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Thank you for putting it into more and clearer words than I did. You're right, the divide has always been there. That's why it always flares up during election

by Swizec 10y ago

Thank you for putting it into more and clearer words than I did. You're right, the divide has always been there. That's why it always flares up during elections - it's only during elections that the divide is useful to the people who stoke it. Candidates benefit from their electorate being loud and vocal and at arms with the other electorate. It drives press, it drives news, it brings people out to vote. All things correlated with winning an election. Once an election is won, the game changes. Then it's all about unity and compromise and understanding one another. Because that's what those in power need to stay in power. Unless of course somebody wants to force an early election or worse. Then all bets are off. Now, I can't say for a fact that this is how the cycle works in the US. But I've seen it play out numerous times in my home country (Slovenia) where for a period of more than a decade since I started observing, I don't think we had a single government last the entire 4 years. It's a big part of the reason why I left and came to the States. And I find myself once more in the midst of elections driven primarily by shit up stirring. Perfect.

spdustin 10y ago
> And I find myself once more in the midst of elections driven primarily by shit up stirring. Perfect. All I can say is this: you're not wrong that the media coverage of our candidates amplify their voices, which empowers their supporters to amplify theirs as well. And you're not wrong that this election cycle has more shit-slinging than any other in my memory. It's thus made me more than a little uncomfortable, as an American, to ponder what others think of our society. It's embarrassing to me, it truly is. But here is hope, and even thought you've arrived just in time for this circus of an election, I hope you can find the will to believe that the future is not doomed. Not because the leadership requires unity and compromise, but because once the spotlights shining their attention-focusing beams are turned off, there won't be such a contrast with the more rational among us. I believe many people will have learned that the isolation between ideological extremes doesn't help to move us forward as a society. And many will try, in their own quiet and subtle ways, to effect a positive change. I'll be honest though: I believe these things not because there is a preponderance of evidence to support them (there's some, but this election cycle is unprecedented) but because I have to believe it to have the energy to try and effect that positive change.

by Swizec 10y ago

spdustin 10y ago

> And I find myself once more in the midst of elections driven primarily by shit up stirring. Perfect. All I can say is this: you're not wrong that the media coverage of our candidates amplify their voices, which empowers their supporters to amplify theirs as well. And you're not wrong that this election cycle has more shit-slinging than any other in my memory. It's thus made me more than a little uncomfortable, as an American, to ponder what others think of our society. It's embarrassing to me, it truly is. But here is hope, and even thought you've arrived just in time for this circus of an election, I hope you can find the will to believe that the future is not doomed. Not because the leadership requires unity and compromise, but because once the spotlights shining their attention-focusing beams are turned off, there won't be such a contrast with the more rational among us. I believe many people will have learned that the isolation between ideological extremes doesn't help to move us forward as a society. And many will try, in their own quiet and subtle ways, to effect a positive change. I'll be honest though: I believe these things not because there is a preponderance of evidence to support them (there's some, but this election cycle is unprecedented) but because I have to believe it to have the energy to try and effect that positive change.