You can’t say someone is a wolf in sheep’s clothing if they behave, at every turn, like a wolf.

By the way, I’m tired of the childish name-calling and derogatory nicknaming of politicians by each other and by people in the media. What is this, a third grade playground or something? It’s a sad indictment of our society that such a tactic works as well as it has.

I am thinking, of course, of a certain media figure who I will not name, because I don’t want to direct any more attention to a person I think we should utterly ignore. Given what we’ve already seen from this person, I’d assume that any about-face is also incredibly self-serving.

If an influential figure who amassed wealth and power themselves is admitting fault, I don’t know what can be done to make amends. It seems they would have to donate any wealth they gained at the expense of others before I’d even consider listening to them at all.

If it was a friend or family member who was duped and conned (we all have such individuals in our circles), it’s important to welcome them back to sanity with nothing more than a “mea culpa.”

And as much as each vote in favor of a bad leader has done damage to everyone, those in the media, in politics, and large donors can look at themselves in the mirror and realize they wielded disproportionate influence, and thus shoulder a larger share of responsibility and blame.

I think a lot of people are finally waking up to what many of us have known all along: that character matters a whole lot when it comes to elected leaders. Sure, candidates can fake it for a while. But when a candidate shows terrible character traits early on, you can be sure power won’t cure that.

The world sees the U.S. as full of wealthy, arrogant, ignorant, and reckless consumers. If they’re wrong about that, what would it take to prove it?

Funny enough, Barbara Streisand has an answer of sorts: if your only approach to fight something is likely to reinforce it, or add wind to its sails, then we have to let it go.

So a challenge is to discern whether we are facing a problem that needs to be “nipped in the bud,” or one that we need to allow to fester and grow so bloated that it takes care of itself.

Some problems - a cancer in your body, let’s say - will likely kill you if you just let it grow. Other problems - ignorant ideologies, for example - will eventually reveal themselves to be bankrupt.

I’ve been thinking about this passage from Tao Te Ching a lot. Whatever is eating at you, maybe the best path is to accept that it needs to grow so big that it crushes itself. Or maybe it needs to pick up so much speed that it runs out to steam.

The problem with humanity is that the arrogant are more likely than the humble to seize power. Yet arrogance is a form of ignorance, and extreme ignorance combined with extreme power is a scourge upon the whole world.

Anyway, you can tell I didn’t come here today to talk about dataviz or even data. I needed to get some of that stuff off my chest. Those details of my life and my perspective are pretty core to who I am, and I do think they surface in various ways in my books and other professional writing.

So I did not leave church because I don’t believe in a higher power. My position can be summarized as follows: I choose to believe there is a benevolent source of life, I just think we’re all gonna be really surprised when we encounter that source. I can’t defend that choice, or impose it on others.

All human power structures - companies, schools, sports teams, etc - are a breeding ground for such predatory behavior, sadly. But the depth of the hypocrisy when a person uses faith to prey on others is simply more than I can bear.

On top of that, the organization I was a part of was of course not immune from the all-too-common and predictable wolves in sheep’s clothing - predators who abuse positions of power and influence within the organization to inflict harm on others.

In addition to that major ideological gap, and largely because of it, I couldn’t go along with their “rules,” such as those against certain lifestyle orientations and choices (different things, but I digress). Those rules hurt many people I care about.

Many reasons, but chief among them was a mismatch between the certainty they demanded (“faith”) and the incredible uncertainty I felt was warranted, given how little we really know. I couldn’t stomach telling people what god thinks or wants of them.

A little more context on my personal (current) stance to organized religion. Again, backdrop here is that I left a fundamentalist Christian organization a decade and a half ago after living in “the truth” (as they call it) for the first 35 years of my life. So why did I leave?

Thank you Noah. I definitely have my less-than-saintly moments. 😂 Since leaving organized Christianity, I’ve loved researching wisdom texts from other ancient civilizations, and just trying to meld it all together in my mind, and in my life. Easier said than done!!

And while it wasn’t for me, I do fully understand that sometimes some people need to be part of a larger collective, and churches can fill that need. So I won’t knock it entirely. But I will absolutely tell anyone who’s in a church telling them to vote for the GOP to run. Just run.

Any allegiance between an organized religion and a political party is highly questionable and suspect, and you should be incredibly wary of what they tell you to think, and who they tell you to vote for.

…I know the teachings of Jesus inside and out, and what he allegedly preached (still) makes me want to become a better person. But I can tell you one thing for sure - those teachings have nothing to do with nationalism of any sort. Couldn’t be farther from it, in fact.

I spent the first three and a half decades of my life as a devout Christian. Not the kind you’re thinking - I belonged to a tiny group of fundamentalists who were ardent conscientious objectors. I’m not a member of that or any other religious organization any more, but I will say this…

Okay, there you go. My thoughts about this present moment in history, in a nutshell. You may agree, you may vehemently disagree. I defend your right to both.

I mean, of course, actual communities. Neighborhoods. The other people who live near me. And the word “family” to me, is sacred. I will never use it in reference to my professional connections.

No I don’t mean “community” in the corporate-sponsored version that preys on our need for human connection. As well-intentioned as the “community managers” of tech companies’ marketing departments may be, I can tell you from firsthand experience that it is a pure profit play.

So with such a dark perspective and bleak opinion about U.S. politics, what, then, do I find to be a worthwhile domain into which to pour my own energies? Two words: family and community.

They will have my begrudging vote until fascism is defeated once again. I see it as a choice between poor and catastrophic. Fun times.