The simple fact is that both sides need to move towards the middle more if we want to move forward as a stronger country. The old saying of united we stand divided we fall still rings true.
I am a firm believer in free speech, but to follow that principle you have to be willing to listen to things you may not agree with. You don't have to change your mind in a spirited debate on a topic, but you at least need to be open minded enough to see the other persons position. In fact , if you cannot see the opposing perspective, you cannot look at all of the angles of an issue to counter argue a point effectively to attempt to sway the others point of view. Far to often both sides generalize the other sides perspective and outwardly dismiss anything coming from the other side even though there might be valid points being made. When personal bias's dominate an individual or groups mindset then those sides are just living in echo chambers of opposing view points.
The media is quick to take advantage of this as they stir up the pot of dissent and amplify it to help keep the opposing sides apart. The media is controlled by the elites and part of their job task is to keep the opposing sides apart so that the masses are kept busy tearing the other side down. This is done so the opposing sides can't find common ground in which to unify and find actual solutions to the problem at hand. In doing this the elite are given full reign amid the Chaos to control the situation despite what either side wants. The phrase "from chaos comes order" is a favorite saying of theirs. Disorder has often been used to manipulate the masses to get a desired effect many times through out history. It goes along the lines of create the problem and then step forward with the solution to the problem so that the masses will follow the person or group offering the solution.
Take for example where in Charlottesville, Virginia, violence erupted by opposing demonstrators of the Alt Right and Alt left. In the aftermath one innocent woman was left dead, two police officers died in a helicopter crash and many more were injured in the ensuing chaos of the days events. It was all pretty senseless and should have been avoided. This happening was a perfect storm of what can happen when people are not willing to sit and talk and just want to shout their opinions out.
Personally I am no fan of white supremacists such as the KKK but I will say they have a right to talk. I do not agree with their positions and find it hard personally to let them espouse their untasteful brand of rhetoric but there is either free speech for all or free speech for nobody and who is to decide who gets to voice an opinion. The same laws that allow them to speak also allow the ultra left the right to speak their minds as well.
The media was quick to criticize Trump for not being more forceful on his condemnation towards the Alt right groups but little was said on the Alt lefts role in the conflict. Both sides had the few individuals that were looking to start something and both sides had people that wanted to make a peaceful point. When Trump brought that fact up, the media had a field day saying he was supporting the Alt Right when he was in fact saying both sides were partially at fault for the breakdown of order.
Lately there has been a hard press to try and erase the history of the country in the name of PC politics. The problem is you can't erase what happened in the past, but you can use it to learn from past mistakes. Getting into a mob mentality and ripping down public statues is counter productive to your cause as it stirs up resentment from the other side of the issue. A statue is not oppressing anyone but apparently in the new hyper sensitive society that is emerging they cause PTSD just from sitting there. Someone went so far as to say that the statues were on pedestals and you put gods and idols on pedestals so that the statues were idols of white supremacy. Personally I feel that is a load of psyco-babbling horse shit but they have a right to their opinion.
I can understand if a predominantly black community wants to rename a park away from someone who once owned slaves, even though that person just happens to be the first president of the united states but going in with a mob and ripping down stuff is the wrong way to go about it. Also the wholesale destruction of every statue of every slave owner is not going to change history one bit. I even heard that someone called for Mount Rushmore to be taken down. That's getting a little extreme in my book as the people on that monument also did a lot of good for this country.
Part of the recent rise and resurgence of the Alt right can be blamed squarely on the Alt left. As much as people on the left might not like hearing that, it happens to be true. There has been a high degree of lawlessness on the part of Antifa which is ironic because they are basically using some of the same tactics that they claim to be against. In doing so they are creating the very thing they claim to be fighting against as it gives the Alt right fuel to point at the lawlessness on the left as a reason to band together. The protests and small riots of the left after the election did not sit well with a large majority of Americans. That's why the true hope is for people to find middle ground and bring the country towards the center. It's been a common tactic for the left to accuse anyone and everyone on the right as being a racist and a fascist which is utter bullshit. Every election cycle the Democrats seem to play the race card and try to also portray all Republicans as heartless and cruel to anyone who isn't rich. Often though it actually is the Republicans who seem to be more open minded at times while the Democrats ride around on their high horse claiming moral superiority and open mindedness. The last election showed that, as the behavior on the left was extremely atrocious at times. They seemed to be taking the win by any means necessary approach even though that meant doing the exact same things they were falsely accusing the other side of. I am not trying to say that all Republicans are enlightened saints by any means, they aren't, but I didn't see any Republicans protesting Hillary rallies and attacking her supporters like I saw the left do to trump rallies. I'm sure that in the extreme lefts minds that was all justified , but when you stop and realize that the alt right think in their minds their actions are justified due to the unlawful actions of the hard left, it causes a reason to pause and say, hold on , how about everyone pull their heads out of their asses, calm down and just be reasonable. The actions of both sides are causing a downward spiral in political relations.
The vast amount of Americans live in the wide middle ground and are reasonable thinkers. The media however loves to sensationalize the extreme edges and stoke the flames of discontentment and distrust as they try to polarize the people towards the extremes. "Trying to get high ratings while ripping at the fabric of the country" would be an appropriate slogan for many of the news outlets these days. Our commonalities is what should be stressed to bring people together rather than to tear people apart. Yes , there will be disagreements but shouting at each other does not produce any resolution to anything, it only makes the problem worse.
I was pleasantly surprised when talking to one of my second cousins who is very liberal a few weeks back when he expressed the same attitude that the country needs to find a more middle approach to the issues , because as he said , it is getting to the point where people cant even reasonably discus the issues anymore. He also went on to say that as much as there is to hate about Trump , that Trump isn't wrong about everything. At the time we were talking about the immigration problems that Europe has been having and the terror attacks that have been wide spread over there with people just flooding into Europe. He had seen the issues over there first hand and he told me that the situation was out of control over there. His comments gave me hope that common ground could be found to discuss the issues that affect our own country.
Seriously, is it such a bad idea to crack down on illegal immigration when it is bringing us groups like MS13 into the country? Is it a bad thing to deport repeat violent offenders that have no respect for any of our laws? Is it such a bad thing to make sure we have proper vetting on people coming in from middle eastern countries when many from those regions have openly expressed a hatred for the western culture and want to spread Sharia law around the globe that oppresses women and goes against the tenants of Democracy in favor of religious governance?
One of the things that Trump did get right out of his speeches on the events of the past few weeks was that fixing the economy and getting everyone being prosperous is the best way to help heal the divides. Even those comments though fell on deaf ears as a lot of people just hate Trump and think that any thing he says or does is just evil. Its unfortunate that the media is set on stirring the pot of discontentment and dividing the masses rather than bring them together. I still think that Trump is more of a moderate politically than the media gives him credit for. It just plays well to paint him as an out of control extremist to get ratings and it serves a purpose of distracting the masses from bigger issues like the national debt, the looming shift in world reserve currency status and the bipartisan bickering and ineptitude of the representatives in Washington DC. There are important issues to be handled in this country and the media is stirring up racial and political strife that distracts everyone from concentrating on the deeper issues the nation has. Things like the medical care issues. It was no great secrete that Obama Care aka The Affordable health care act was not working as promised. Rates were going way up , insurance providers were backing out of the plans leaving less providers to actually provide and share costs. The plan was rammed through into law with Pelosi saying we would have to pass it to find out what is in it! Seriously WTF was up with that? Then after there was issues with it , and you had the republicans screaming to repeal and replace and the democrats sticking their heads in the sand like nothing was wrong ,could nobody in Washington DC stand up and say ," You know , this program has issues and they need to be fixed, lets try and do our jobs by working together and fix this mess before the American people suffer!"
People forget about the principles of pendulum politics. It goes like this, the farther you pull the pendulum to one side , the farther it will swing to the other side in response. For eight years under Obama the pendulum was drawn far to the left as "Social Justice" issues were pushed harder than fixing the over all issues with the country. Special interests groups such as the LGBT and BLM were coddled at the expense of conservative groups and the police and a lot of people resented that. The white house would be lit up in rainbow colors to celebrate gay marriage or lit up in purple to pay tribute to Prince when he overdosed and died, but when six police officers were assassinated protecting a crowd of protesters that were protesting against the police, the white house refused to show support to the police by lighting up the white house in blue. That didn't go unnoticed by a large percentage of the population. When the doors were kicked open to illegal immigrants in violation to existing laws on the books that stuff didn't go unnoticed. It wasn't unnoticed just by the right but also by the African American community who watched an influx of low wage workers flooding into the country that were going after jobs that many people born here could have used.
Now after the pendulum had been pushed far to the left, it swung back towards the right. Granted , this country does not need a hard right swing that's for sure but it certainly does need to get back towards a more middle position. The left is desperately trying to prevent the pendulum from swinging the other direction but the hard left positions are not going to prevent that from happening , they will only accelerate the momentum.The problem with a group like Antifa is that they just indiscriminately declare whomever they want to be a Fascist. If you don't agree with them - your a Fascist, You voted for Trump because you wanted a business man in the drivers seat instead of a career politician who has enriched their own wallet in the name of serving the country - your a Fascist, You support the police and the military - your a Fascist, You are walking down the street minding your own business and happen to be in the path of an angry out of control mob - well - you might be a Fascist , especially if your white so its not innocent until proven guilty , its guilt by association and your a fascist. The point is , the majority of the people that Antifa claims to be fascists , probably are not! There might be a few fascists out there but they are a very small minority of the people in this country.
Extreme leanings to either side is dangerous. When those leanings are pushed on by the media , they become volatile. Its ironic that a lot of evil things are done in the name of "Doing what's right" or " Doing what needs to be done" without regard to asking - "is this really right to do and does this really need to be done in this manner?" The media has also pushed the concept of vigilante , do it by any means necessary justice in movies and television for decades so is it any surprise that people take that position?
We need less extremes and more middle ground. In fact, we don't just need that in this country but the world at large. While I am a supporter of a strong military , I also realize just how much money gets pissed away globally because the human race bickers and argues and generally distrusts one another. The base elements of why that money is pissed away every year can be broken down to the same dynamics seen in the hard right and hard left butting heads. It comes down to opposing sides not willing to sit down and talk rationally and just try accepting the differences of the multitude of people in the world. It comes down to differing opinions hell bent on making others conform to how they think rather than seeing how the other side thinks and feels. Basically it boils down to greed and ignorance on all sides and a stubbornness to not change for the betterment of all. The really sad thing is , its the minority on the extreme sides leading the masses into conflict. Most people want to live in peace, get along with others and really don't want to mess with any one or be messed with.
I sincerely hope that calmer heads prevail , not only on the streets and in government here in the USA but around the world at large. We are living in a volatile time where mankind can either get together and reach for the stars for a better future for everyone , or send the world crashing back several hundred or thousand years as we tear the planet apart. Lets just hope we chose to get along, drop the ego BS and stop the senseless arguing before it becomes to late.
Until next time
Lasco X
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