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Opinion: We’ve been revealing a lot about ourselves as a society lately. It’s not pretty

Actresses Gwyneth Paltrow, from left, Angelina Jolie, Rose McGowan and Ashley Judd have accused producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct.
(Michael Buckner / Getty Images for PSLA, left; Dia Dipasupil / Getty Images; Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times; Richard Drew / Associated Press)
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The allegations that Harvey Weinstein is a sexual predator revealed something that was not really secret, just something that was not talked about enough and not sufficiently addressed — men abusing or harassing women, from corporate executive suites to passing comments on a sidewalk. We have elected just such a man as president, which reveals something disquieting about our core beliefs as a body politic — or that tells women sexual predation is not an issue that really matters in this male-dominated culture (though the #metoo campaign on social media may put the lie to that).

But the nation has, in recent months, revealed other uncomfortable facets of our culture, as well. We have shown the world that we are willing to let the sick among us die, or go bankrupt, rather than provide affordable healthcare. We have revealed that we care less about the stain of racial prejudice and failed equality than we do about conformity to some arbitrary definition of patriotic display. We have exposed ourselves as the sucker who is born every minute, susceptible to the sleight of hand of the P.T. Barnum in the White House, a man whose word is as reliable as a cheater’s score at golf.

We have revealed ourselves to be dupes of the Russian-spawned disinformation of the moment. We have revealed ourselves to be willing to ignore the power that the 1st Amendment gives us to raise voices against our government, because the president doesn’t like what the evening news or newspapers like this say about him. We also have revealed ourselves to be unconcerned about the future of the planet, and whether it will be livable for us — we keep buying motor vehicles that suck up gasoline while the climate-change deniers among us say “drill, baby, drill, climate change is a hoax.”

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We have revealed ourselves to be, in fact, a nation of ill-tempered fools. We respond in anger to slights. We use blowtorches for political discourse. We buy into false narratives about dangerous streets when we have rarely been safer over the last three decades.

We as a nation are in dangerous territory and, sadly, we steered ourselves into it.

We as a nation are in dangerous territory and, sadly, we steered ourselves into it. We have a wavering embrace of institutions, distrust each other (dangerous, that, for a democracy), are prone to racial resentment, and view life through a prism of jealousy for the successes of others.

We also have revealed ourselves to be a democracy in which nearly half of us don’t vote. And we have a Congress run by Republicans who, Sen. Bob Corker revealed — another exposure of the obvious — know that they are enabling a lunatic who could well lead the world into catastrophic conflict, but can’t step outside their party tent to put the nation’s best interests first.

We have revealed ourselves, nakedly, and with insufficient shame, on all these fronts and more.

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The test for us now is what to do with our revelations. Do we learn from them and find a way of charting a better path? Or, clucking our tongues and shrugging, do we go about our lives in the cynical belief that we’re powerless as individuals, while failing to recognize that, united, we can be as powerful as we need be?

Scott.Martelle@LATimes.com

Follow my posts and re-tweets at @smartelle on Twitter

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