Divided or United We Stand

 I watch technology all the time. I see where it is going, how it can help people in their lives and in business, and how it can be used to harm humans. Right now, we have some humans fighting change as much as possible and some pushing for progress. It divides not only our country, but even the lowest levels of community.

A good friend of mine lives in a very small town in central Illinois and he observes the push back to the times of Jim Crow laws, lower educational standards, and "heal thy self" mentality and struggles to understand why they dismiss science when they use that same science to get better crops in the field, drive that new pick-up truck with all of the creature comforts included, and purchase their flags to show how much they wish to support a traitorous regime from the 19th century. 

It is the other side... the science-driven, cancer-solving, social structure that are pushing toward a singularity. Even with the continuous advancements to making things happen like DNA resequencing, nanotechnology, room temperature superconductors, nuclear fusion, and advance artificial intelligence like ChatGPT, the humans in the United States haven't figured out how to make a political and social structure that put all of this in a checks and balances system, while using parts of it to promote social and human welfare. 

The left are too slow though... the political right is making state laws based on close-minded, discriminatory practices behind the veil of religious law. Books are being outlawed. Jim Crow laws are being reenacted. People are being outlawed based on their gender. Gay marriages are being prevented if the officiant doesn't agree. Gerrymandering being upheld in courts. This push from the right is a key factor in the new Divided States of America. The judicial rulings from the Supreme Court only propagate it.

What happens next? Where does all of this end up? Will we have secessions? Will technology advance enough to circumvent the movement from the right?

Let's look a history before we get too far. When Trump took office, the Republican House and Senate tried to shut down the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). When the people figured out what is was and how it affected them, both the people from the right and the left made sure the representatives knew how it impacted them and let their voices be heard. Independent survey data reflected all of this but the members of Congress on the right tend to ignore that type of data. It took flooded phone banks, mass snail and e-mailings, and protests to finally get them to shut down the plan to cut Obamacare. Instead, they just lowered the government subsidy to make it cost more.

This movement of the people as a whole can be done if they are given something and the right tries to take it away. But the right is using a strategy that has worked well for them during the Trump administration... flooding the media with too much at once. This is actually a clever practice. What is the best place to hide a book? In the library. How can you make yourself disappear digitally? Make yourself everywhere all at once. Finding the one data shadow in a sea of nothing is easy. Finding the one data shadow in a sea of data shadows is hard.

Basically, the right is making state laws restricting human rights all at the same time, buried in a plethora of other laws restricting human rights. They are telling corporations that the interpretation of the laws can create a lawsuit if the company doesn't comply too. 

So what will happen with technology during all of this? States that lean left already have a lead with technology companies. But with the new division of political ideologies, and human rights restrictions being levied by the states, any company wanting to expand will likely choose a different state that better meets their mission statement (tax haven or not). They don't want to set up mouse prints in a state like Florida just for Florida to make laws to restrict everything that makes Disney what it is.

This means left states are going to pick up more technology advancement companies. State laws will be created to help with the advancement while creating a checks and balance for those advancements. The GDP for that state will continue to grow, while the GDP for the right states will continue to fall. The chasm will grow until the Divided States of America finally creates the secession we all tried to avoid. We will still have some commerce oversight, but it will be more like an EU than a Federal entity. This is not a worst case scenario. This is just one scenario.

The other scenario is: The left leaning states help the right leaning states advance their social welfare across the board through technology and non-profits. The people in those right states are given a generational step up, and when those rights and welfare systems are again attempted to be shut down by politicians, the people make their voice heard once again. This is a United States of America. This is a movement that helps all boats rise. This is the America I want.