Make America Civil Again: A Letter To My Family and Friends in Blue Headspace
Let's try to not be complicit in our own destruction.
If we can't have empathy and understanding for our fellow Americans because of political disagreements, choosing instead to demonize them and assume the worst about their character and motivations - there's simply no way we're going to survive as a nation.
After Trump's election I got a family circulated email from my cousin with a link to this video. In the video there's a tense soundtrack looming in the background while a man says he is heartbroken and hopeless because over half the people in this nation don’t care about being kind, generous, loving their neighbor, being accepting, having empathy, showing understanding, being truthful, being ethical in business, being sensible and level headed. He's talking about people who voted for Trump.
In response to this I wrote three long emails trying to explain why this is such a dangerous attitude. Here is a gently edited excerpt:
The video you sent painted with a very broad brush, declaring all who voted for Trump to be without any decent values whatsoever. This I consider to be extremely dangerous and corrosive. I urge you (and everyone else): please do not take the bait and demonize 50% of your fellow Americans!
Demonization is the process whereby human beings are converted into something less than human. “They do not share our values - so therefore they have no value”. The next step leads to unfair treatment. When that unfair treatment becomes codified in law we will be finished as a liberal democratic society. These things are already underway and the only way we can stop this erosion of our civil society is if we all refuse to allow it.
In the present political climate BOTH SIDES are hurtling us towards catastrophe. Which side will be the one to start killing the other? I would not be so confident in anyone’s prediction but ultimately it doesn’t matter. We don’t want it to head in that direction so let’s do what we can to understand the people we are being told to despise.
If you’re in a protracted conflict with an adversary it’s pretty much impossible to resolve it if you’re going to treat them as if they were beneath contempt and simply dismiss their perspective without having considered it. This is precisely what is being encouraged by the video you sent. It presumes that anyone who supported Trump is utterly despicable and irredeemable.
To be fair - it must be noted that there are many on the Trump side who are being told to feel the exact same way about Democrat voters. Just a coincidence I’m sure! And just as the Blue team has their list of outrageous grievances against Trump, the Red team has their own galling list when it comes to someone like Biden (and Harris, and Clinton etc. etc.).
Gosh, it’s almost as if the two major parties actually want Americans to hate each other!
This ever so conveniently serves the interests of the world's most powerful people and organizations, no?
Everyone knows professional politicians are beholden to their donors and blackmailers. At one time it was a major political issue to try to get money out of politics (FAIL). Now it’s simply accepted that money buys government while the interests and needs of the citizenry are sidelined.
Politicians are bought not just to pass legislation for their owners but also to influence their constituency. The easiest way to soften up a population is to make them hate each other. It’s a divide and conquer technique, pure and simple. They want to end the inconvenience of having to take the people’s voice into consideration. And they are doing it together WITH OUR CONSENT on the basis of the fear and hatred they have cultivated amongst us. We have become complicit in our own political defenestration (which in light of recent trends may ultimately end in our destruction).
Adopting the stance exemplified in the video you sent can only intensify fear and hatred and lessen understanding and empathy. It starts with insults but it ends in violence. If we don't stop this the tit for tat will continue to escalate and will be used to legitimize breaking all the rules of civic behavior.
This is the same playbook used all around the world - to take previously peaceful populations and turn them against themselves. In the Soviet Union they called this technique "ideological subversion". Now in the West it’s part of “hybrid warfare” strategy. It’s a process of demoralization that was said to have taken about 20 years to complete. We are already at a very late stage of it here in the USA.
Without a willingness to listen, to understand, to engage in diplomatic negotiation - there’s no way to resolve any conflict. Therefore, escalation is the only possible result of adopting the attitude exemplified in that video. Escalation is precisely what’s happening pretty much everywhere around the world (as if it were a coordinated effort, hmmm.).
In my next installment I will write a presentation of the evidence illustrating why Trump and Biden (for example) are far more similar than you presently believe. In order to do this I simply must bring to your attention the sins of the Democrats - there’s no way to make the argument without doing so. I will also have to demonstrate how Trump has been misrepresented so that you can get a sense of how the media is manipulating the narrative.
But ultimately the point is not to show how bad the Democrats are or how Trump is not what you think he is. The point is to prove that the media is lying, that the politicians are corrupt, that neither of them care about the fate of our nation and that THEREFORE we should have some compassion for our fellow citizens on the Red team who are suffering under similar (but opposite) delusions.
The link below will give you the extremely long document of evidence I compiled as described above. (Yeah, this is most of the reason why I've not released a podcast episode in over a month (several awaiting final editing…coming soon!).)
This 45 page document was written in reponse to a series of objections by my cousin to my initial response. You'll get the idea…and I hope if you find this a worthwhile compilation of information that you will send it to anyone who needs it.
Here is the introductory text I used to introduce the above to my mostly Blue Team family members. This was sent over two weeks ago and so far I've gotten two replies: one from my brother saying he was not surprised by any of it and another from a different cousin who said she did not have the bandwidth to read it. It was a lot of work so I figured I may as well make it public (to the extent that this substack makes anything public).
Greetings Everyone,
I wish the attached document was of a more forgiving length and content but alas, it's going to take significant work to read it and absorb the information in the links (thankfully it won't be as much work as it took to compile).
I imagine I got a few things wrong so I look forward to having them pointed out. This is not about who is right or wrong - it's about trying to get as clear a picture of reality as possible. I want to know when I'm wrong so I can correct my perspective. In a rapidly changing world our perspectives have to be updated continually for them to remain relevant.
I hope those of you brave enough to tackle this don't find it too upsetting but honestly it's probably going to be extremely upsetting - no matter your political or ideological orientation. I'm sorry to be the one bearing the bad news but I'm willing to endure the outrage or cold stony silence if those are the only options. In critical times it's essential to do whatever can be done to prevent disaster. We are on the precipice and while it may already be too late I believe that calling for self reflection is essential. It is simply unacceptable to blame the other side if you are blind to the sins on your own side.
When you realize the extent of the lies in the media and the seriousness of the issues they've hidden from sight, it's simply impossible to not be disturbed and outraged. Pondering this will give you some sense as to what motivates some of the people who supported Trump. I personally don't believe Trump will follow through on his promises to MAGA/MAHA. Much in the same way that you have been driven towards the Democrats by the outrageous behavior of Trump, the exact same thing has happened to the Red team in reverse on the basis of the information you've been denied about the behavior of the Democrats.
Anyone who cherishes the values claimed by the video that started this exchange has a duty to spend the time necessary to understand and honestly confront the information in the above document. It is then incumbent upon you to seriously ponder the consequences of this information in relation to your beliefs and actions. It's not going to be fun. I know how difficult it can be to grapple with things that upend your present understanding. Critical times require critical thinking!
It's incredibly difficult to stay open to consideration of the faults in one's worldview:
The natural tendency to avoid traumatic experience is perhaps the most salient explanatory framework for denial - and civilization’s attendant descent into fraudulence, dysfunctionality and cruelty.
