Politically-aware people of all stripes often think about how to talk to “normies:” that is, normal people who don’t pay much attention to politics or other social issues.

Normies don’t read The New York Times or Breitbart. They don’t spend every waking hour worrying about who’s president. They don’t care what race you are. They don’t have strong beliefs about social justice (whatever it is) or gender ideology (as long as it doesn’t come for their kids). They don’t riot or, as the media would call it, “engage in peaceful protest.” They’re a little scared of Covid-19 but are vague about the details.

Normies don’t want any trouble. They’ve been told that America is an awful place where minorities are persecuted, but they’ve never seen that first-hand. All the minority people who they know are doing fine. They’ve been told that police are killing black people for no reason at all, but they have a hard time believing it. They’ve been told that they and their ancestors are to blame for everything that’s wrong with the world, but they know it isn’t true so they don’t worry about it very much. If Rachel Maddow and Jerrold Nadler stood side by side, normies couldn’t tell you which was which.

Normies just want to live their lives, provide for their families, and not bother anyone. Is that too much to ask? It seems like it shouldn’t be.