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But Trump's entire campaign was based on demonizing the other side with lies and disinformation and making unfair generalization about huge groups of people. A

But Trump's entire campaign was based on demonizing the other side with lies and disinformation and making unfair generalization about huge groups of people. And don't turn around and try to tell me that Clinton engaged in those kinds of tactics to the same degree. Are we just supposed to turn around and forget all of that, like none of it happened? No! That's like hoping your abusive father or husband will just suddenly start being more nice if you give him what he wants. When has that ever happened?

grzm 10y ago
No. We're not supposed to forget what happened, or just lay down and stop working for what we believe. We need to hold each other and ourselves accountable. We need to figure out a way to constructively move forward together. I don't know about you, but when someone continues to insult me, it makes it very hard for me to want to work with them in an earnest way. I think most people react the same way. We're human. I also admit that I'm not perfect, so it's unfair to expect others to be perfect. I also hope that I can be better, which means that I can change. If I think other people should change, it's fair that I expect change of myself. The vote was pretty evently split, and voters had an effectively binary choice. Both candidates had record low favorability numbers. I don't believe that people wholly subscribe to every position held by the candidate they chose. (Hell, I don't believe the candidates even wholly subscribe to every position they publicly held. Politics in democracy is about compromise, which unfortunately has apparently become a disparaged trait.) I also think it's worth recognizing that the people that are expressing the most vitriol are not representative of the population as a whole. The anonymity and distance on the internet can bring out the worst in some people. As can the actions of crowds. That also means that there are very likely things that we can agree on, things we think are worthwhile. It would be a massive failure on all of our parts if we can't figure out a way to accomplish those goals we have in common. I'm not ready to give up on us yet. You've been participating in the discussion as well, so I hope you're not giving up either.

grzm 10y ago

No. We're not supposed to forget what happened, or just lay down and stop working for what we believe. We need to hold each other and ourselves accountable. We need to figure out a way to constructively move forward together. I don't know about you, but when someone continues to insult me, it makes it very hard for me to want to work with them in an earnest way. I think most people react the same way. We're human. I also admit that I'm not perfect, so it's unfair to expect others to be perfect. I also hope that I can be better, which means that I can change. If I think other people should change, it's fair that I expect change of myself. The vote was pretty evently split, and voters had an effectively binary choice. Both candidates had record low favorability numbers. I don't believe that people wholly subscribe to every position held by the candidate they chose. (Hell, I don't believe the candidates even wholly subscribe to every position they publicly held. Politics in democracy is about compromise, which unfortunately has apparently become a disparaged trait.) I also think it's worth recognizing that the people that are expressing the most vitriol are not representative of the population as a whole. The anonymity and distance on the internet can bring out the worst in some people. As can the actions of crowds. That also means that there are very likely things that we can agree on, things we think are worthwhile. It would be a massive failure on all of our parts if we can't figure out a way to accomplish those goals we have in common. I'm not ready to give up on us yet. You've been participating in the discussion as well, so I hope you're not giving up either.