Part 1: I'm not buying a damn mask!!!

[Caliman73]

26. This is a problem and a fundamental difference between liberals/conservatives.

Blanket statements can be problematic but I have to engage here:

Liberals tend to learn from, empathize or sympathize with, and accept information without having a direct involvement with the issue. When I see children starving in an African, Asian, Central or South American country, I feel it and want to do things personally and politically to stop their suffering. Donate to charity, call my representatives to provide aid and support. When there is a public health problem I research and listen to the experts even if I don't know or never see anyone with the problem described.

Conservatives tend to need a very personal exemplar to be moved toward action, especially in these days when they are getting completely contradictory information from their "news" sources. It seems if they don't know someone close and personally who has gotten sick or died, or if they themselves have not experienced the illness, they are content in believing that it does not exist or that it isn't as bad as it seems.

I don't know how to address that problem without trampling on people's rights. I would love to eliminate Right Wing media, but I also value the First Amendment. I think right wing media has allowed for the ossification of people's point of view. It is one thing to debate an issue with liberal v conservative viewpoints spinning from the same set of facts, but right wingers can now live in a world where they get an entirely different AND WRONG set of information. You can't discuss or debate when you aren't even dealing with the same reality.

President Obama was not a Kenyan Marxist. He was a center left American born citizen. He grew up, raised his White mother and White grandparents, but he was Black too so he had a truly American upbringing, even if he did spend some time in another country with his father. Tell that to right wingers though...

It is sad what happened to this guy. The worst thing is that it did not have to happen but for a mindset that is eroding the foundations of society.