The agony of defeat

As a lifelong Los Angeles Rams fan, yesterday's brutal collapse against the Eagles has to rank as one of the worst sports losses I've ever endured. Sean McVay is the best coach the Rams ever had, and I thought it was literally impossible for a team helmed by him to blow a 19-point lead early in the third quarter. 

But that's precisely what happened. Granted, the Rams had a chance to kick a mid-range field goal to win the game by one with three seconds remaining; however, the Birds got their second blocked FG of the day, and this one was run back by a defensive lineman for an exclamation point TD with no time left on the clock.

No hope for the future

I've been writing for The College Fix for going on a dozen years now, and if there's one thing I've garnered in that time it's that I see very little assurance of any bipartisan understanding/reconciliation in the near future.

Virtually every day I peruse college student newspapers and it's literally (to paraphrase Hawkeye Pierce in MASH's classic "Adam's Ribs") the same stuff, day after day. The folks who run student media are those who will be in control of the mainstream media (MSM) in the years to come. And it's never been more one-sided. 

The effect goes like this: Progressives only get their news from the "mainstream," and as such have little or NO idea about the full picture. People I know still believe the January 6 "insurrection" was the worst thing to happen to the country since the Civil War ... because that's what they see on the MSM. They have NO idea about the real story surrounding several police officers' deaths, or how many "insurrectionists" were allowed in to the Capitol by security, and how Trump had called for peaceful protest, etc.

Meanwhile, right-leaning folks do hear/see more in-depth reporting of (particularly) controversial issues because not only can they not avoid the MSM, they read/watch conservative sources. 

I know several very intelligent people who poo-pooh this fact. The worst of it is they believe conservative media sources are "conspiracy"-laden, and in response to the point that the MSM are progressively biased a common refrain is "The New York Times is biased? CBS News is biased? The Washington Post is biased? These people are professionals!"

So what happens as a result? Both sides refuse to engage each other, instead opting to just throw up a middle finger (or worse). And they hunker down. Friendships are lost, family relationships go sour, and seething resentments and hatreds grow stronger.

What's the solution? I really don't know. I do know that if someone outright refuses to listen to my POV with mockery and dismissal (as is often the case with contemporary progressives with right-leaning folk), you'd better be ready to be called a not-very-nice word.