Rural Routes/Margot Ford McMillen

Will Truth Survive in 2024?

Ahoy, 2024! Ahoy, first issue of Progressive Populist 2024! And I hear a sizable part of America saying, “Good riddance, 2023.”

The first column of the year is always interesting. Will we write something that looks back at losers of the last 12 months and compliments the few (very few) winners of the year? Or will we look forward and announce our prognostications for the coming year? Tough decision.

This year, I’m tempted to simply re-submit my column published on Nov. 15: “Truth in War Remains Hard to Ascertain.” That column quoted a few of the many observers, starting with Aeschylus, who probably picked it up at a toga party, who said the first casualty of any war is the truth.

What did we know about the Hamas-Israel War when I wrote that column? Darn little. Hamas had attacked civilian sites in Israel and killed 1,200 people, then Israel retaliated and killed more. Fingers were being pointed and media was heaping on the blame, but the first casualty, yes, was the truth.

Now we know slightly more: The massive Israeli killing machine has been unleashed and Palestinians are being bombed, kidnaped and starved. Hospitals have been destroyed. Families are sent on marches to places where they are not safe and are attacked again. Rape, mayhem, destruction. On both sides. The children who witness this will be full of hate and all to ready to defend themselves next time.

Our president has revealed himself, then revealed himself again, but the truth is still elusive. And journalists who might be able to shed light are among the many victims. Americans, perhaps more than anyone else, have blood on our hands.

To run that column again, I’d have to tweak it massively. For starters, I’d change what polls say about American feelings about the conflicts. In October, Americans were about 50/50 supporting Israel. The next month, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed a decline, as 32% thought it was OK for the US to support Israel and 39% said the US could be a neutral mediator. The New York Times/Siena College poll in December showed that only 33% approve of Joe Biden’s handling of the conflict while 57% of voters disapprove. We’ll see what the polls say in January.

If we want to get all “Holy Land” about it, we can remind ourselves that Jesus was born in that conflicted place. And we can pile our voices on with Ralph Nader’s, calling on the Catholic Biden to listen to the Pope. In a Dec. 29 letter, distributed widely (including this issue, on page 19), Nader reminded Biden that “Abuse of power is a cardinal sin.” My Dec. 1 column said Biden should withdraw from the 2024 election for the sake of allowing younger competition. He didn’t listen. Maybe I should just tweak that column and submit it again.

Never mind. For this first-in-2024 column, I’ll just move to prognostication. As Mark Twain said, “A man who goes around with a prophecy-gun ought never to get discouraged: if he will keep up his heart and fire at everything he sees, he is bound to hit something by and by.” I think that idea goes for women also, so here goes:

In 2024, the wave of immigrants will continue moving from the southern hemisphere north. Climate change, which has already hit the southern hemisphere more drastically than the north, will force people from their homes and the US will still have no answers to housing and care for them.

There will be no movement at all—not a millimeter—on the possibility for gun control. Gun manufacturers and the NRA will continue to put money into elections. BUT more victims will sue. We’ll see suits against the thoughtless parents that allow (or help) their kids buy war weapons and suits against venues that allow guns. Lawsuits will begin to turn the tide on mass slayings in our country. This wave will begin on the east coast and move west.

In 2024, the movement to manufacture meat without animals will flutter and die. Consumers are getting smarter about what we put into our bodies and as the word gets out that lab created meats take too many inputs, use too much energy, don’t have the same health benefits as meat raised outdoors on real pasture, the laboratory-meat industry will die. People, starting on the west coast, will adopt increasingly vegetarian diets.

And, finally, beginning in the north, the threat to democracy will be revealed as courts and legislatures continue their partisan paths. Citizens will insist on fixing gerrymandered district lines and AI-assisted demographers will begin to make correct districting decisions.

All these waves will dribble from the edges of the nation into the midwest and arrive here as little ripples, but our intrepid state Attorneys General will resist. We’ll learn freedom allows us to have gerrymandering, guns, unhoused immigration and weird meats.

And the wars? What will we say about them a year from now? With truth as the first victim, nobody can predict.

Margot Ford McMillen farms near Fulton, Mo., and co-hosts “Farm and Fiddle” on sustainable ag issues on KOPN 89.5 FM in Columbia, Mo. Her latest book is “The Golden Lane: How Missouri Women Gained the Vote and Changed History.” Email: margotmcmillen@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, February 1, 2024

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