When I saw the headline, my eyes widened. 

“How Kamala Harris burned through 1.5 billion dollars in 15 weeks.” 

I stared at my phone once, and I stared at it twice, as my disbelief grew. 

Was this not NYT? Did they not just endorse Kamala with the force of an angry democratic tiger no less than two months ago? Was this real?

As I thought through the implications, I saw my disbelief echoed in the comments that came along with it, the shock that filled my mind – the discomfiting revelation. Our world had transformed. 

The New York Times is a paper that is unique amongst many others. First among equals in the world of newspaper journalism, its eminence has proven itself through the years and across eras as it shapes the way that the world thinks on a range of different issues, alongside its counterparts such as The Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, and The Washington Post in the U.S., and on an international front, the BBC and Reuters in the United Kingdom, and Al Jazeera in the Middle East.

There is an interesting adage that goes as follows:

“When America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold”.

To that I say, whatever the New York Times publishes, the world garnishes as the realm of acceptable discourse unfolds, an entire communicating planet paying homage to the one of the dominant media voices in the United States of America.

…Which leads to my question. 

What does it mean when NYT tells us about “How Kamala Harris Burnt Through $15 billion in 15 weeks”?

The article I would like to write is not an article about campaign spending, and neither is it a piece to point out flaws or discrepancies in Kamala’s campaign:

The first would be far too boring, and the second would land me into polemics in a world where multiple other people can discuss the topic from end to end, many of whom are deeply more qualified than I am. 

Rather, what I hope to accomplish by the end of this is to give you a sense of the shifting dynamics of power in the media landscape and the United States of America, and how these influence the world. 

But in order to do that, I must raise what may be to some an unfamiliar concept: 

The Overton Window. 

The Overton Window refers to the range of acceptable ideas and policies in public discourse, and it is simple to imagine how this works. 

Think about a yardstick marked on two extremes representing completely opposite policy actions along a spectrum.

On one end of such a yardstick designated for educational policy, for example, we could imagine that people are allowed free school choice and can choose or start any school they want, and on the other end, that the government has a complete monopoly on school choice and school creation, schools are assigned to every student, and no such freedom exists.

In all likelihood, people wouldn’t want to set up any kind of school they want with any kind of curriculum, even extremist ideas from any religion, or perhaps with no restrictions whatsoever, while at the same time, people may not want to have the government completely decide what is acceptable or not for them to pursue in terms of their schooling, or an education system reminiscent of what might appear in a totalitarian dictatorship. Move away from government totalitarianism towards freedom, and away from the freedom of the predatory capitalist or  the ideologue towards the direction of regulation, and you move closer to the Overton window: That which is acceptable, and that which is possible by the standards of the ‘reasonable’ person. 

The beautiful thing about the Window is that it never remains static; beyond our personal imaginings of right and wrong, it is deeply influenced by the cultural, political, and media forces that shape our lives today – and it is here that the NYT enters.

Just a few weeks ago, the New York Times used its mammoth role in shaping the Overton window and its reputation for in-depth, comprehensive, and world-shaking news coverage to endorse Kamala Harris as the only patriotic choice for President. 

The New York Times, its position then made clear as an avid avid advocate for the Democratic Party, illustrates that the news media establishment and by extension most of ‘respectable’ America could, and perhaps should, per the NYT’s view, consider her as a leader – a narrative that many people on the left cleaved to. 

The endorsement influenced not just individuals, but institutions. Academia, think tanks, and policy organizations took cues from NYT’s framing, shaping broader discourse in respectable circles. What was patriotic became an issue up for debate, tying the choice of Kamala to national identity and a moral responsibility, galvanizing the left under a rallying cry in a clear attempt to shape the discourse of what was acceptable, driving it towards a narrative where it was the Kamala Way or the Highway. 

Yet, in suggesting that Kamala burned through $1.5 billion in 15 weeks, it has taken a 180.

The word choice was “burning” in more ways than one, raising connotations of wastage and possible ethical subterfuge, and the headline’s direct association suggested that it was Kamala who was solely responsible.

The damning language did not go unnoticed by NYT’s readers, many of whom considered Kamala a hero – and within just a few hours of the post, the comments flooded in. 

“This headline is as unserious as the incoming administration”, “crazy headline”, “this is a nonsense headline really”, “What’s wrong with NYT right now? This is ridiculous” and lastly,  “What is wrong with the media right now? This is what we should be focused on? Stop, please.”

It was truly fascinating to watch, but what I could understand was this – that readers were dissatisfied with the negative portrayal of Kamala Harris from one of the staunchest allies of the Democratic Party, a mammoth media organisation dedicated towards the liberal-progressive cause of a republic of justice, equity, and fairness: A betrayal of the highest order orchestrated by democracy-hating MAGA fanatics and finally facilitated by a Brutus that none of them could have expected…

What was also fascinating to watch though, was seeing how the same commenters had responded when NYT had spoken about Trump in acts of disparagement, calling him a threat to democracy that was too old to speak a coherent word as they mocked his age, his coherence, and his ability to speak, while at the same time endorsing Kamala Harris in the course of editorials that showed a clear bias towards one candidate over another in the presidential elections even as the elite world rejoiced gleefully, publishing opinion poll after opinion poll about how Trump would definitely lose as they funneled in hundreds of millions of dollars into the Harris campaign.

Yet there it was, a single headline that showcased the separation between a bygone world and a new future, one where an NYT was dramatically biased against Trump and towards the Democratic Party is actively involved in the project of shifting the Overton window both to the right and making acceptable what was once an unheard-of task: Taking democratic leaders to account in a world of liberal media bias.

NYT’s framing will influence think tanks, policy makers, and the country alike, even as all of those things and their separate moving parts influence the space of the possible.

Following its lead, newspapers from the small to the large, both nationally in the US as well as internationally, will begin a project of investigating the Democratic Party, in turn catalyzing a coterie of stakeholders into motion by dint of inertia or active resistance as the whole pendulum swings a little to the right in this strange marionette dance discourse of acceptable political conversation, putting into motion a grand narrative shift that encapsulates our world.

A reckoning begins as the motion accelerates, and before long, it is acceptable for people to unmask the Democratic Party, to judge it, to identify its flaws as they identify the Republican party’s merits, and find themselves able to more deeply reckon with the question and validity of wokeness, the debilitations or strengths of a woke pharmaceutical industrial complex ala DEI, progressives, and immigration in a new world where more narratives will be subject to scrutiny than ever before from both sides of the political spectrum within a multidimensional and ever-changing world.

As America wrestles with what it means to be American and the world takes into account the dragon that is the United States, we watch it take to account an institution that many say has been protected by the oligarch media moguls of an elitist empire that makes the manufacture of consent its main province – We observe a nation that is the most powerful that the world has ever known come to see its different shades through sound bites, and watch the bipolarity of discourses in a nation where one half of the population deeply distrusts the other half, and where politically biased media super-agencies have not been helping. 

One could contend that the very result that we see here reflects a bone thrown to demonstrate neutrality, a reluctance to step on the toes of the Trump administration manifested in criticizing the Democrats, and a chilling of the freedom of speech that constitutes the bedrock of American democracy – Now that Farmer Jones is gone, the rest of the animals must now pacify the pigs and the sheep must sacrifice their own, that they may pacify the wolves whom they have elected.

But I am not really a cynic – yet in the same way that I am not a cynic, I am also not an overt enthusiast for a bright and bountiful future. 

What I can certainly say, however, is that NYT’s characterization of Kamala Harris represents a positive step forward in reckoning with the fact that Donald Trump will be the 47th President of the United States, and that rather than attacking him alone, perhaps it should play true to its status as a journalistic entity and begin attacking the other side too, not simply for the pure joy of attacking, disparaging, or bringing down, but rather because journalism done effectively, just like exercise done effectively, damages, and stretches our world as exercise stretches the body, damaging it just in the right ways so that it, as we hope that democracy as a whole, will grow stronger and more robust. 

In the coming days, I believe that the Kamala headline will be only the first of a series of steps rightward and into a new pathway where the Democratic Party will be increasingly under scrutiny, where discussions will take place showcasing that scrutiny and the left will face assaults not only from the right and the enemy as they perceive it, but from a very large number more people on the fence as well. 

Who knows what the result of this will be, but as an item of fanciful reflection, I hope that what happens in America will serve as an item of leadership for the rest of the world, where the sharp boundaries between left and right can be increasingly challenged not just by the independents or the kooky skeptics called off as outer fringe theorists rejected by both ends of the establishment, but instead by the incumbents and that in this new paradigm, the profit of engagement will come not from screaming into echo chambers as our divisions grow deeper, but instead by appealing towards moderation and the test of ideas in a space characterized by a more balanced playing field undergirded by the constitution and the underpinnings of the First Amendment in finest form. 

As a foreign observer, I repose an awareness that the Trump administration will be an America-first government. But still, I can see why it is that this is important for the American people: You must save yourself first in order to save others, and unless you are safe, you have no business protecting anyone. 

As the world has, and no doubt will continue to, I will continue to bet on America, hoping for something better.  

Will ‘better’ emerge unambiguously? Likely not, I think – Most likely, whatever will emerge will emerge in the midst of contentious debates, bickering, and the pass-throughs of geopolitical tensions, in the clash of belief systems not only in America, but also globally. What’s certainly clear to me, however, is this: America and the world have much need for self-awareness and scrutiny, and whether we like it or not, the traditional media will continue to shape our views of ourselves and the ideas we deem acceptable. 

In a world divided by the stroke of social media posts and sound bites released by these mammoth news entities, however, I will say: It is encouraging to see NYT move actively against its own historical bias, and I hope that more media agencies will act in this way in the days to come.

Children learn all sorts of things through lots of different ways, whether it’s school, whether it’s at home, whether from the local tutor or in the church.

But you know, one of my favorite learning methods is the fight.

Now I know it sounds bad and I certainly don’t mean UFC grappling and punching hijinks, but I will admit that I can be combative at times, and I’m not particularly afraid of fighting with words, which often kind of makes things worse, but then c’est la vie, it is my personality and the way that I personally get to truth one argument and one debate at a time, hopefully listening a little more than I speak but then making sure to clarify whatever I feel that we cannot say we know.

I recently had a fight with someone in Mensa International, and I chose to block that person.

I mean, fair dice – Mensa International, which is the main Facebook group of Mensa as an organization determined by the Mensa International Board of Directors (IBD) is the single largest gathering of Mensans, who – while I love many of them – can also be some of the most irritating people in the world.

Anyway, we had a dispute about of all things, Kamala Harris, in relation to this exciting headline:

…Which has attracted some rather interesting comments:

This was a pretty interesting topic (which I will write about) because of how it showcases a shift in the Overton Window while at the same time showcasing media bias in a range of different ways.

Anyway, this individual had commented.

I’d had a conflict with her before on account of her attempting to use her background to win an argument once (a clear pet peeve of mine which I might talk about a little more later on) but thought that okay, I can’t be going around blocking people because that’s weird, and maybe this person for the first time actually has something beneficial to say.

Generally pleasant discussion about media bias, but then she insisted that she knew what the “right” version of a headline about Ms. Harris was, and I immediately began questioning her, after which she basically yaps about how she’s got “X years of experience in PR”, and how “you shouldn’t teach your grandmother how to suck eggs”, after which she proceeded to try to gaslight me about how I was “presenting myself as an expert” or “talking down to people”, oddly enough after doing the exact same thing and oddly enough failing to mention what part(s) of her experience were relevant to the discussion – AGAIN.

Anyway, I basically couldn’t take it anymore and just went ahead and blocked her – but not before she did say something useful, though – that she uh, “likes my enthusiasm but not my verbosity.”

Not that her preferences are really a key consideration of mine, but I thought a bit about the situation and how I had taken part in a war of words with her which, frankly, took way too much time and energy and involved going into far too many semantics or frivolous discussions that I wondered if it would have been better to spend my time getting my wisdom teeth pulled for leisure – and I realized:

Even I don’t like my own verbosity.

Here’s a definition of the word.

In case you’ve already noticed, the definition of “verbosity” can mean that a person may be verbose if they use too many words on the sentence level.

However, why it’s relevant to me isn’t just that I write long paragraphs or long sentences (which I do, by the way, if you’ve ever seen essays or pieces that I’ve written before – I have the bad habit of writing very long, complex, and grammatically correct sentences that easily lose people).

After all, another possibility is that a person is verbose precisely because they end up in situations where they use too many words, or use words to resolve situations in the hope that the words will be effective, work, or correlate with accomplishing what a person wants.

None of these strategies are guaranteed to work, and they in fact might be quite false; sometimes, using words can actually harm you and push you away from the outcome!

And so it is with internet arguments.

If I’m going to take part in an internet argument, it needs to be for a reason – either it’s political, it’s for the purpose of learning something, or it’s for the purpose of pursuing truth that is actually meaningful.

Often, rather than arguments, other interactions are more preferable – and that is true even when you are trying to accomplish a goal.

The analogy was interesting when I heard it first, and it remains interesting now because it resonates with me on at least a couple of different levels.

Our bodies, the physical parts of us, are basically analogous to the hardware of a computer, running along with different parts here and there – upgradable, we can improve them by increasing the quality of the resources that go into them; improvable through good maintenance, we can exercise, sleep well, and do all sorts of other things to improve the hygiene on that front.

Our minds, on the other hand, are the software – the programming that decides how we interact, think, solve problems in specific situations; the algorithms and little decisions that decide how we react to different scenarios and confronting different situations, whether it comes to talking to girls, investing, selling, marketing, or doing business with others.

It is nice to think that the mind is upgradeable, and that somehow you can improve yourself through an act of willpower by learning certain things. Through sitting down and unlocking the secrets of the universe one after another, through a mixture of magic and also destiny. But who’s to say exactly how that should happen?

Sorry, that’s a silly question. The answer is that it’s you.

…And another has come.

We are progressively moving towards the end of the year with each new beginning.

This is I believe the 46th week of the year out of 52, and it’s leading towards the end of the year; Donald Trump is now president, filling up his cabinet with appointee after appointee as people contemplate things; you might believe that we’re at the start of something HUGE, as Donald might call it, world-shaking, incredible.

But I think while that’s good, it’s good to look at something that I’ve wanted to get rid of for quite a while:

Perfectionism.

I am a victim of it, and I can’t deny that it follows me everywhere, making me question myself and whether what I’m putting out into the internet is either good or worth it – I second guess myself frequently, taking down blog posts that I think aren’t great or that aren’t well worded, thinking that perhaps I should rewrite or otherwise.

I think that this is a very negative behavior, because frankly I don’t really care too much about what people think and secondly, it doesn’t really matter what they think – at least in relation to how I think about myself.

So I would like to eliminate, therefore, the perfectionism that makes me rewrite things, redraft things, take wayyy too much time to release things.

This is the next thing to change, and it’s a good thing to shift it in this year of 2024 – even if it is the only lesson that I will have learned by the end of this year, I think that it will have been a worthwhile one.

Here’s to the next!

The feeling of love for someone is not something that you just go right ahead and deny. I don’t think it’s something that you should be shy about:

That you like a person. Somehow after the years have come to pass it becomes true that somehow or another your ego doesn’t really take that much occupancy. You can admit honestly that you like a person even if you realize that there is no expectation of a return.

On my part, I don’t know; even as a teacher, I really like a couple of different people here and there, but I realize clearly that there might not be really an expectation of a return, and that’s okay, that’s just how I am – it might be strange to think about, but even your teacher might have emotions, and so too might the rest of the world.

It is a little unconventional to reveal your emotions, especially in a world like this, but to the person I do like, I like you, but I realize that I should not put you down, I should not bind you, I should not stop you from being who you want to be. If we come together, it is because somehow or another, through the millions of possible pathways, and somehow through the conversations, we liked each other, and that is enough for me and is an act of fortune, not of planning or otherwise.

In the past, I would’ve been afraid of saying that I like a person or I wouldn’t have been so honest with my emotions. Nowadays, I don’t know if it’s because I’m old now, but I think it’s okay to say that I like people and I’m not too afraid of saying that I do because that’s just what it really is – an expression of emotion and a reality that I wouldn’t deny. 

__

Why do I even like her amidst the hundreds of people who have expressed their affection, their emotion, their wishes that we spend more time together?

I don’t know, I just really like the look on her face, the way that she talks to me, the way that she interacts with me. I don’t really care about her age, honestly. If anything, her age makes her look a little bit more romantically. I don’t know, it’s just that even when I think about what I’m interested in; I think the maturity just adds to the mystique and the interest that comes along with it. The feeling that maybe the person that you’re looking at has a kind of maturity that you’re not exposed to, things that you don’t know about, secrets that lie beyond your imagination – It’s kind of fascinating to me, even as I acknowledge the only reason I have not found someone else: nobody else has captivated my soul more.

I realize in many ways that I am meant to be a teacher. But somehow, this role seems sometimes overly limiting.

A teacher too is human. A teacher too has emotions. A teacher too can love people. A teacher too can hate people. A teacher too can be captivated by a feeling of infatuation. Let it pass. Ignore it, but follow along with it.

As I am, I know fully well that people rely upon me, yet I realise that I have my own feelings. Is it too wanton or too selfish for me if I simply just throw out how I genuinely feel?

This can be a teaching moment that even if someone is your teacher, they too can have emotions and feelings. They too can be unsure about life and can love another person for reasons that seem stupid to you but rational if you were to take the perspective of the person that you love and respect. 

There is this weird idea really that the physical body transcends the boundaries of the known, and I’m not super attached to the idea that physically speaking we are tied to a particular age or physical state of existence, which is one of the reasons why I privilege this idea that maybe even someone older is okay – That even if she has ideals that seem deluded or misinformed from my personal perspective, I can be open to what she says and what she thinks. 

It is a little weird to share your thoughts on social media and even on a blog because that raises questions about who you are, what you privilege, and what you like. But anyway, that is just a personal reflection that eventually people will come to understand. 

But I am okay with that because at the end of the day, I prefer that people interact with me as who I am, not somebody who is different, not somebody who is divorced from his true self, not somebody who is trying to play a role.

As I think about who I like, there is naturally a sense of distance – the feeling that somehow a person is probably laughing at you just because of how far apart you are. How many stages of life that person must have gone through relative to you?

For me, I think it’s kinda cool that there is that kind of difference and distance because it shows that there’s something to learn.

Maybe it is just a weird quirk of my personality that I like someone who is so far ahead of me. It is a little weird and it is not something I would have known or even experienced before. But I don’t know, the reverie of the days has made it possible that this would come to pass. It could just be a crush, but who knows? We never do know, and life is complicated.

I don’t really like those who have not gone through certain experiences. And I’m sorry if that’s something that you like and that’s something that you want more in your life. Because I cannot deliver that. The part of me that believes in the future wants someone more than that – someone who has been through a broken world, who has had their entire life and their ideals broken before, but somehow chooses the ability to go on and push on. That is just how I am in this weird, strange moment of reverie.

Though I am your teacher, as I am to many others, I do not know fully what I want. Yet, this is my expression of vulnerability to you, my student. I know that I am teaching you and I know that I am asking you questions that will change your life, transform your existence, and make you regard your older self as a shadow of what you once were.

But I too am human, and that is the truth.

In this world, as we pass through, we may realize that there are some activities that we deeply and truly love – little skills, hobbies, and occupations that pique our minds, hearts, and souls when we participate in them as an act of pleasure. 

As we pass through the tides of time, though, almost inevitably we come to realize that simply because someone we enjoy something, that doesn’t mean that we are going to be good at it. In fact, that’s an understatement. 

Why are we talking about good when actually we can be horribly, devastatingly, and world-changingly catastrophic at it? 

Here the realization inevitably comes, almost as if it were the common heritage of humanity:

Just because you like something, that does not mean that you will be good at it. 

One might argue that a true passion is such that even if one isn’t good at something, that the passion should stay. 

Even if you are a horrible dancer, that does not mean that you should despise dancing. 

The words of an eternal Malay proverb come to mind, “Tidak tahu menari, memarahkan lantai.”

They resonate through the core of our beings and remind us: 

If you dance horribly, that does not mean that you should blame the floor. 

In other words, our lack of skill is no justification for our preferences, which are shown superficial if being bad at them is our grounds for casting them away. 

After all, are we not like the fox, that declared the grapes sour, purely because we could not reach them? 

In a way, this may be true, but a reality is that in this world, skills are not necessarily their own reward, and imagining that they are is to neglect the realities of our universe in lieu of something all too idealistic, rarefied, and divorced from both the world and the way it supports, facilitates, and grows skills. 

From a purely psychological perspective though, the idea that being good at something can enhance enjoyment is well-supported by research across multiple fields. 

When people feel competent or skilled in a task:

• They experience greater intrinsic motivation (Self-Determination Theory).

• They are more likely to achieve a state of flow (Flow Theory).

• They feel rewarded by using their strengths (Positive Psychology).

• They expect to succeed, which increases motivation and enjoyment (Expectancy-Value Theory).

• They activate the brain’s reward pathways, creating positive reinforcement (Neuroscience).

• They have higher self-efficacy, leading to greater confidence and satisfaction (Self-Efficacy).

However, it’s not just the case that competence makes an activity easier or more manageable and contributes to the sense of pleasure and fulfillment we get from it – we live in a society that rewards it, and so provides the conditions for its continuation: 

The truly skilled of any domain find opportunities as a result of their success. People who are skilled in languages can become language teachers in the same way that people skilled in the cello or the piano can become master performers or instructors. Across almost any domain, this is true…

But what is also true is that attaining such levels of skill is inevitably a hard-won battle and is not guaranteed either. 

To muse a little, talent is a relative measure, and the world is a competitive place – To become distinguished is not so easy as being able to play at a certain fluency on the piano, or create pieces that resonate with the universe at scale. It is a matter of shining, differentiating oneself, and showcasing that one is both immeasurably better and immeasurably more relatable than those around them, or, if neither of those, than immeasurably more competent in the relevant area, in a way that others would universally accept.

There are many reasons why a person can lack the talent that they need to move on to the next level. 

Discipline, a lack of the talent to generate in an hour what someone else can bring forth in 6 minutes… better training, resources, facilities, for others that one does not have. But on a personal note, I am agnostic about these things. Because if one lacks talent in a certain way, how could one confidently distinguish between the reasons? Do you really lack talent, and hence you’re unable to do something? Or is it because you don’t have the discipline to do it? If you think down to it, it’s not so clear-cut or easy to distinguish – and what’s worse, it becomes the foundation of excuse-making, malingering, and eventually a blame game that converges in a blaming of everything except oneself on account of an abandoned quest towards one’s end goal.

As such, I think it’s not a question that’s worth addressing. 

What I do consider worth addressing, though, is the fact that there is a natural order to things – A timeline over which people pursue things, and over which the binary determinant of whether a talent will flourish or die is made; a timeline I’ve known all too well over time. 

There are many things out there that I like, but I’m not good at – Things that I’ve tried to learn, but have failed in the process because I didn’t allocate the time necessary, or because I didn’t have the talent.

I’d like to think that I’ve learned some things from my failures, but probably the most immediate one is this. Whatever it is that you do, do with all your heart and your soul. Distribute it over the course of time. But remember that discipline is good for you. In the moments when you don’t feel like doing things, discipline will keep you. Passion on the other hand is separate, and it’s true that without it, the journey would be hard to sustain, and ability difficult to procure. But therein lies the benefit of looking back at the things that we try to strive for, to reflect upon them, and to push forward, realising why it is that we wanted to do certain things. I have plenty of reflections on my own life that I’d love to share, but I suppose those will come at a later time.