Much has been made of “polarization” recently. People say things like “the left has completely ruined everything” or “the right is so uninformed” or “no one on the left likes the Constitution” or “everyone on the right is racist, homophobic and prejudice”.
Sound familiar?
The irony is this, though these types of statements are statistically false, the more these messages are preached, the more they make themselves to be true.
In other words, the more polarized we believe we are, regardless of reality, the more polarized we become. The “us” versus “them” mentality grows and compounds upon itself. Elites love this mindset. Why? Because it mobilizes and activates people. Having a specific enemy is great for voter turnout, campaign donations, increased ratings and the like.
This is nothing new.
Lenin said: “We can and must write in a language which sows among the masses hate, revulsion, and scorn toward those who disagree with us.”
Uniquely American
I have an occasional conversation with someone on Twitter and I’m always a bit amazed to see the radically different worlds that people live in. People tend to live in echo chambers where what they believe is only confirmed and supported by the news they are fed.
This further contributes to the “us”, “them” mentality that has been growing in this country for years now.
And yet, I can almost guarantee you that should I ask any random American ”Should government have the power to dominate our lives?”, no matter their race, religion, wealth, sexual orientation and the like, they would say no.
If I ask a random American if the government should follow the Constitution and avoid arbitrary power, most Americans would say yes.
If I ask a random American if liberty is a good thing, most people would say yes.
If I ask a random American if being a racist is a good thing, most people would say no.
Mind you, this would not be the case for people in other countries. Many of these traits, expectations and understandings are uniquely American.
We think we are drastically different from our fellow Americans… and, perhaps we aren’t.
Echo Chambers
Think about the BLM movement for an example. Many people, primarily on the left, have made the argument that the Black Lives Matter protests have been mostly peaceful. And, according to some accounts, most of them have been. One article says that 93% of the BLM protests have been peaceful.
Many conservatives respond to this statement with disgust saying that just because the percentage of violence is small doesn’t mean it’s ok. No violence is ok. It would be like saying, “Well, Bill only punches 7 out of every 100 people”.
Here’s the thing. Both the liberals and the conservatives have a point to make here.
Conservatives, listen up: your echo chamber wants you to hate liberals and believe that all liberals are violent monsters who beat people up, rage incoherently, burn down private businesses, and froth at the mouth. So, your timelines, feeds, news stories and news reports will show you these particular stories and cause you to feel as if those on the left are literally burning the whole country to the ground.
Why? Because feeling this way motivates you to give money to the GOP, to watch all of the GOP or Conservative shows, to vote for the GOP and so on and so forth.
Liberals, listen up. Your echo chambers want you to believe that the BLM protests are completely peaceful, so the news reports will rarely, if ever, show you any images of the violence that has been perpetrated by some of these radical left wing groups. Your timelines and feeds will instead show you images and videos of Trump supporters or conservatives doing unsavory things in order to further confirm for you that all people on the right are racists, misogenistic, pathetic, homophobic, prejudiced nazis who want to oppress and suppress anyone and everyone who is not white.
Why? Because feeling this way motivates you to give money to the Democrats, to watch all of the Democrat or liberal shows, to vote for the Democrats and so on and so forth.
So, conservatives, yes, there are some violent BLM riots and no violence is good. Arrests should be made and these riots should be reported on; but most of the protests have been peaceful (as hard as that might be to swallow for those of you who truly believe that 50% of the nation is violently burning down the nation), meaning that those who are rioting are a fringe or minority of the left.
And, liberals, most people on the right are not racist, violent bigots and those who are, are a fringe minority (as hard as it might be to swallow for those of you who firmly believe that 50% of the nation hate all minorities).
You may be thinking, “Ok, fine, but just look at Twitter and social media. The left (or right) is crazy!” Hmmm, so do you think that Twitter is representative of the whole U.S. population? Read this article. Did you know that only 22% of the U.S. adult population uses Twitter?
That’s right, 22%.
That means that 78% do not.
Of that 22% who use Twitter, 26% of those living in an urban area 22% those living in a suburban area, and 13% of those living in a rural area use Twitter.
Ok, so, in other words, if we think that the cancel culture that exists on Twitter, the rage on Twitter, the partisan animosity on Twitter is representative of everyone on the left or right…we’re dead wrong.
Twitter represents one, small segment of the U.S. population and is not even representative of who these people are in person.
Here’s the thing:
We have to stop forgetting this and buying into the “us” versus “them” mindset. There are fringe radicals on both sides of the aisle and we should all be afraid of them, but what your echo chamber is telling you about the “left” or the “right” is all just a propaganda game attempting to make what isn’t true yet, true.
If enough Americans begin to believe the “us” versus “them” world is true, it will eventually become true.
In which case, who will have succeeded?
The fringe and radical minority.
Conclusion
Stalin said this: “Advance towards socialism cannot but cause the exploiting elements to resist the advance, and the resistance of the exploiters cannot but lead to the inevitable sharpening of the class struggle.”
In other words, the constant pushing and shoving of this “us” vs “them” mentality, is achieving the intended goal—a legitimate “us” vs “them”.
Don’t play the game friends. You’ll find that many of your fellow Americans are just that, fellow Americans, confused and disillusioned by all the rhetoric telling them that they should hate you and you should hate them.
Hitler said this of the U.S. Let us not prove his statement true.
“I don’t see much future for the Americans … it’s a decayed country. And they have their racial problem, and the problem of social inequalities … everything about the behaviour of American society reveals that it’s half Judaised, and the other half negrified. How can one expect a State like that to hold together?”
Through a genuine love of liberty, my friends, a love of liberty.
The Liberty Belle