We have become a country in which we hate each other.

[Cyrano]

Yeah, there have always been those who harbor racism, antisemitism, hatred for Latins, and everyone else who isn't a "REAL" American.

Although, for the most part, some whose families came to America with nothing, and were hated when they came here, climbed the ladder, became part of the "establishment,' and then tried to hold down "The Other."

But Trump changed that. "The Other" is now anyone who doesn't love him, anyone who isn't a Republican, and any Republican who disagrees with him. In short, a large percentage of Americans hate those who love Trump. And an even larger percentage hate him.

Of course, he didn't do this alone. Republicans spent decades creating and instilling these hatreds. And when Trump came along, all he had to do was voice the venom that had been put in place and was just waiting for the right man/woman to light the fuse. And he didn't just light the fuse. He built a movement of MAGAs and many others, whose goal was to destroy democracy

America is a place in which far too many of us now hate others because of our beliefs. And this time around, those "OTHERS" could be our friends and family.

Those who call themselves Republicans, have chosen a road of divisiveness. And we've all taken different forks in that road.

We are now a country that, it seems to me, is driven by hatred. And the upcoming election will be decisive in where we go from here.

Many Republicans, and a few Democrats, think there will be a Civil War. Many of them are nuts who have never seen the horror of war.

So where do we go from here? All I can suggest is this. If the Republicans win/steal the House in a few weeks, we must mobilize like never before. We must win the House, the Senate and the Presidency in 2024. We must throw our entire efforts behind this. We cannot let fascism take over. And make no mistake about it. Republicans are now a fascist party. They can never be allowed to win/steal another election anywhere in this country. If they do, America is over.

[Runningdawg]

1. Before TFG we had Romney telling us 47% of Americans were worthless.

Before him, it was the John Birchers. The hate has always been here, the MAGAts found a way to make money off it.

[Cyrano]

4. Romney wasn't a hater. But the Birchers hated with a passion.

I believe Mitt Romney was a decent, wealthy man who was clueless about the meaning of "Christian Love and charity."

On the other hand, Birchers were just another band of fascist motherfuckers who wanted to take over the world, and peddled any shit they had to in trying to win power.

And I don't think that the goal of MAGAs is money. It's power. And as much as I dislike being judgmental of others, MAGAs have proved themselves to be some of the dumbest people in the world.

[applegrove]

2. John Meacham was saying that this week.

[cachukis]

3. We have developed world views based on the size of our amygdala.

It's physiology.
It will take an evolutionary response to fix it.
Conservative districts offer greater opportunity to die younger. See recent studies of the stresses there. Anti vax communities have higher death rates from covid and possibly future variants.
I read about a study done here in Florida about the most flood prone zip codes having large republican populations waiting for a storm to determine whether they would stay or not. Ian's impact on the demographics is not yet complete, but the area is very red.
Bonhoeffer wrote that stupidity had nothing to do with intelligence; it was the result of the immorality of working against your own best interest.

[Model35mech]

5. Yes we have, and it's happened stepwise

First Americans decided against respectful tolerance of our domestic opponents
Then Americans decided to define each other as identities with opposing, and stereotypically painted, religious, economic, and social agendas

Then American decided that people who oppose ideological desires of opposing identities were deplorable, variously evil etc. And anyone not of 'us' is a 'moran' who supports tyranny.

Now we are at the level where the rules of federal law that we have held in common our national sentiments and shared perspectives are being destroyed and authority of our diverse and ideologically opposed state governments are standing to make rules in opposition to opposing state governments.

Rejecting Federal authority, assuming only red states can govern 'red people' and that only blue states can govern 'blue people' will rather directly lead to a serious national divorce

I don't have a crystal ball, but I fear going to soon be pro-federalists vs the anti-federalists' liberation army at each other before long

[Cyrano]

6. Some really great observations

I wish that someone had a solution, an answer, or some magic wand to wave to fix this.

But I guess we'll have to depend on evolution which moves at a snails pace.

Not to mention, that the fact we're destroying our environment won't allow us the time to survive until our society can outgrow our adolescence.

[Model35mech]

8. Well, I think evolution likely took us here

We evolved as a gregarious species living in groups of multiple families, but we also evolved biases in our motivations to serve our family and ourselves

The conflict between our wants and desires and others' wants and desires has never really been resolved. Especially among very large groups where diversity of wants and desires emerges that conflict with the personal and the familial, and where asymmetries emerge between the power of individuals.

As soon as we had cities, the identities within cities went to war with competitors within the cities, and to war with other cities.

I suspect that was merely moving the nature of conflict from pre-civilized existence to civilization.

[WarGamer]

7. I can explain WHY but many won't like it.

50 years ago the average ideological spread in this country was MUCH more narrow.

Today:


xxxXXXXXXXXXxxx


Past:


xxxxxxXXXXxxxxxx


Ideologically, more people back then fell into a narrower set of beliefs.