Spreading unfocused positivity doesn’t succeed nearly as much as picking at someone’s specific anger or insecurity and then validating it.

One makes people sigh and roll their eyes at inspirational quotes and the general feeling of being “shamed” by messaging that shows other people doing good things and for the insecure and angry, that just feels like being told “Why can’t you be better?”

Meanwhile if you’re is stressed and uneducated and hopeless feeling, being told that there is a specific group or segment of the population around you who is facilitating all your misery, well that’s a call to action. That’s a tangible thing you can get mad at and rage against and blame for your woes and it requires no actual work to get that feeling of satisfaction.

It’s a survival response that companies and political entities have learned how to exploit and there’s no quick answer for it. It may never be solved.

Maybe if all shifted our informational/media attention more towards understanding our own limitations and failings in our emotional/cognitive ability, we could start broadly pushing the needle towards systems that protect us from ourselves, but I strongly feel like we’re going to slide backwards a good long ways before we start making any forward progress again. This is the long-arc of time, and part of coming to terms with the injustice is understanding we won’t see that better tomorrow. We can work towards it and try to set it up for our descendants, but the best we can hope for in the moment is finding a little peace and comfort in our personal lives.