Tired of divisive American politics? It’s global

Right leaning politicians take notes from the US. Now started hearing "fighting woke" etc being used in my country. Sigh.

All the more reason Trump needs to be convicted and thrown in jail. The world needs to see justice prevail. He should have never been elected and hubris by the American left allowed that.
It's actually happened loads of times in Republics. Read up on Gaius Verres Governor of Sicily 70 BCE. The Roman Republic had a laws that prevented officials from holding consecutive terms but also they couldn't be ordered to court while serving. Thus they would be convected of their crimes after their term was completed
- Hopefully the democrates don't start wheeling out the "letting the nation heal" crap. Trump needs to go down, the next fascist the GOP put forward probably won't be as mentally deffeciant.

“You can imagine how frustrating it is to interact with someone who seems to think about things in a similar way and who shares the same basic logic of how things work as you do, but you come to the opposite conclusions,”

Rofl. They think that's what's happening?

Take homelessness, both sides view it as a problem. One side wants to solve it through aid, education, and fair wages, the other side want to lock them up and throw away the key.
- One side sees it as largely a societal failing, and the other strictly a moral failing. Individuals make choices good and bad, but stuck in a system in which you can't win, well, what's so great about having a good attitude about it.
I have convos like thar with my parents all the time. Like with Student Debt Forgiveness, they recognize its a problem, they get that its preventing people from buying homes and thar jobs are paying shit, but the glaringly obvious solution of forgiving that debt is just too radically left for them and they worked so hard to keep me from taking on big student loans.
They're stuck in the far right-centrist right dichotomy of the Oberton window in the US, and just can't take that step beyond the bounds of ideas outside the comparatively narrow views in America. My parents aren't also Fox News watchers, the primarily stick to CNN so they're not stuck in some absurd false reality but they're still stuck in a pro capitalist framework.
- Same with preventing the circumstances that caused this problem in the first place - regulate the banks? That's communism!
- but the glaringly obvious solution of forgiving that debt
  Just because that's what you want doesn't make it 'glaringly obvious.'
  Those with student loan debt are middle or middle upper class white folk. The cost of forgiving student debt would be 1.6T
  Are you going to go into your city and yell out 'we need to give $1.6T to middle and upper class, university educated people, and we need to do it NOW!'? How is that a 'glaringly obvious' solution?
  How does this remove the core issues of the student debt crisis: that it doesn't reduce the cost of college, and may even increase it due to moral hazard? How is student debt forgiveness 'glaringly obvious' when it doesn't address that at all?
  How does it reduce the amount that future students are going to take out to get an education? How is student debt forgiveness a 'glaringly obvious' solution to this?
  Just because you and likely your ~30 YO educated peers have an issue doesn't mean the whole nation just needs to write a blank check when the demographic you're talking about giving $1.6T to are the highest earners in your generation?
  It's not that the solution is 'glaringly obvious' - and everyone who doesn't support it are just stuck in the far right, it's because there are legitimate problems with your 'glaringly obvious' solution.

It's in our nature to move towards tribalism, we've been doing it for millennia even if you think "Oh we can do better"... look at the console wars, look at Marvel vs DC.. look at Star Wars vs Star Trek. We'll invent our own dichotomies to pick sides over. Edward or Jacob, Twilight or 50 shades of grade. Harry Potter or Not Harry Potter.

I wish I could say we could be above that... but we can't.

Especially not when advertising, social media, entertainment industry, politicians use the tribalism tendency to benefit their bottom line.
- I'm reminded of the "I love The Beatles" and "I hate The Beatles" stickers - both sold by the same guy.
I still refuse to recognizr Blu-Rays. HD DVD all the way, baby!
- You're not on Beta? Trust me, it's coming back.
- D-VHS for the win over both of those 😂
Look at all the market strategies that use this simple trick to get people riled up. It's not that we are inherently moving towards tribalism, it's that pushing tribalism generates tons of money. As long as we stay focused on greed and determining worth based on monetary systems, we are doomed to keep falling into that trap. Creating some divide like that is just the easiest and most reliable way to generate interactions with whatever you are trying to push. Plus it primes people to accept something worse off than both parties' situation at the start of the conflict as they now want it over and done with. We can definitely be better if we stop chasing dollars and start chasing community and growth.
- There's definite forces, but I don't think Star Wars vs Star Trek in the 1970s and 80s were driven by those market forces, I don't think that push was really understood back then. The same with Munsters vs Addams family (Yeah people liked one or the other).
  But that tribalism is definitely being pushed now and it's something we have to try to back away from, or at least be better about. If you love Playstation for instance that's fine.. Just don't spend your day putting down Xbox, enjoy your system, let them enjoy theirs, it's not a zero sum game.
I like both sides of most of those, err um, in some case don't like both sides equally.

Though I'm sure some fascist disagrees, this is obvious and common sense too, no?

When politics is boring, things are working. When it is spicy news, shit hit the fan.

The Ruling class keeping the rest of us divided, say it ain’t so…

Ironically cannot be viewed globally.

I gotchu
EAST LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — Are you tired of America’s divisive and volatile political climate?
Affective polarization–or, the tendency to dislike people from opposing political parties–is a global bias, rather than American, says a new study by an interdisciplinary team of researches from six countries.
“You can imagine how frustrating it is to interact with someone who seems to think about things in a similar way and who shares the same basic logic of how things work as you do, but you come to the opposite conclusions,” said Mark Brandt, associate professor of psychology at Michigan State University.
Brandt said that this sharing of basic logic, in spite of opposite conclusions, is indicative of competition between two groups.
“We think that sharing a way of thinking about issues with a political outgroup is likely a signal that they are competitors in the political system,” Brand said.
The multidisciplinary study, led by Felicity Turner-Zwinkels of Tilburg University in the Netherlands, looked at the underlying factors that cause affective polarization.
The result was that across the world, people’s dislike of a political outgroup correlates with how much they disagree with the group.
MSU’s Brandt said the study is important because it explains on a global scale what has been widely discussed as an American problem.
“This shows that it is global and not just an American phenomenon,” Brandt said. “People should care because it helps better explain the way humans interact with each other in the realm of politics.”
What’s the solution to such widespread polarization?
The study suggests two approaches. One is to emphasize shared opinions between the political groups–in other words, focusing on what they have in common.
The other suggestion, according to the study, is to find new and innovative ways to contemplate political issues and their interconnectedness.
- Hey, thanks!