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Ali Lynn's avatar

I remember the Obama years, and at the time it seemed pretty obvious that the issue was regular political shenanigans had become heavy-handed with the "race card". Now the democrats had a black president, all opposition to his policies could be painted as racist, and that is what became the norm during those years. I don't think attacks on people's character was a new thing in political squabbles, of course, but it was a change to the recipe.

I also think the race activists' meal tickets were put at risk by a black president because society at large felt that we had entered a "post-racial" society. So, the racial grievances needed to be amplified to make sure people didn't stop caring about race-based issues in America. As was made clear by the BLM and DEI controversies, there is a lot of money to be made in grievance politics.

Either way, race relations clearly took a nose-dive following Obama's inauguration.

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Tiago's avatar

What most journalists and columnists are drawn to is primarily conflict, and yes that conflict is usually negative in some way.

This piece and entire project, for example, are outlining negative aspects of American journalism despite its many merits. That’s a good thing because we need that kind of analysis.

Contrarianism, skepticism and muckraking all bear some bias toward negativity — albeit a constructive one.

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