Morning Belz, March 16
Up next.
That’s a version of the new banner for the Scuffed News channel on YouTube. Like I said a few days ago, I’m proud of the breadth of person we’ve managed to interview over the past four months.
Inspired partly by the story of Joseph and partly by advice I’ve gotten to be more of a guide in these videos rather than relying entirely on men and women on the street, I’m going to try to do a bit more production and narration in the next few videos.
Hoping to make something this Friday about the Walnut Street Bridge, which is where a black man named Ed Johnson was lynched 115 years ago this Friday. His grave is in an overgrown cemetery up on Missionary Ridge. The Ed Johnson Project has more information. On a less serious note, the story of the winery in the sewage plant in northeast Alabama is still in play, and the trial is scheduled to begin April 5. I plan to publish a curtain-raiser and then perhaps serialize coverage of the trial, since it will be a major source of details about the case. Hopefully the trial isn’t delayed.
I also plan to, perhaps this week, make a video informed by the ideas in Jonathan Haidt’s “The Righteous Mind,” published in 2012, which argues that moral intuitions determine our moral responses to reality far more than any sort of moral reasoning. We react instinctively, and then we use reason to explain our reaction. Reason becomes the public relations arm of the self, arguing for the rectitude of our moral intuitions, but it’s not in charge of what we believe is right or wrong.
Haidt goes on to argue that different groups of people have different foundations for their moral reactions. Political liberals in the United States instinctively want to prevent harm, and care for people, and promote fairness. Conservatives tend to care about those things too, but their moral instincts are triggered also by questions of loyalty, authority and sanctity, things liberals don’t tend to care about as much.
I’ve just attempted to summarize some dense stuff in less than 200 words, and respect for “authority” isn’t a strong characteristic of modern “conservatives,” so there’s probably plenty to quibble with, but the point is that liberals and conservatives have different frames for reality, and it occurred to me to do a video showing that. I’ll go to Rome, Georgia, one day and ask a prescribed list of questions. And then I’ll go to a liberal part of Atlanta (probably the skate park we visited in December) and do the same thing. Then cut a video that shows the contrast and sort of guides the viewer through it.
I need to refine the line of questions a little bit, but here’s what I’m working with. Four or five is probably the upper limit. Suggestions welcome:
Which is more important, the individual family unit? Or the government?
How much do you worry about historic injustice?
Are you proud of your country?
How big of a problem is economic inequality?
Thank you to those supporting Scuffed News on Patreon. Hope everyone is having a good week.
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Germany, France, Italy suspend AstraZeneca vaccine — AP
The EU’s vaccine procurement policy is a problem — EuroIntelligence
Dems, still mad at Obama, not so willing to haggle on stimmy — NYT
Business owners in George Floyd Square plead for safety — Strib
Takedown of Biden for (like Trump) his Saudi coziness — RS
Coca-Cola, Home Depot oppose Georgia voting bill — WaPo
Quote
“Isn't it a pleasure to study and practice what you have learned? Isn't it also great when friends visit from distant places? If one remains not annoyed when he is not understood by people around him, isn't he a sage?” – Confucius
About: I was a newspaper reporter for 14 years, most recently at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. I explained why my family left Minneapolis here. Now we live just outside Chattanooga and I work on Scuffed News, a project that either succeeds by July or will have to be abandoned. This is my newsletter. Please share it with anyone you think might enjoy it. I also periodically add people to the distribution list myself. You can support all of this work with your money on Patreon.