The Rittenhouse case disturbed me as I’m sure it did many Americans. I watched the proceedings nearly every day that they were streamed on PBS. The day the news splashed across my screen ‘Acquitted’, I moved about in a type of rigid angst. Rittenhouse is a symptom of several illnesses befalling America at the moment. The case was a litmus test. Just another esplanade of ugly truth splayed out on a public forum, as so many of us pulled a breath and thought the same disgust, arguments, and last vestiges of fighting only to find a deflated sigh emerged from tired bodies.
Instead of the usual uproar—it was a breathy “I’m not surprised'“ Our friend, author, vet, and journalist Sean Davis posted a smart article on The Big Smoke and I love the sentiment, so I’ll share it here.
I want to mention one thing in particular about this. The anti-intellectualism of America and what that looks like. One such contributor to this symptom is a telling trend of Americans not pursuing education. Not reading, not engaging with current events outside of meme-universe, and opinion shithouse of social media. I’m not talking about degrees here. I’ve seen plenty of brilliant folks and even leaders who never got the piece of paper in hand from a university. But they are self-educated. They read, they are engaged, they are willing to travel to places possibly uncomfortable to them to learn about other cultures, languages, communities. The out of box internetty opinionated faux smarts of the grueling University of Misinformation, Facebook, Fox News, Q bots and even perpetuating family dinner tables have turned the tide. You get graduates like Rittenhouse. Unfortunately, now these Rittenhouses have guns.
