It has been evident since well before the November Presidential election that the political landscape has drastically changed.
With inflammatory and inappropriate rhetoric being thrown about all over the election trail, more than a few people from both sides of the aisle were bound to reach the end of their fuse.
This meaning that they were rushing toward the political extrema of their party and away from the mainstream public.
People have taken out this anger and frustration in many different ways.
Some take it out toward the other party for their views, toward a minority group, toward government, toward a particular person, people have begun to express their views vehemently, often violently.
When violence or shouting someone down is what we resort to in order to prove that our side is right and another is wrong, we lose our ability to have a functioning political system. More dangerously, we start to lose our ability to live together in harmony: n our communities, our neighborhoods, our schools, our families.
There are ways to avert this political downward spiral.
First, it is important to distinguish between a particular person and a larger group with whom they are affiliated. Each individual is going to have his or her own unique position on any given issue. This has been a problem with far right provocateurs such as Milo Yiannopoulos and Ann Coulter.
It has led some to believe that the views of Yiannopoulos and Coulter are the views that every conservative holds. When this happens, conflating the extreme with the entire population, it can be used as a means to quickly quiet the opposition and to do things that you normally wouldn’t do under the auspices of possessing the moral high ground.
This is not the goal of a country that has so doggedly protected free speech and free expression since its founding in 1776.
An example of this phenomenon can be seen in the Muslim-American community. Following the terrorist attacks on September 11th , 2001, many Muslims faced discrimination and violence.
In fact, from 2000 to 2001, while there was a decrease in the total number of reported hate crimes, the number of anti-Muslim hate crimes increased more than 1000% from 36 to 481.
This was not because of something Muslim-Americans had done, but because of what someone who shared a common affiliation did in a radical devotion to that religious affiliation. The majority of a group should never be judged solely on affiliation with an extreme minority, unless they are endorsing those actions.
Secondly, it is imperative that we never resort to violence to prove ourselves right. That is a problem that has plagued both sides of the political arena. With groups like Antifa (Far Left Anti-Fascists) and similar conservative organizations such as the Three-Percent Militia and the Oathkeepers; violence often seems inevitable.
Take for instance what has been happening at University of California-Berkeley. Multiple times throughout the last few months, Antifa has used violence to quell supporters at events held by Yiannopoulos and other conservative leaders. They are reported as having thrown quarter sticks of dynamite, physically assaulting people, sending several people to the hospital, one of whom had several life threatening stab wounds.
To those on the left, they have become so entranced in Poe's Law that they fail to see even simple truths which can be found by research.
For instance, in the case of popular conservative radio host Ben Shapiro visiting college campuses he is hit with the standard verbal insults of racist, bigot, homophobe, Nazi. What many fail to realize is that Shapiro himself is an Orthodox Jew. In fact, Ben was the #1 target of Anti-Semitism in mainstream media last year.
Something tells me that the Alt-Right and Ben aren’t the best of pals. Upon the birth of his child last year, the entire Shapiro family was attacked by the Alt-Right, telling them to head to the gas chambers etc.
It is these kinds of disconnects between the base of the parties and the leaders at the top that hinder our ability to converse with one another. And Conservatives are not innocent in this respect either, as they meet violence with violence or outright instigate it, which only further exacerbates the problem.
They will do whatever is necessary as long it just beats Democrats, even if that means electing a womanizer to the presidency or an accused child molester in Alabama to do it. They only look for the win, not for the single mother of 2 who is struggling to pay rent on a minimum wage job.
When Antifa attacks, the far-right take it up a notch by going on offense. It has become so bad, that now Alt-right persons from around the country are making the pilgrimage to Berkeley, California to quite literally "fight for freedom."
This leads to the most important thing of all, it's time we rediscovered how to deal with opposing viewpoints in a calm, rational way. Americans need to be able to sit down with any person of any race, color, or creed, regardless of political affiliation and have an honest conversation. Conversation leads to better bipartisan legislation, not fighting in the streets and stabbing each other.
If we worked together on issues by debating in a peaceful manner, we would be able to solve the policy issues we like to argue about in a bipartisan manner.
This would lead to better solutions and a better country as a whole.
This isn't a left or right issue, nor is it a black or white one, this an issue of human to human, and until this kind of political violence stops, this country won't get any better for anyone.
So I propose this: that we redefine the way we think on a fundamental level.
I'm calling for both sides of the aisle to redefine their own beliefs.
I’m calling for all of you to redefine your own beliefs
Those people whose views are extreme, isolate them, carve out a space for them to exist in.
Because by pretending that groups like the Alt-Right and Antifa are mainstream in their parties, we normalize their abhorrent rhetoric.
We give them a voice that they wouldn’t have otherwise.
So by isolating these voices we silence them, making compromise far more appealing, because no one on the right wants to deal with a rampaging rioter as much as no one on the left wants to deal with a White Supremacist.
So let us compromise, let us converse, let us be a little less Red and Blue, and little more Purple.
With inflammatory and inappropriate rhetoric being thrown about all over the election trail, more than a few people from both sides of the aisle were bound to reach the end of their fuse.
This meaning that they were rushing toward the political extrema of their party and away from the mainstream public.
People have taken out this anger and frustration in many different ways.
Some take it out toward the other party for their views, toward a minority group, toward government, toward a particular person, people have begun to express their views vehemently, often violently.
When violence or shouting someone down is what we resort to in order to prove that our side is right and another is wrong, we lose our ability to have a functioning political system. More dangerously, we start to lose our ability to live together in harmony: n our communities, our neighborhoods, our schools, our families.
There are ways to avert this political downward spiral.
First, it is important to distinguish between a particular person and a larger group with whom they are affiliated. Each individual is going to have his or her own unique position on any given issue. This has been a problem with far right provocateurs such as Milo Yiannopoulos and Ann Coulter.
It has led some to believe that the views of Yiannopoulos and Coulter are the views that every conservative holds. When this happens, conflating the extreme with the entire population, it can be used as a means to quickly quiet the opposition and to do things that you normally wouldn’t do under the auspices of possessing the moral high ground.
This is not the goal of a country that has so doggedly protected free speech and free expression since its founding in 1776.
An example of this phenomenon can be seen in the Muslim-American community. Following the terrorist attacks on September 11th , 2001, many Muslims faced discrimination and violence.
In fact, from 2000 to 2001, while there was a decrease in the total number of reported hate crimes, the number of anti-Muslim hate crimes increased more than 1000% from 36 to 481.
This was not because of something Muslim-Americans had done, but because of what someone who shared a common affiliation did in a radical devotion to that religious affiliation. The majority of a group should never be judged solely on affiliation with an extreme minority, unless they are endorsing those actions.
Secondly, it is imperative that we never resort to violence to prove ourselves right. That is a problem that has plagued both sides of the political arena. With groups like Antifa (Far Left Anti-Fascists) and similar conservative organizations such as the Three-Percent Militia and the Oathkeepers; violence often seems inevitable.
Take for instance what has been happening at University of California-Berkeley. Multiple times throughout the last few months, Antifa has used violence to quell supporters at events held by Yiannopoulos and other conservative leaders. They are reported as having thrown quarter sticks of dynamite, physically assaulting people, sending several people to the hospital, one of whom had several life threatening stab wounds.
To those on the left, they have become so entranced in Poe's Law that they fail to see even simple truths which can be found by research.
For instance, in the case of popular conservative radio host Ben Shapiro visiting college campuses he is hit with the standard verbal insults of racist, bigot, homophobe, Nazi. What many fail to realize is that Shapiro himself is an Orthodox Jew. In fact, Ben was the #1 target of Anti-Semitism in mainstream media last year.
Something tells me that the Alt-Right and Ben aren’t the best of pals. Upon the birth of his child last year, the entire Shapiro family was attacked by the Alt-Right, telling them to head to the gas chambers etc.
It is these kinds of disconnects between the base of the parties and the leaders at the top that hinder our ability to converse with one another. And Conservatives are not innocent in this respect either, as they meet violence with violence or outright instigate it, which only further exacerbates the problem.
They will do whatever is necessary as long it just beats Democrats, even if that means electing a womanizer to the presidency or an accused child molester in Alabama to do it. They only look for the win, not for the single mother of 2 who is struggling to pay rent on a minimum wage job.
When Antifa attacks, the far-right take it up a notch by going on offense. It has become so bad, that now Alt-right persons from around the country are making the pilgrimage to Berkeley, California to quite literally "fight for freedom."
This leads to the most important thing of all, it's time we rediscovered how to deal with opposing viewpoints in a calm, rational way. Americans need to be able to sit down with any person of any race, color, or creed, regardless of political affiliation and have an honest conversation. Conversation leads to better bipartisan legislation, not fighting in the streets and stabbing each other.
If we worked together on issues by debating in a peaceful manner, we would be able to solve the policy issues we like to argue about in a bipartisan manner.
This would lead to better solutions and a better country as a whole.
This isn't a left or right issue, nor is it a black or white one, this an issue of human to human, and until this kind of political violence stops, this country won't get any better for anyone.
So I propose this: that we redefine the way we think on a fundamental level.
I'm calling for both sides of the aisle to redefine their own beliefs.
I’m calling for all of you to redefine your own beliefs
Those people whose views are extreme, isolate them, carve out a space for them to exist in.
Because by pretending that groups like the Alt-Right and Antifa are mainstream in their parties, we normalize their abhorrent rhetoric.
We give them a voice that they wouldn’t have otherwise.
So by isolating these voices we silence them, making compromise far more appealing, because no one on the right wants to deal with a rampaging rioter as much as no one on the left wants to deal with a White Supremacist.
So let us compromise, let us converse, let us be a little less Red and Blue, and little more Purple.
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