Finite
Politics are divisive.
Before we go on, I think it's necessary to disclose my bias. I'm a conservative. If you know me well, you find that out pretty quickly. I love my country, I love a large portion of our history, and I believe America is the greatest nation on the planet. Lot's of people disagree with me, including good friends, and that's 100% okay, preferable even. I love defending my beliefs and challenging other's. I am gonna do my best to write as unbiased as possible, and frankly, I think this is an issue that can be agreed on regardless of biases.
The difference between political divisiveness and political demonizing is as simple as this; divisiveness has to do fearing and devaluing ideas, while demonizing has to do with fearing and devaluing people. Political demonizing has always existed and reared it's ugly head at different times throughout history, so it's not exactly exclusive to our times, yet in that same light, 2016 and what we've been through so far in 2017 has been some of the most toxic behavior I have ever seen in my life.
I'm sure lots of people are nodding their heads in agreement. "You're absolutely right, Caleb! Those snowflake communists are pathetic!" "Finally someone making sense! Those upper middle class self serving pricks are such morons!" The point being is this; if you're looking for who's at fault for this mess, you've got plenty of blame on your own side. I'm not saying that both sides are of equal blame (being a conservative I think you can take a guess as to who I shift most of the blame on), but what I am saying is that before you go on telling the others to shape up or ship out of your lives, you should take a long look at yourself and your colleagues and clean your own home. It's like what that one Jewish guy who died and then came back said (name escapes me), "Y ou hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."
Republicans don't support a candidate and say to themselves, "Oh joy, cant wait to take opportunities from poor kids." Democrats don't go into the voting booth and say, "Can't wait to vote for the devil and legally steal money!" People believe what they believe because of this; they want innocents to be as safe as possible and as happy as possible for as long as possible. We cannot afford to continue going down the road our society seems to be burning rubber driving down.
Liberals cannot afford to believe that you would only vote for conservative ideas or candidates because you're either selfish, sexist, racist or all three. Titles like that can ruin someone's life, regardless of whether they're true or not. When making claims like that about someone, you can't have doubts. Conservatives cannot be so quick to dismiss liberals as snowflakes, meanwhile explode with offense every time they think Liberals act like snow flakes. We often accredit the Democrats loss this 2016 to the outrage culture America had dealt with for the past few years, yet it seems we've learned nothing and continue to do the same exact thing we claim the opposing party had been doing. Inflammatory memes are not going to push forward your movement, but the opposite. No matter how right you are, if you present your idea like a jerk, you're doing yourself and those you agree with a huge disservice.
Human decency and kindness needs to prevail, for all of our sake. If we want to see a change in the way ideas are discussed, it starts with us. Politics weren't supposed to be this destructive. We can disagree left and right, but when we start destroying one another's property and make attacks on each other's character for the sole reason of hurting the person, we've steered wrong. Anger broods anger. Hatred broods hatred. If we keep this up, the divide will be beyond man's ability to build bridges. We as a nation don't need to ignore our disagreements and differences and just hold hands. I believe we have to do something much more bold and far more difficult. We need to hold hands all the while disagreeing and acknowledging our differences.
We need to discuss. We need to seek truth. Somebody is wrong, and somebody is right, and we'll only get closer to finding out who if we talk about it. But the difference is talking about it, not arguing about it. Nobody ever ends an argument having been convinced of the other's side. Instead, both people end the argument resenting the other person and their ideas even more. Discussion is where change is at. As a Christian, the valuing of the individual is of immense importance. In fact, we're called to do more than value the individual; we're called to love them. Regardless of creed, regardless of worldview, we have the obligation from God to look at each person the way Jesus would. When someone yells at you, you don't have the right to yell back in the name of fairness. You gave up the right of the "eye for an eye," mentality when you decided to follow Christ. It's not easy, but it's truth, and truth is what everyone wants.
In conclusion, we need to rediscover the art of seeing each other as people first. If we can't do that, then all is lost. I don't mean to sound doom and gloom but it's true. If we do, though, I believe we will very quickly see a different America then we have seen for the past 15 months.
The difference between political divisiveness and political demonizing is as simple as this; divisiveness has to do fearing and devaluing ideas, while demonizing has to do with fearing and devaluing people. Political demonizing has always existed and reared it's ugly head at different times throughout history, so it's not exactly exclusive to our times, yet in that same light, 2016 and what we've been through so far in 2017 has been some of the most toxic behavior I have ever seen in my life.
I'm sure lots of people are nodding their heads in agreement. "You're absolutely right, Caleb! Those snowflake communists are pathetic!" "Finally someone making sense! Those upper middle class self serving pricks are such morons!" The point being is this; if you're looking for who's at fault for this mess, you've got plenty of blame on your own side. I'm not saying that both sides are of equal blame (being a conservative I think you can take a guess as to who I shift most of the blame on), but what I am saying is that before you go on telling the others to shape up or ship out of your lives, you should take a long look at yourself and your colleagues and clean your own home. It's like what that one Jewish guy who died and then came back said (name escapes me), "Y ou hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."
Republicans don't support a candidate and say to themselves, "Oh joy, cant wait to take opportunities from poor kids." Democrats don't go into the voting booth and say, "Can't wait to vote for the devil and legally steal money!" People believe what they believe because of this; they want innocents to be as safe as possible and as happy as possible for as long as possible. We cannot afford to continue going down the road our society seems to be burning rubber driving down.
Liberals cannot afford to believe that you would only vote for conservative ideas or candidates because you're either selfish, sexist, racist or all three. Titles like that can ruin someone's life, regardless of whether they're true or not. When making claims like that about someone, you can't have doubts. Conservatives cannot be so quick to dismiss liberals as snowflakes, meanwhile explode with offense every time they think Liberals act like snow flakes. We often accredit the Democrats loss this 2016 to the outrage culture America had dealt with for the past few years, yet it seems we've learned nothing and continue to do the same exact thing we claim the opposing party had been doing. Inflammatory memes are not going to push forward your movement, but the opposite. No matter how right you are, if you present your idea like a jerk, you're doing yourself and those you agree with a huge disservice.
Human decency and kindness needs to prevail, for all of our sake. If we want to see a change in the way ideas are discussed, it starts with us. Politics weren't supposed to be this destructive. We can disagree left and right, but when we start destroying one another's property and make attacks on each other's character for the sole reason of hurting the person, we've steered wrong. Anger broods anger. Hatred broods hatred. If we keep this up, the divide will be beyond man's ability to build bridges. We as a nation don't need to ignore our disagreements and differences and just hold hands. I believe we have to do something much more bold and far more difficult. We need to hold hands all the while disagreeing and acknowledging our differences.
We need to discuss. We need to seek truth. Somebody is wrong, and somebody is right, and we'll only get closer to finding out who if we talk about it. But the difference is talking about it, not arguing about it. Nobody ever ends an argument having been convinced of the other's side. Instead, both people end the argument resenting the other person and their ideas even more. Discussion is where change is at. As a Christian, the valuing of the individual is of immense importance. In fact, we're called to do more than value the individual; we're called to love them. Regardless of creed, regardless of worldview, we have the obligation from God to look at each person the way Jesus would. When someone yells at you, you don't have the right to yell back in the name of fairness. You gave up the right of the "eye for an eye," mentality when you decided to follow Christ. It's not easy, but it's truth, and truth is what everyone wants.
In conclusion, we need to rediscover the art of seeing each other as people first. If we can't do that, then all is lost. I don't mean to sound doom and gloom but it's true. If we do, though, I believe we will very quickly see a different America then we have seen for the past 15 months.
