This is a post that I’ve been
struggling with for a while now… I don’t know everyone that reads my blog, but
I know a good number of you, and I know that all of you have very different
views of the world. I’m proud of that
fact. It makes me happy when someone who
is either a staunch Republican or a diehard Democrat, approaches me and lets me
know that they look forward to reading my posts. It makes me particularly happy when people
from both sides of this divide let me know that they really enjoyed the same
post.
That being said, I typically do
what I can to avoid having too many partisan viewpoints in my writing. I don’t like sites or “news” that state
opinion as fact and imply that anyone who disagrees is automatically the enemy,
no matter which viewpoint they promote.
This brings me to one small point,
before I dive into the deep end of this post.
I know I have readers that are Trump supporters. I appreciate you, and the fact that you read
my blog, I hope you continue to do so.
Nonetheless, for the sake of context, I’ll preface the rest of this post
by making it clear that I don’t support Donald Trump. I don’t trust him or his motives and I don’t
believe that his actions will directly contribute to the betterment of this
country. I hope he proves me wrong; but
so far he certainly hasn’t.
Despite my personal views, I see so
many liberal people; friends of mine, other bloggers, reporters, etc. repeatedly
state that Trump doesn’t represent the America that they know. They still show shock that he won, they argue
that he lost the popular vote, they point fingers at Russia for interfering…
I’ll admit, I was confused on election night, surprised that it was actually
happening. Then again, I live in a
bubble, most of us do; and it takes an event such as this to make us realize
that there is more to the world than that which we allow ourselves to see every
day.
This brings me to my main point…
there is something very wrong in this country and other countries around the
world. We all know it. The fact that there is something wrong has
been a narrative in our society for over a decade now. It’s a sickness that has dug itself into the bones
of our society, where it’s thriving and growing. Donald Trump, Brexit, Le Pen, and various
other unprecedented movements and political actions across the world are NOT
that disease, they’re just a symptom.
Let’s look at America as an example:
First we have to accept the fact that Donald Trump wasn’t elected because of
some accident or a fluke. He won the
election because a massive amount of people voted for him. Did Russia interfere? Probably.
Looking at the evidence, there’s so much smoke, chances are there’s a
fire there somewhere… But that doesn’t change the fact that he developed a
massive following with or without outside help.
He did it by speaking to and identifying with an immense group of people
who had felt as if they had been ignored and like they didn’t have a voice in
their own governing. He gave them that
voice.
Throughout the election, and now,
in Trump’s America, I have seen so many blog posts, television shows, news
articles, etc. from the perspective of the political left that belittle Trump’s
supporters. They look at those people
and lump every single one of them together in one group and assume that anyone
who voted for Trump is a racist, xenophobic, sexist, hate-filled, uneducated,
hypocritical bigot. Despite the rallying
cries of “Love trumps hate” and the all-inclusive image of the political left
(extended primarily to minorities and the disenfranchised in large, coastal cities),
their posts and news and ideological views are still coated in hate.
So many times I’ve seen people on
Facebook post something promoting that all-inclusive nature, imploring people
to stand together, to lend a helping hand, to love one another, etc. Then I read the comments, and the first
person to post a comment that is even slightly dissenting (or sometimes
extremely dissenting) is immediately demeaned, belittled, and insulted. The teeth come out and that person, no matter
their point of view or their stance on various issues, is immediately dismissed
and they are thrown in the same “basket of deplorables” as the most extreme
Trump supporter.
Meanwhile, I see posts, videos, and
news from the other side, from people who support Trump. In fact I spend a lot of time talking to
Trump supporters, face to face. A year
ago, those same people were complaining non-stop about political and social
stances being forced upon them no matter whether they agreed with them or
not. They complained about a president
that they felt was illegitimate and a government that didn’t represent them. But now that Trump has won, all I hear them
saying is that the “special snowflakes” of the left need to suck it up, accept
that they lost, and stop complaining.
They criticize a political left that is oblivious to their own, American
grass-roots values, claiming that people on the left are out of touch with
reality… then they turn around and dismiss and ignore facts that challenge
their perception of the world around them.
These two political ideologies are
standing on opposite sides of a massive canyon, hurling rocks at each
other. The few people that remain
speaking out in the middle are on tightropes and trying to dodge rocks from
both sides. Most of the voices in the
middle of this argument seem to have given up and either joined one extreme or
the other or simply fallen silent.
The problem in our society isn’t
the far right OR the far left, it’s the divide between the two. Donald Trump’s presidency is a product of
that divide, as was Bernie Sanders’ candidacy.
The truly scary part is that the divide doesn’t only exist in our
politics, it has spread to our news, our social lives, the products marketed
toward us, and even the filters through which we see the world around us. We have inadvertently created these bubbles
that we live in, where we are able to shape the world into the image that we
wish to see, and to largely shut out everything else.
Think back, when is the last time
that you, voluntarily, sought out an article, a video, or a viewpoint that
challenged your world view, and did it not for the sole purpose of wanting to
tear it down, but because you wanted to understand it, for your own sake? When is the last time that you approached a
differing opinion while acknowledging the possibility, however slim, that your
preconceived notions may be dead wrong?
We don’t challenge ourselves
anymore. We shy away from points of view
that we don’t like, we block people that don’t agree with us, we surround ourselves
with news and noise that agrees with and informs our worldview. I’m not sure why we are doing this, why we’re
unwittingly allowing this divide to grow… Maybe seeing the world the way we
want to see it is just pleasant enough that we’ve become the land of the lotus
eaters. Maybe it’s the rapid advancement
of technology and the decline of face to face conversations, because it’s a lot
easier to be angry at a screen than it is a person who’s looking you in the
eye. Or maybe it’s cultural backlash from
the speed with which our society became globalized and we’re struggling with
the concept of a world that is somehow too small and too large at the same
time.
Whatever the cause is, I leave that
to wiser minds than mine to discover. I
can see the divide growing though, in fact I believe that most of us can see
it, we just choose to ignore it or to blame it on “Them”. The day to day people that I hear from on
social media, or television, or even the people that I talk to on a regular
basis, don’t tend to take any part of the blame for the divide. I
wouldn’t expect them to either, that’s a large burden to take on. Still, at some point, we’ll have to do the
unexpected, as individuals and as a society, we’ll have to stop blaming each
other, take some responsibility, and strive to understand one another.
(A brief Sir Terry Pratchett interlude):
"It was because he wanted there to be
conspirators. It was much better to imagine men in some smoky room somewhere,
made mad and cynical by privilege and power, plotting over the brandy. You had
to cling to this sort of image, because if you didn't then you might have to
face the fact that bad things happened because ordinary people, the kind who
brushed the dog and told their children bedtime stories, were capable of then
going out and doing horrible things to other ordinary people. It was so much
easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were
Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone's fault. If it was Us, then what
did that make Me? After all, I'm one of Us. I must be. I've certainly never
thought of myself as one of Them. We're always one of Us. It's Them that do the
bad things." ~ Terry Pratchett
Back in November, I went to Austin,
TX to go to a wedding of a couple friends of mine. One night, at a bar, a friend and I were
approached by a complete stranger. The
guy who stopped us had dark-ish skin, implying some sort of non-European
background. My friend and I on the other
hand are a couple of big, white guys.
This stranger asked us if we saw him as “different” than ourselves, and
if we viewed him as “lesser than”. He
seemed vulnerable, almost scared; as if he were shocked that he asked the
question, which he’d been working up the courage to ask someone for a
while. We both of course let him know
that we didn’t view him as any different than we would view anyone else. Still, our answer isn’t important. What is important is that he was worried
enough that he felt the need to ask.
No matter what you believe, no
matter which side you support, and no matter which lens you choose to view the
world through; we live in a country that was founded on the simple idea that “all
men are created equal”. That idea is
fundamental to our country, and to our identity. The fact that anyone in this country is being
made to feel as though that phrase doesn’t include them, nearly 241 years after
the Declaration of Independence was signed, is shameful. And that shame belongs to every one of
us.
For a country built upon the ideal
of equality, we have a pretty poor track record. If we ever want to truly live up to that
standard set for us 241 years ago, then the first step would be to stop
pointing fingers and to share the blame for this mess equally.
On that note, I’m begging anyone
who reads this to do one thing.
Challenge yourself, break the bubble you’re living in, and embrace the
diversity that surrounds you. Take the
time to really talk to someone who disagrees with you. Don’t dismiss them, don’t insult them, don’t
demean them. Instead, show respect, take
an interest, and listen to what they have to say. Maybe you’ll learn something, and maybe just
maybe, we can start to heal this divide…
In closing, I’ll go back to a
method that I’ve used in a few posts now, and remind myself and my readers of a
lesson that we all should have learned as children, “two wrongs don’t make a
right”. Just because someone is a
jackass and doesn’t show you or your viewpoint the respect you deserve, doesn’t
mean that you’re free and clear to be a jackass to them. We can’t move forward as a society unless we can
learn to not hate each other. I know it’s
not an easy task, but it’s better than the alternative.
