In the past year, “fake news” has become something else entirely. It has become a slang term used in casual, everyday conversation and on social media.
Professors need to keep their political leanings out of lessons. Rather, they should bring them up as clear opinions in discussions, where students can offer other perspectives.
What we have today, however, is barely partisanship. It’s partisanship pushed to its absolute extreme. Behavior from both Democrats and Republicans more closely resembles blind tribalism than anything. The clearest and most shocking example of this is the Roy Moore senatorial campaign.
A little over a year ago today, the bottom fell out for the Democratic party. Donald J. Trump upset Hillary Clinton in the presidential election, and suddenly Republicans owned both the executive and the legislative branches of government. Plus, Trump’s election meant he could appoint a conservative Supreme Court justice to the bench, with potentially more appointments on the horizon. The Democrats weren’t in the driver’s seat anymore. They were barely in the car.
When something incomprehensibly awful happens, it can be tempting to believe that serendipitous forces are orchestrating the happenings of the universe; that an unknown power is pulling puppet strings and strategically scripting the progression of our lives.
