The quiet Chicago suburb of Hinsdale has had an unanticipated and unpleasant few days in the spotlight as a plan for racial-equity training dissolved into avoidable acrimony and a New York Times story about a Hinsdale man fighting the rising cost of a burrito at Chipotle was seized upon by social media activists as indicative of American blindspots over who really feels the brunt of food costs.
Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin threatened to invade Ukraine.
We point this out as a reminder that the current American obsession with internal racial and class division often means our attention is not always falling as expeditiously as it should on geopolitical threats to international stability. While burritos trended on Twitter and Hinsdale made the front page, thanks to social media algorithms that feed on this stuff, bigger problems abounded. It’s hard to lead the world when this country, amped up by those sowers of disunity at Facebook and Twitter, so enjoys ripping itself apart.
