“No, no, no.” The man driving the red car in my blind spot has wound down his window and is shouting “No, no, no.”
He’s shouting at me. His balding head red with anger, his left arm shaking back and forth vigorously, accenting his glorious shade of rouge.
I speed up slightly, driving south through Seattle. It’s a city I don’t know well, and I’m trying to get on to the SR99 highway. Unfortunately, I’m in the left lane, and I’ve just seen a sign indicating the entrance to the highway is on the right.
Traffic is heavy but flowing. I’m indicating right, hoping a kind soul will make room for me to switch lanes. As we crawl forward, I look over my right shoulder; there’s a man in his late 40’s maybe 50’s listening to white earbud headphones in a white Hyundai. Why is he listening to headphones in the car? There’s no time to ponder. The entrance to the highway is slowly approaching.
I look at him expectantly, with a look that mixes puppy-dog-eyes with a steely decisiveness. He pretends he doesn’t see me and speeds up, just enough to make it clear there’s no chance I’m going to be able to switch lanes.
I slow down slightly, the entrance to the highway draws closer, maybe the driver behind Ipod Head will be more charitable.
I look over my right shoulder, puppy dog steel ready.
“No, no, no.” It was the angry bald man taunting me again. He had somehow managed to weasel his way four cars forward to continue his shouty Amy Winehouse recital and accompanying fit of jazz hands.
It was at this point, still indicating right, still crawling towards the onramp, still hoping someone would give enough space for me to switch lanes, that I think to myself “What is fucking wrong with these guys.”
“Can’t they just see I’m an idiot who found himself in the wrong lane and is trying to correct his mistake.”
And that was it; they didn’t. My fellow drivers didn’t see someone who had made a mistake and was trying to fix it. They saw someone who had made their way up the faster moving left lane; someone who was then trying to cut into traffic at the last moment, someone who hadn’t patiently crawled along in the right lane with them.
I couldn’t be angry at them, not Ipod Head nor Angry Red Car. Not because I realize my lane switching maneuvers were a minor automotive faux pas but because I’ve been doing the same thing they have.
Misreading the world around me, developing bogus assumptions and drawing incorrect conclusions.
I never thought the UK would vote to leave the European Union. The vote would be close, but there was no way we’d vote to leave. I’d read articles, followed news stories, gossiped with my friends, monitored my Facebook, and Twitter feeds to divine the mood of the masses.
There was no way we’d vote to leave. But we did. I was wrong, so very wrong.
I regret not doing more to support remain. I blame myself, I looked at the data, lapped up the news and miscalled the outcome. I also blame Facebook, Twitter, the Guardian, the BBC, and Reddit. I know now I gleefully skipped into an echo chamber created not only by algorithms but also my habits.
It’s sad that an event as severe as Brexit had to occur to make me realize it. But there is something severely wrong with how I learn about what is happening in the world around me, how I consume news, how I casually pick up on information. Most of the time it doesn’t matter - until it does.