Dr. Brad Rosenheim has moved!Jan 13, 2023

I want to paint a different picture of the #GeorgeSantos saga. To be clear I think he should resign. But to put all of this on him is wrong. He is not a victim, the voters in his district are. But if what?

Too often, we look up to, idolize, and vote for those who have navigated our #CutthroatCapitalist system to become rich. That is the only sign of #intelligence we seem to recognize - did he succeed monetarily? (and it is too often "he").

Show threadDr. Brad Rosenheim has moved!Jan 13, 2023
The story of his lies was published in a local paper, the #NorthShoreLeader two months before the election, giving voters plenty of time to decide whether or not to vote for a contrived person. Most either didn't see the story or decided to vote for him anyway. That says three things about all of us, because it could have happened anywhere.
Show threadDr. Brad Rosenheim has moved!
1. People are too ill-informed to be in charge of a representative #democracy. I don't really believe this is our fault, but there is merit to the demise of local news and people being better connected globally through #SocialMedia than through local news. Hell, I read Mastodon more than my #LocalPaper!
Jan 13, 2023 at 1:09pmWeb
Show threadDr. Brad Rosenheim has moved!Jan 13, 2023
2. People read the story, but have become too self-identified with a #PoliticalParty to change course. This is a real problem, and I'm not sure how to solve it. But I also am not convinced that this is the leading problem. I don't think this drove him to getting elected. #Politics is not a team sport, it is a strategy to get what we want from #CollectiveSelfGovernance.
Show threadDr. Brad Rosenheim has moved!Jan 13, 2023
3. The real big story we are ignoring is that we want to believe people like #GeorgeSantos are real. That they are possible. They really are rare, though. We are told that we can all work ourselves up to be #RichAndFamous with a little more #productivity, a little less sleep. Those who are poor didn't try hard enough. But those are not facts, they are lies. And they are perpetuated by the people who profit from our labor and toils.
Show threadDr. Brad Rosenheim has moved!Jan 13, 2023
So not only did the #GeorgeSantos story resonate with some of the voters in #LongIsland, they didn't want to believe it was fabricated when the story broke. Because to believe that means to reckon with the fact that a lot of us have based our own lives on these lies about being able to become a #billionaire. And that is the part of the story we are missing with a lot of reporting and editorials on the subject.
Show threadDr. Brad Rosenheim has moved!Jan 13, 2023

Remember, it would take someone making $15 an hour 22 years working 8 hour days without a single weekend, holiday, or sick day, or eating or paying rent and utilities and transportation to make $1,000,000. That same person would have to work 22,831 years (yes, you read that right) under the same conditions, to become a #billionaire with $1,000,000,000.

It's virtually impossible to do honestly.

Therefore people like #Santos lie and we congregate to them.

Show threadDr. Brad Rosenheim has moved!Jan 13, 2023
So what I am saying is that our system not only makes us prone to these lies, it wears us down to the point where we rather ignore them than face the lies we've been living by. We need more reflection about this. Or, to summarize, #EatTheRich.