Current Events > Why is America currently so divided?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Prismsblade posted...

Many things but Frankly I think us not having a president the majority of the country supported in our life time I think was a massive contributing factor.

That's a symptom, not a cause

Prismsblade posted...

Many things but Frankly I think us not having a president the majority of the country supported in our life time I think was a massive contributing factor.

Do you support replacing the electoral college with national popular vote for the presidential election?

Vyrulisse posted...

Nah it's reality.
Twitter extremists and media spamming their bullshit all day every day is not reality.

Incredibly naive.

Because Republicans are stupid.

TheOtherMike posted...

Because Republicans are stupid.

and extremely well-funded by rich psychopaths that don't want to pay their taxes.

I would argue its because we have drawn a line in the sand on one side versus the other side and have developed a if youre not with me, youre my enemy type of mentality.

Were all just a bunch of Episode 3 Anakin Skywalkers, one tantrum away from going to the dark side.

We demonize, put words in peoples mouths, generalize to an insane degree, and do all the things you do to discredit someone if they are on the other side of the fence.

Downside of a two party system, I suppose.

100% Social media

FlyEaglesFly24 posted...

I would argue its because we have drawn a line in the sand on one side versus the other side and have developed a if youre not with me, youre my enemy type of mentality.

Were all just a bunch of Episode 3 Anakin Skywalkers, one tantrum away from going to the dark side.

We demonize, put words in peoples mouths, generalize to an insane degree, and do all the things you do to discredit someone if they are on the other side of the fence.

Downside of a two party system, I suppose.

Republicans have an entire industry devoted to fostering a if youre not with me, youre my enemy type of mentality. (Faux News, hate radio etc.). See especially Republicans just killing a border security bill that gives them everything they have ever said they wanted for decades because Trump and the noise machine would go after them for it.

Democrats don't.

As always, both sides theory is wrecked by facts.

Lotta poster are forgetting to put the /s at the end of their posts

EPR-radar posted...

Republicans have an entire industry devoted to fostering a if youre not with me, youre my enemy type of mentality. (Faux News, hate radio etc.). See especially Republicans just killing a border security bill that gives them everything they have ever said they wanted for decades because Trump and the noise machine would go after them for it.

Democrats don't.

As always, both sides theory is wrecked by facts.

thats just bs. The left are the most hateful people to people to dont agree with them. The right is mostly just whatever about people who dont agree with them.

and Im on the left, but im starting to hate it

FlyEaglesFly24 posted...

I would argue its because we have drawn a line in the sand on one side versus the other side and have developed a if youre not with me, youre my enemy type of mentality.

Were all just a bunch of Episode 3 Anakin Skywalkers, one tantrum away from going to the dark side.

We demonize, put words in peoples mouths, generalize to an insane degree, and do all the things you do to discredit someone if they are on the other side of the fence.

Downside of a two party system, I suppose.

Thats been a thing since the civil war.

Bad_Mojo posted...

thats just bs. The left are the most hateful people to people to dont agree with them. The right is mostly just whatever about people who dont agree with them.

and Im on the left, but im starting to hate it

Nobody believes this shit, go lie about being a teenage girl with cancer again

Everyone saying some variation of "one side wants to install an insane fascist as president for life and commit several genocides, the other side realized that, both sides are the problem!" is showing exactly why the divide is so intense. Not fighting back against conservatives as hard as possible means no one will try to stop them, as the "both sides" useful idiots have shown.

It's always the already questionable posters pulling the "both sides" shit.

half the country supports a really big cult

EPR-radar posted...

Republicans have an entire industry devoted to fostering a if youre not with me, youre my enemy type of mentality. (Faux News, hate radio etc.). See especially Republicans just killing a border security bill that gives them everything they have ever said they wanted for decades because Trump and the noise machine would go after them for it.

Democrats don't.

As always, both sides theory is wrecked by facts.

As well as one party actively pushing legislation to remove rights and protections, as well as repeated narratives attacking groups they legislate against and having plenty who happily support that same party despite claiming to disagree with those very bills that are getting pushed at the most generous and downplay those pushes as "difference of opinions" as if the right to exist is an opinion.

Strangely, the opposite party, despite claims from the first, are not legislating against the group opposite the ones the first party attack's rights for healthcare, to vote, to exist in public.

KI_Simpson posted...

Everyone saying some variation of "one side wants to install an insane fascist as president for life and commit several genocides, the other side realized that, both sides are the problem!" is showing exactly why the divide is so intense. Not fighting back against conservatives as hard as possible means no one will try to stop them, as the "both sides" useful idiots have shown.

I really do wonder what these both sides chucklefucks would do if sent back in time to Weimar Germany.

One way or the other, they would not have opposed Hitler's rise to power, so the question is exactly how they would have made themselves useless (or worse).

havean776 posted...

Thats been a thing since the civil war.

I would argue again that its been a thing since Hamilton and Jefferson.

This division was a strategy by Bush-era Republicans like Newt Gingrich and spread via talk radio by chuds like Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Especially when we see the laws the party that's "mostly just whatever about people who dont agree with them" pushes compared to the laws pushed by "the most hateful people to people to dont agree with them".

Bad_Mojo posted...

thats just bs. The left are the most hateful people to people to dont agree with them. The right is mostly just whatever about people who dont agree with them.

and Im on the left, but im starting to hate it

This is one of the dumbest things I've read today... and no doubt because I said it was dumb you're going to pull out the trusty ol "See, just proving my point!"

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

There is also that nasty business of a right wing nut job decapitating his own father, apparently for being a Federal employee.

Geiki_Ganger posted...

The two party system has been in place for centuries, but the current division that exists is at an all-time high.

The country has been way more divided in many times through history.

lydiaquayle posted...

The country has been way more divided in many times through history.

I think only the civil war and the immediate lead-in to that is clearly worse than what we have now.

And todays's Republicans are arguably even more unhinged that the pro-slavery fire eaters of that time. E.g., imagine how Faux News would cover the issues of that era. We'd have simultaneous reporting that slavery didn't exist and slaves were the happiest and least overworked people on earth.

EPR-radar posted...

There is also that nasty business of a right wing guy job decapitating his own father, apparently for being a Federal employee.

And the whole attempt to kill legislators who disagreed with who won the election.

EPR-radar posted...

I think only the civil war and the immediate lead-in to that is clearly worse than what we have now.

Slave revolts in the 1830s or so,
Underground Railroad,
Reconstruction,
KKK,
Lynchings of 1950s,
Race riots of 1960s,
Vietnam War,
Kennedy's assassinated,
LA Race riots of 1980-90s,
Bensonhurst race riots,
Occupy Wall Street.

America has ALWAYS been very divided. The only time this country seems to come together is when some shared tragedy or huge war distracts us all.
The only reason why all of this recent stuff seems really bad is because of social media, technology, and increased accessibility to guns.

The GOP and right-wing media has been poisoning their audience/constituents for decades with mis(dis)information, outright lies, propaganda, and conspiracies, to demonize Dems with every negative word and stereotype you can think of, we saw their insanity get progressively worse from Clinton to GWB to Obama and Obama was the final stray "how dare a black man think he can be President!", and then Trump came along and "gave them permission" to be the worst version of themselves they wanted to be for years.

Naturally, those who are disgusted by their behavior, views, and goals for society have come to revile them in return, and the worse they get the deeper the hatred for their domestic terrorist Christo-fascist authoritarian fellatio becomes.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

One could argue that lies that are that blatant are trolling by definition. The fact that it's almost impossible to be a US conservative and not spew offensive lies (or worse) at all times is a problem with US conservatives, not a problem for social media moderators.

United we stand, divided we fall

OriginalPlain2 posted...

United we stand, divided we fall

Lovely. When do we shut down right wing hate radio, Faux News and the rest of the poisonously divisive right wing noise machine?

Does tomorrow work?

Create an enemy.

People will follow you

EPR-radar posted...

Lovely. When do we shut down right wing hate radio, Faux News and the rest of the poisonously divisive right wing noise machine?

Does tomorrow work?

**** if I know

Bleuets posted...

Seems like each side just blames the other side. I try and stay away from politics.

Do you really think you're fooling anyone with comments like this and your history here?

Will_VIII posted...

Do you really think you're fooling anyone with comments like this and your history here?

The persistence of memory is something the Right hates. E.g., "we have always been at war with Eurasia"

EPR-radar posted...

The persistence of memory is something the Right hates. E.g., "we have always been at war with Eurasia"

I mean it'd be one thing if it was a fly by post here and there but not when one was especially prolific.

Because a black man dared to be elected president, and it broke the brains of the racist right.

They haven't recovered since.

Companies realized they had to get people off their backs so occupy wall Street wouldn't happen again, so they found a way to make people defend the corporations themselves.

Geiki_Ganger posted...

The two party system has been in place for centuries, but the current division that exists is at an all-time high. Even though the country was fully united shortly after 9/11.

What happened after that got us to where we are today?

The rise of the Internet & Social Media.

It amplifies voices and allows people to share their thoughts to hundreds/thousands of people.

The steady stream of news also contributes and makes people think things are worse than they are, leading to anger, frustration, & depression.

We're not divided. Both parties seem to want a genocide in Palestine.

ButteryMales posted...

We're not divided. Both parties seem to want a genocide in Palestine.

Even there, there's a tiny bit of nuance. One side wants the genocide, the other seems unconcerned about the genocide so long as they can sell weapons and maintain an ally in the area. I'll concede it's a distinction without a difference for the Palestinians being genocided.

mybbqrules posted...

Because a black man dared to be elected president, and it broke the brains of the racist right.

They haven't recovered since.

It started long before that

bc a whiny jealous dweeb posted a butthurt blog about his ex girlfriend and it somehow became a rallying cry for butthurt dweebs everywhere that ended up being coalesced through grifting into the alt right

CRON posted...

Smartphones and broadband internet access became affordable in the late '00s-early '10s and suddenly millions and millions of Americans with no media literacy or knowledge of politics became easy targets for misinformation and propaganda campaigns.

The seeds were planted with 24-hour news cycles and post-9/11 paranoia but as awful as it sounds, too many people were given too much access to the internet, on devices that are too affordable and too easy to use.

This is the correct answer. There are many factors at play when talking about why the USA is so divided right now, but this is the big one.

To add to it, the profit incentive of capitalism drives people to become bad-faith actors. When that happens on a mass scale and it's automated in digital spaces by software, it accelerates the pace at which we find cracks in our current social system. Machines are trained to find the path of least resistance toward profit, and that has caused our society to change at a much more rapid and unconsidered pace than what we're capable of dealing with.