Beyond a politics of spite

Fix your hearts or die!

I tried to articulate some thoughts I've been having about a type of political discourse online that I think is cruel and dangerous. (I need to log off and touch grass, but I never will!) I'm splitting it into two parts because I would never want to read someone's 5,000-plus-word Substack post, and I assume most feel the same way about mine. I will send the second part out… when I feel like it.

Since November's election, I've become increasingly disturbed by a sentiment that I've come to think of as liberal schadenfreude, that tendency among those on the American political left to openly delight in the suffering of their perceived political enemies. It's seemingly everywhere online these days (especially on BlueSky, which is quickly becoming saturated with smug liberal posturing to the point of being unusable)—liberals who pride themselves on being empathetic, open-minded, and forward-thinking make all sorts of celebratory posts when so-called ignorant and backward conservatives are ma…