I have a friend who has a tagline on every email inviting curiosity. “Be curious,” it says. Others counsel, “Approach the world with a deep curiosity.” It sounds quite Zen. I, for one, need that reminder.
“Be curious” is also a frequent admonition heard these days about how to handle stressful inter-personal relations at work or in your family. Instead of judging or getting angry, be curious. What might be going on with that person? Practice curiosity, goes this calming and serene word for engaging a stressful world. And it is, to be sure, a good idea and it is a good word.
“Curious” means, according to the Cambridge Dictionary of the English Language, “An eager wish to know or learn about something.”
That said, I’m not noticing among my generally liberal, generally Trump-abhorrent social circle, a whole lot of curiosity.
There is bafflement. “How could anyone vote for this guy?” There is disbelief. “What kind of country do I live in?” There is judgment. “The Trump voters are blind fools, idiots seduced by bullshit.” There’s revulsion. “We now see the truth of America. Americans are racists, misogynists, fascists.”
Like I said, not hearing a lot of curiosity. I am not hearing a lot of eagerness “to know or learn about something.” Being in this case, what happened, on and leading up to Nov. 5, 2024.
What might one be curious about?
One possibility: Why did Republicans increase their voter share in every demographic group, except white women? Why did once-reliable, solidly Hispanic Democrats move in such numbers to vote for Trump? And African-American men?
Why did a number of previously Democratic urban areas, those blue dot strongholds in the sea of red on electoral maps, go for Trump in 2024, when they hadn’t done so in 2016 or 2020? Why did he increase his voter share among young people, in Gen Z? Or what’s going on in at least parts of rural America?
These are things that seem to me to be worth being curious about at this point. Actually earlier would have been good.
Instead of judging — labeling and dismissing — these voters, our fellow citizens, one might be curious. What motivated them? Why did some shift, if uneasily, from the party of their parents and grandparents? Why did others who had voted against Trump twice, now vote for him? Why did someone you know, who you thought part of your cohort and sharing your politics, confess to voting for Trump?
One might also be curious about what some news sources, those that did not pronounce themselves anti-Trump early and often, e.g. The New York Times and The Atlantic, are saying. I subscribe to both the NYT and Atlantic, and both seem now committed to keeping their readers in a constant state of outrage and agitation, with news flashes of the latest horrors being enacted or contemplated by the barbarians now inside the gates.
I have a friend, a Harris voter, who has committed herself to watching half an hour of Fox News each day to try to understand what is to her incomprehensible. I’m not sure I could manage that, but as another option I would suggest some other news outlets, that are not pro-Trump, but also don’t specialize in a steady diet of fuel for Trump Derangement Syndrome. Try “The Free Press” or “The Dispatch.” At the latter, for example, I found what I considered to be an interesting and informative podcast contrasting the Trump and Biden approaches and policies in the Middle East.
The day after the election last week my fav, Ezra Klein, said that Democrats post-election could view the voters in one of two ways, with either contempt or curiosity. I’ve heard a fair bit of the former. I’d like to put in a good word for the latter.
If you’re just not up to that just yet, I understand. But hold a door ajar for it down the road.
Well said – And I need to be more curious as well. Thanks for a great article.