The other day someone was discussing the election with me and I explained to them why I don't participate. They were polite but were visibly annoyed and alluded to civic duty. It made me wonder. How many people that vote really believe the election will improve the world they live in?
People are the more vocally divided (being very precise here) than at any point in my lifetime. No matter who wins this will continue to be the case. The thing is, this shouldn't surprise anyone. The current US politician machine is powered by demagogues that have no new ideas. They simply want to strike fear in the public and drive them to vote in defense against an enemy that is constructed by their rhetoric.
One side calls the other Nazi/Fascist. The other calls their opponents Communists. They are both lying. Both sides are simply a collection of differing socialist policies. They are more alike than different. Both have points about the other side though. Both are deeply flawed. There are deep divisions in how things should be done. There have been for my entire life. But until the growth of social media and the natural rise of politicians and pundits to capitalize on it, the divisions were no so apparent.
We have many different cultures in the US. Its a massive country full of people from different cultures, many either immigrants or dependence of immigrants. Some are deeply religious. So much so that their faith is the center of their life and out of that comes all of their world views. Others are deeply anti-religion to a point that being anti-god is their religion.
On top of this, the US is so large that regions of the country have very different cultures. The features of these regions often influence the culture. They often attract people that mesh with their culture. These features seem to be ignored by most people. They are not ignored by politicians. They are used to gain attention and votes. These slime balls don't propose solutions. They propose the use of force violence to force a very specific culture upon the whole of the nation.
Both sides present themselves as virtuous. Neither side seems to be capable of humility. Which is why this is so disastrous.
In any other situation an arbiter would seek to find a compromise that is acceptable to all parties. Instead what we have is a drive for control so that this power can be wielded to make the world into the image the victor desires. This will not work. Cultures can be influenced but they can't be made by force. People resist.
This seems so clear to me. Those that are the loudest seem to not care at all about anything other than winning. But they define winning as winning an election. I don't see how the election reduces any division or heals any wounds. The nation (people) are divided. Many hate the other side. People they do not even know...
We often share space with people at work, concerts, sporting events, and restaurants. Many of these people we disagree with on politics. Why doesn't this break out in violence? Because most of the time. 99% of the it doesn't matter. No one is threatening violence or really even caring what you think about some unrelated topic. If we could just leave each other alone for a few years. Get to know our neighbors. Start to try to improve ourselves and our communities without using force. Maybe we could see that this whole thing people are so worked up about is stupid.
Maybe then we could talk like adults about tough problems and disagreements. Maybe if we listened instead of blasting we could find common ground. Maybe if we turned off the propaganda for a while and instead of placing hope in politicians and democracy we could focus on what we share in common. Our humanity.
I just don't see this happening yet. It seems to me that people are being give false visions of their neighbors. Hatred is being stirred up instead of directed at the political class as a whole. Who profits off of this division? Politicians and the media.
I suspect in the coming weeks following the election we will see violence. It is entirely possible we will see civil war. Not like the "Civil War" which was really a war between states. I doubt the state of Texas or California will declare war on the USA. A true civil war is fought in the streets by different factions. The populace is fed up about being ignored or abused and it turns to open violence. This outcome seems inevitable on our current path. Voting isn't going to fix it. Getting rid of Trump isn't going to fix it(He's old anyway). Getting rid of the democrats isn't going to fix it. Passing some law isn't going to fix it.
As I see it we have two paths.
- Civil war
- At least some states away from the US.
The first will likely result in the second. The second could occur with little violence. That is what I hope happens. The only way I see avoiding either of these is if the masses reject the political violence that seems to be the focus of the media and politicians.
Agree to disagree. The American people have no gripe with the people in France. We are very different. They decide what they want and we do the same. I don't get why this is so hard for people to see in the US. California is a long way from Maine. Why should we all be forced to live under the same rule? The culture of Portland is very different from rural Oregon. Why is it just for those in the city to decide how those in the rural areas live?
We in bitcoin circles talk about these things but rarely do I ever hear anything close to this in my normie circles. That's gonna change.
