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Why the emphasis on narratives. It’s just a story, right?

A narrative is not just any tale. It’s a story on steroids. It’s not too much to say they rule our lives. Narrative are a mish-mash of mythology, values, and beliefs with a smidge of data. It’s not that facts don’t count. They’re just secondary. Sometimes it takes an overwhelming amount of evidence to shift a narrative. It does happen, though. In, 2017, Donald Trump tried to create a narrative over voter fraud. It died due to any credible examples of its existence. Other narratives stay entrenched no matter the evidence.

Cognitive dissonance remains at the core of almost any narrative. For Wyoming, it’s this push-pull between the ideal of independence with the concept of populism. Since it joined the union, a fibrous populism has remained at Wyoming’s core. It’s tribalistic yet bellows for autonomy and “freedom.” It advocates for local control but historically begs higher political entities for money to fund this ideal. Populism, in general, distrusts banks or any central authority. Yet we have state with its own $8 billion central bank, the Permanent Wyoming Mineral Trust Fund, and a paternal legislature fond of micromanaging its lower political subdivisions.

So. How does one write about entrenched contradictions and cognitive dissonance without being preachy, self-righteous or intellectually abstruse?