“I think it's hard sometimes for people to grapple with the real-life consequences of political change. I think that, we as a culture, feel like politics is one sector of our lives that can feel apart from our personal lives and the cultural things we're interested in and the sports we watch. It feels like this separate, different thing.” PeopleThinkingFeelsDifferentRealSometimesHardPoliticalCultureSportsWatchesOur LivesConsequenceReal LifeDifferent ThingsPersonal LifePolitical Change Author:Ben H. Winters
“One thing that fiction does is it allows us to take big picture questions, big issues, big moral and socio-political changes and see how they play out on real people's lives, with real individuals.” PeopleDoeRealPlayBigsPoliticalIndividualFictionMoralIssuesOne ThingBig PicturePolitical Change Author:Ben H. Winters
“One thing we've learned about Donald Trump - this candidate first, president-elect, and now president - is that he has this sort of reptilian instinct for rooting out supposed enemies and finding people he can whip up distrust into rage.” PeopleFirstsPresidentEnemyOne ThingTrumpFindingsInstinctRageCandidatesDistrustWhips Author:Ben H. Winters
“I think that fiction has this special responsibility or this special ability to help people to empathize, to demand of people that they understand other individuals and other people's experiences.” PeopleThinkingHelpingIndividualAbilityFictionResponsibilitySpecialDemand Author:Ben H. Winters
“I think it's a very stark marker of what kind of president we have that, from all available evidence, Donald Trump has not read a book, as an adult. This is not someone who sits down in the evening to consider the latest bestseller, let alone Tolstoy - but who is very very active on this medium that requires no discipline and no attention and no empathy. It is all about retweeting praise of oneself or very quickly or poorly considered, ill-typed, misspelled diatribes against other people.” PeopleThinkingKindBookPresidentAttentionTrumpDisciplineEmpathyEvidenceAdultsPraiseIllOneselfAvailableActiveMediumsEveningStarksMarkersNo Empathy Author:Ben H. Winters
“There is no shortage of ways that people profit indirectly from the misery and cruelty in other places. Even now, the shirts we wear and the tomatoes we eat. There are unfortunately unfair and inhumane conditions - including literal slavery - all over the world.” PeopleWorldSlaveryMiseryCrueltyShirtsUnfair Author:Ben H. Winters
