The Death of the National Moment: The Absurd Arena – Useful Idiots Discussion Board

Live chat at 12pm EST with Aaron and Wilson in the Substack app chat!

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Remember: the teacher rolls out the tv, turns on the news, doesn’t matter what channel. You sit crosslegged on the ground, silent as the rest of the class. And even though you’re young, you know that in every other classroom, in every office building, at every bar, every home, everywhere, the tv is showing the same thing. And everywhere Americans are huddled around it together. It’s a national moment.

What’s that moment for you? JFK? Vietnam protests? Watergate? September 11? An inauguration? Brian Stelter’s final episode of Reliable Sources? It seems that no matter our age, everyone can remember a few of these national moments, whether good or bad, and the intensity of that feeling of togetherness.

Until, possibly, the next generation. With the increasing isolation of iPhones, the speed of information, and the failure of mainstream journalism, it feels like these national moments can’t happen anymore. And that makes it harder to know when something is, as Biden says, a Big Fuckin’ Deal.

So in lieu of teacher rolling out the tv for all the useful idiots sitting on the circle-time rug, let’s hear some of your most impactful news moments of the past few years that, in another time, you’d remember exactly what you were doing when you first heard the news. Something that completely changed your world view, even if no one else was talking about it.

Personally, what got this idea going through my head was Seymour Hersh’s Nord Stream story: a report that the president potentially committed a war crime against millions of Europeans that was quickly covered up by mainstream media. That, to me, felt like it would’ve been a BFD when I was growing up.

So join Aaron and me at 12pm est on the Substack app to share your BFD moments of the past few years. Do it for the kids, whose staticky rolling tv has been replaced by an iPad and headphones. Here’s the prompt:

What recent national moment has had the biggest impact on you? Do you agree that national moments are dead, or can they still exist on twitter and corporate news?