No matter which candidate wins the next presidential election, I hope the country can find a sense of unity again afterwards.
I've never seen factions in the country this divided. I wasn't alive during the 60s and 70s, but I've heard it's something akin to how it was then... hopefully just the "growing pains" of change.
But the way some people are talking about politics these days disturbs me, I've got to say.
These are some tweets...by prominent celebrities...that are good examples of what I think is wrong with people's...well, people's thought patterns right now:
"If anyone says they are voting for @realdonaldtrump, I instantly lose all respect for them. This is literal and includes anyone in my personal life." - Cenk Uygur, creator of TheYoungTurks podcast, on Twitter
"If Biden is elected... Republicans will be hunted." - Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip, on Twitter
"The most depressing part of Trump administration isn't finding out that 40% of the country is super happy to vote for a fascist, it's knowing in retrospect that they always felt that way. Trump has...ruined the past." - Cenk Uygur
"There is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance. If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras, follow its commandments, you will be censored...persecuted and punished." - Trump
These tweets astound me, mainly because people on both political sides are accusing each other not merely of being wrong, or even of being stupid, or ignorant. No, people on both sides are literally accusing each other of being violent fascists. Of being evil. Dangerous, inhuman. Doesn't that seem crazy?
Especially considering that we all know people who, in 2016, voted for Hillary or for Trump. We are related to them. Some of them kept some of us alive for the formative years of our lives. Are people really so divided that they're prepared to think their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles or their children, grandchildren, and their nieces and nephews, are hateful, violent, criminal monsters complicit in...I don't know...deaths, arson, human rights violations, crimes against humanity? Surely we know these people and we know that isn't (usually) what they are like?
And if people really are starting to view their friends and family members this way, and disowning eachother over their political affiliation, how do we come back from that? How do we reunify and make progress towards a future goal?
Both sides calling each other fascists is not surprising because it's such a well-known persuasion tool in politics that it even has a logical fallacy named after it!
"Reductio ad Hitlerum," it's called. What bothers me isn't that the candidates say or imply it about each other, but that VOTERS are saying it, and believing it, about one another. A large portion of the population seems to be starting to believe that another large part of the population are literally fascists. That's scary and, more importantly, its not true.
In this circus of noise and chaos, there have been a few voices that have emerged as sane ones. People who have taken the high ground and not completely villified the other side. Two that I've noticed are:
1. Chris Evans
Yes, he's the actor that played Captain America!
What a great person to show America the way back to
the light with some civil discourse.
Turns out his father was in Congress, so he's not a stranger to politics.
He created a website where Republicans and Democrats can talk to each other. CIVILLY. Where both sides of an issue are presented, from what I understand. It's aptly called, "A Starting Point."
His argument is that people on both sides HAVE to be able to talk to each other, because the other side is not going to disappear. We're here together. We have to work together.
Here's his cool website:
https://www.astartingpoint.com/
2. Jon Stewart
Yes, of all people! Even though he made a living for a long time making jokes about Republican politicians and irking them, when asked recently about politics, he often gives an empathetic, measured, earnest response that frames the situation accurately. Although he pulls no punches when talking about the president, he seems unwilling to unilaterally condemn all Republican voters and realized that the system itself is the problem.
In one interview I heard, where the interviewer was trying to paint all Trump voters as motivated by race issues, he countered, "I know plenty of people who voted for Trump because they were afraid of losing their health insurance."
But especially, he frames the problem correctly in his new movie.
It's a comedy with Steve Carrell.
Political Satire, of course.
It's about two campaign operatives from both sides going to a small town and campaigning against one another and I won't say more than that in case someone watches it.
It's called Irresistable and it's about how campaign B.S. (sponsored by the practically unlimited money pouring into campaigns and superPACs) manipulates regular people and thwarts progress on virtuous goals.
This is the trailer:
https://www.indiewire.com/2020/01/irresistible-trailer-jon-stewart-1202205585/
And campaign B.S. is essentially the problem, in my opinion. Most people agree on most things, until the media starts reporting on the most exteme versions of any political party, movement, or group.
After this is all over, I encourage a renewed effort at keeping civil discourse civil and a focus on healing the rifts.
That will be easier after election day, though. I get that people are going to fight tooth and nail until then.
But let's try not to forget that other humans are, in fact, human. At least after the election.
I hope that this is something Americans will be able to do after and I hope we can find ways to compromise on some of these most intense issues, like police reform, policies affecting abortion, gun control, immigration, the economy, and the nature of patriotism.
There IS arguably room to compromise in all of these areas even though no one looks for a way to do so, because they can be used as political footballs to stir up the population and get out the vote.
That's all. Thanks for reading.
I've never seen factions in the country this divided. I wasn't alive during the 60s and 70s, but I've heard it's something akin to how it was then... hopefully just the "growing pains" of change.
But the way some people are talking about politics these days disturbs me, I've got to say.
These are some tweets...by prominent celebrities...that are good examples of what I think is wrong with people's...well, people's thought patterns right now:
"If anyone says they are voting for @realdonaldtrump, I instantly lose all respect for them. This is literal and includes anyone in my personal life." - Cenk Uygur, creator of TheYoungTurks podcast, on Twitter
"If Biden is elected... Republicans will be hunted." - Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip, on Twitter
"The most depressing part of Trump administration isn't finding out that 40% of the country is super happy to vote for a fascist, it's knowing in retrospect that they always felt that way. Trump has...ruined the past." - Cenk Uygur
"There is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance. If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras, follow its commandments, you will be censored...persecuted and punished." - Trump
These tweets astound me, mainly because people on both political sides are accusing each other not merely of being wrong, or even of being stupid, or ignorant. No, people on both sides are literally accusing each other of being violent fascists. Of being evil. Dangerous, inhuman. Doesn't that seem crazy?
Especially considering that we all know people who, in 2016, voted for Hillary or for Trump. We are related to them. Some of them kept some of us alive for the formative years of our lives. Are people really so divided that they're prepared to think their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles or their children, grandchildren, and their nieces and nephews, are hateful, violent, criminal monsters complicit in...I don't know...deaths, arson, human rights violations, crimes against humanity? Surely we know these people and we know that isn't (usually) what they are like?
And if people really are starting to view their friends and family members this way, and disowning eachother over their political affiliation, how do we come back from that? How do we reunify and make progress towards a future goal?
Both sides calling each other fascists is not surprising because it's such a well-known persuasion tool in politics that it even has a logical fallacy named after it!
"Reductio ad Hitlerum," it's called. What bothers me isn't that the candidates say or imply it about each other, but that VOTERS are saying it, and believing it, about one another. A large portion of the population seems to be starting to believe that another large part of the population are literally fascists. That's scary and, more importantly, its not true.
In this circus of noise and chaos, there have been a few voices that have emerged as sane ones. People who have taken the high ground and not completely villified the other side. Two that I've noticed are:
1. Chris Evans
Yes, he's the actor that played Captain America!
What a great person to show America the way back to
the light with some civil discourse.
Turns out his father was in Congress, so he's not a stranger to politics.
He created a website where Republicans and Democrats can talk to each other. CIVILLY. Where both sides of an issue are presented, from what I understand. It's aptly called, "A Starting Point."
His argument is that people on both sides HAVE to be able to talk to each other, because the other side is not going to disappear. We're here together. We have to work together.
Here's his cool website:
https://www.astartingpoint.com/
2. Jon Stewart
Yes, of all people! Even though he made a living for a long time making jokes about Republican politicians and irking them, when asked recently about politics, he often gives an empathetic, measured, earnest response that frames the situation accurately. Although he pulls no punches when talking about the president, he seems unwilling to unilaterally condemn all Republican voters and realized that the system itself is the problem.
In one interview I heard, where the interviewer was trying to paint all Trump voters as motivated by race issues, he countered, "I know plenty of people who voted for Trump because they were afraid of losing their health insurance."
But especially, he frames the problem correctly in his new movie.
It's a comedy with Steve Carrell.
Political Satire, of course.
It's about two campaign operatives from both sides going to a small town and campaigning against one another and I won't say more than that in case someone watches it.
It's called Irresistable and it's about how campaign B.S. (sponsored by the practically unlimited money pouring into campaigns and superPACs) manipulates regular people and thwarts progress on virtuous goals.
This is the trailer:
https://www.indiewire.com/2020/01/irresistible-trailer-jon-stewart-1202205585/
And campaign B.S. is essentially the problem, in my opinion. Most people agree on most things, until the media starts reporting on the most exteme versions of any political party, movement, or group.
After this is all over, I encourage a renewed effort at keeping civil discourse civil and a focus on healing the rifts.
That will be easier after election day, though. I get that people are going to fight tooth and nail until then.
But let's try not to forget that other humans are, in fact, human. At least after the election.
I hope that this is something Americans will be able to do after and I hope we can find ways to compromise on some of these most intense issues, like police reform, policies affecting abortion, gun control, immigration, the economy, and the nature of patriotism.
There IS arguably room to compromise in all of these areas even though no one looks for a way to do so, because they can be used as political footballs to stir up the population and get out the vote.
That's all. Thanks for reading.
A very interesting read Abi but I have to say it’s always been the Democrats who are expected to ‘compromise’. There has been zero compromises from the Republicans in the last four years, and even longer if one takes the whole Supreme Court situation into account. If ‘compromise’ was a thing, then there would be a Supreme Court Justice Garland.
No, I think if the Democrats win this, they need to go long and go hard, embracing the Bernie wing more than the ‘compromise’ wing and get some “socialist” legalisation enacted.
No, I think if the Democrats win this, they need to go long and go hard, embracing the Bernie wing more than the ‘compromise’ wing and get some “socialist” legalisation enacted.