Alone in the cosmos?

Oumuamua

Letter to the editor in today's NY Times:

Re “Aliens Must Be Out There,” by Farhad Manjoo:

It took Earth about 4.5 billion years to evolve. During that time there was only about one chance in, say, a quadrillion that we would evolve into intelligent beings. But here we are in this one chance looking out at the rest of the universe and wondering if there is anyone else like us.

How much longer will we be here: a thousand years, 10,000 years? There have been mass extinctions in the past. It will happen again. Many of our species are becoming extinct now.

What makes us think that there is some other civilization out there that we can communicate with that happens to be in existence now? The chances are one in a quadrillion.

But let’s say we heard from an alien out in space. And they are only 10,000 light-years away. They sent their message 10,000 years ago. So what?

Let us concentrate on our civilization and see if we can stop killing one another and destroying this little speck of Earth.

Art Cornell

Osterville, Mass.

See also Earth: The lonely guy of the universe and Astronomer Avi Loeb Says Aliens Have Visited.

How to be a right-wing demagogue

The Limbaugh method :

....He picked on Black people, feminists, and liberals. He called President Barack Obama the “Magic Negro,” and he called feminists “Femi Nazis.” Since Limbaugh died on February 17th, I have seen some people write about how Rush Limbaugh was “funny,” a “comedian,” or a “humorist.” 

Yet Limbaugh was the master of only one form of humor: the put-down. He had no idea how to be funny without putting down other people, including traditionally oppressed groups such as women or black people.

Limbaugh never practiced self deprecating humor, and there was a reason for that. If a White Conservative like Limbaugh were to insult himself, he would see it as giving permission to other White Conservatives to put themselves down, and that was the complete opposite of his purpose. 

Limbaugh’s biggest fan base was White, Protestant, Conservative men. Limbaugh knew who his audience was, so his favorite targets were people who were not White, not men, and not Conservative.

Fox News followed in Trump’s footsteps, and they got popular the same way. The Fox News producers called it “feeding the crazies.” They would produce story after story of some terrible thing that Democrats had supposedly done---death boards, illegal detention camps, or whatever. Then the Fox News hosts would talk about how awful Democrats were hour after hour. As they did this, their Conservative Republican audience felt better about themselves, and they kept coming back for more.

Donald Trump was a fan of both Rush Limbaugh and Fox News, and his rallies were of the same style as Limbaugh’s radio programs and Fox’s talking head shows. At his political rallies, Trump picked on Democrats; he picked on women; he picked on Muslims and Brown people. What should be no surprise is that Trump got the same kind of devoted following that Hitler, Limbaugh and Fox News got. Trump was using the exact same techniques. He was lifting people up by putting others down.

If Democrats really want to cut the legs out from under the Limbaughs and Trumps of the world, perhaps we should spend a little more time teaching people how they can feel better about themselves without putting down other people. 

People like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Beto O’Rourke feel better about themselves by helping others, like they have been doing for the citizens of Texas this past week....

See also Fox News is no longer foxy enough for True Believers.