lizkat
Watching March roll out real winter
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2020
- Posts
- 7,341
The media make a buck by covering extremes, so it s/b no surprise we all get a skewed idea of what somebody else from somewhere else might consider "normal". What we don't usually learn is that people from wherever that is don't think extremes are normal either. But we still buy the papers or look at them over someone's shoulder on the train... and read about their 15 seconds of fame when some Tweet or Facebook post goes viral (and of course is then picked up by established media as well).
What I don't like is how we all get sucked into figuring "liberals" or "right wingers" are so different in hopes and dreams and so in conduct of daily life towards realizing them. Our speech patterns in social media battles are different, of course, but aside from pre-amped public disagreements, we tend not to be quite so dismissive of each other in real life.
I've seen that every time I show up at a potluck dinner in this tiny unincorporated village. Half the village is retired farmers, half more urban people who bought a seasonal residence or fixer-upper and ended up retiring here.
Our politics are way different, and that becomes apparent at the edges of those social gatherings, if anyone is dumb enough to mention any of the buzzwords that both major political parties have brought us nearly or actually to blows over during the past half century or so.
But we were not born with a desire to redefine and devalue commentary of others in a room. And somehow our congress critters and assemblymen have often managed to solve problems in bipartisan fashion by listening to all the constituents and seeking feasible answers to their (sometimes angry) questions and challenges.
It's a dirty little secret though that nowadays the party leaders only cut this bipartisan effort any slack when the district in question is up for grabs. If it's all red or all blue then the very idea of working across the aisle with a peer in some other district (and of the other major party) is grounds for some party honcho or wannabe climber to suggest that a primary race might be next up. And like little parrots, we ordinary Americans see our political leaders behave this way and then emulate it, at least in social media and increasingly in public behavior as well.
If might help if we just quit subscribing to the idea from on high that everything (and everyone) can be condensed to some sharp phrase in the set of all buzzwords coined for use in campaign ads. It would be a tough slog though, because it's years and years we've been conditioned to stereotype each other and our respective ideas about how government should work. I know that as a lefty I do fall into making stereotypes of the right that don't fit all my right-leaning friends around here. It's reactive and a little lazy. My excuse is that I'm pushing back against those on the right who stereotype behavior of lefties. I know I have counterparts on the right as well!
The problem is that anyone suggesting we could all just get along --at least in more civil dialogue-- often gets consigned to the "centrist" slot in politics, whether in fact they're an old fashioned conservative or a new left progressive. I find that tragic, because talking with each other irrespective of labels (and listening) is the only way political battles get ended without good ideas (and sometimes people) ending up dead for no good reason.
Hence why many of the Manchin posts are directed at me. Like I voted for him. Oh wait, I did. 
we can't prove or disprove anything from over there.
