go ahead, caption this photo. I dare ya.

And in case you need context, this is about the Trump indictment.