A series of Bluesky posts from Julian Sanchez:

I’ve said it before, will doubtless say it again: These folks are going to be permanently resentful because they’re seeking political power as a substitute for cultural power, and it’s never going to give them what they actually want. I genuinely think this is sort of the crux of our political dysfunction, and has been for at least a couple decades now. Listen, if you can stomach it, to a random MAGA grievance rant & ask yourself “how much of what they’re most upset about is something public policy can realistically address?” Even when there’s a policy hook, it’s almost a meaningless symbolic proxy for the underlying issue they really want to address but can’t. Think about the insane amount of energy devoted to fretting about queer books in public or school libraries. It’s 2024. In the unlikely event your semiliterate tween wants to crack a book, let alone one about gender identity or sexuality, pulling it from the local library is comically pointless as an access limitation. It’s just an impotent shriek of disapproval that these things are culturally accepted.

Lots of people will quote the “seeking political power as a substitute for cultural power, and it’s never going to give them what they actually want”part of this post. And they should. It’s a good and biting quote.

But I urge you to consider how much disinformation arguments just like these cause in the discourse of our “news cycle”. Sanchez uses the queer books in public libraries story for a reason. We all know it and have heard it in endless places from an endless number of “sources”. And yet, as he points out, it’s meaningless in the grand scheme of things.

So my advice to you is STOP ENGAGING. Remember, these platforms and news outlets want relevance. Relevance leads to views. Views lead to money. That’s it. That’s all they want. So speak up by simply ignoring it.