The New York Times, bless its left-o’center heart, posted a Cosmo-worthy teaser* for its 2022 end-of-year Opinion feature: “You Argued a Lot This Year. There’s One Important Question You Need to Answer Now.”
O, Oracle of Omniscience, pray tell: What were my arguments about in 2022 and what may that One Important Question be? This subscribing mind wants to know.
This Times piece named 22 topics that “made us rage, roll our eyes, and change our minds in 2022.” Or so they deem. Here are the 22 items that the Times claimed we (whoever the journalistic we are) supposedly debated:
Will Smith’s slap. The January 6 Committee. Crime. Queen Elizabeth. Twitter. Bitcoin. Student loan forgiveness. Mask-wearing. The Supreme Court. The Depp-Heard case. Transgender youth. Midterm election results. Politically-vandalized paintings. Hybrid work. Inflation. Nancy Pelosi in Taiwan. Art by artificial intelligence. Expectations of college courses. Saudi-sponsored golf and human rights. Affirmative action. Ukraine. The End of Democracy and/or The World.
I may have discussed five or so of these items with my spouse (best friend) last year, but nowhere near all of them. And it seems like most, Ukraine excepted, took place ages ago? (I mean, Nancy Pelosi in Taiwan.) Lastly, I hardly debated any of these with anyone, as I avoid confrontation by nature. It leads me to think that the New York Times decides what is important based on what has already appeared in the New York Times, rather than what real people say they are actually talking about. Wow.
To rectify this oversight, here are some things I remember talking about in 2022:
Our health and our friends’ health and our relatives’ health. Our children’s happiness and well-being. Our grandchildren’s progress. Family crises. The things that need to get fixed in our house. The cost and hassle and scheduling of getting those things fixed. What is worth watching on Netflix or Prime. My Pet Free Hotels website project. What we want to fix or buy for dinner tonight. When will Donald Trump finally go away/get sent to jail. And how SNL’s Trump impersonator has really got him down.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I tune out the world. It’s that everyday concerns almost always override the things that the media decides are important that day, unless we are talking about 9/11 or armed insurrections or the people who almost die on a football field. But I do know this: I am not invested in Will Smith, and vice versa. Neither Will Smith or the New York Times is talking about me. Neither Will Smith or the New York Times will drive me to my next medical appointment.
If there’s one selfish thing I would like in the new year — as I do every year — it would be to be more seen, not by random folks who post “likes” but by mindful, emotional people with whom I might connect, opening up the possibility of my seeing them too.
Hope springs.
Oh, I almost forgot, The Times also said there was an Important Question that I needed to answer! It was: Did any of my debates on those so-called important topics cause me to change my mind?
Really? My ability to be swayed by social media commentary signifies intellectual virtue? Sure, critical thinking has value, but no one (well, maybe 7th-graders) enter an argument bereft of some semblance of a stance. Web-mindedness is not open-mindedness.
Listening is important, but when the opposing arguments are just plain stupid or biased, all that “we” wind up arguing about is reason versus ignorance. Sadly, I expect more of the same in 2023. Happy New Year.
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Confirmation bias is real, and very, very stubborn. Listening is important, yes. But the person listening has to be, at the very least, open to admitting their own confirmation bias– and the person talking needs to be sensitive in how they make their points– or else that’s a conversation that won’t bear much fruit. Sadly, I agree with you that 2023 forecasts more of the reason vs. ignorance non-conversations. Happy New Year indeed.
I like your list. And I am glad 2022 is done.
How do you know Will Smith isn’t talking about you?