Why are we so divided politically and how can we come together and mend divisions?

[AEther]

i don't have any plans for quick fixes, i think for now we just have to hope things simmer down and don't get worse.. not feeling super hopeful about it.

I do actually have A LOT of thoughts for long term fixes, from back when it all felt less immediate..
there is too much to go in to (that i can be bothered to go into) but the core of it is education. which sounds like i'm saying it's the stupid masses that are the problem. i'm not. the problem it the political model, the game of politics.

the game is to make the masses think that you are doing a better job than the opponent, it doesn't matter what the job is or how well it's preformed, it only matters that the people hate you less that they hate them.
hate is a much easier emotion to evoke than respect, especially when you are doing a job that can never please everyone. it's much easier to make the people hate them over there, whoever "them" is, might be the opponent, foreigners, or even other sections of the population.
do you actually believe in the policy you represent? is it actually feasible, sustainable or moral? pft, why would that matter? that's not the job or the game. sure, to some extent they might actually judge you on your job performance, but for the most part, just making them THINK that you represent their interests and ideals is what's important. what are their ideals? well that's mostly already established, most of them already have their tribes and dogma, you need to appeal to and encourage that, maybe mold it look more like what they want it to, and make clear you're not like "them". after all, it's headlines and outrage that sway them, not boring old statistical analysis, and if you de get caught in a lie, that's not a big deal, after all "that's just what politicians do".

so it's the evil conniving politicians that are the culprits? nope. i mean yeah, a lot of them sure are nasty bastards who are all to willing to incite hate for their own gain.. but the thing is, even if you really want to do the right thing and make the world a better place, you have to play the game, if you don't, the opponent will, and you're dead at the starting line. no matter your intent, manipulating the public is the path, and naturally, people who have a natural inclination for manipulation and power, are going to be more adapt at gaining power through manipulation.

it's a vicious cycle. the tribalism and dogma of people put parties in power, and parties get in power through tribalism and dogma. consolidation of division increases with each step.

the core of my solution; intellectual health class!
a core class in all schools that deals with selective bias, cognitive dissonance, and all manner of logical fallacy that facilitate blind ragey dogma. but also data analysis and sourcing. in the internet age an ability to assess the credibility of posts is increasingly becoming a vitally necessary, and lacking, tool that so many simply don't have.

immunise people against misleading promises, divisive rhetoric, 'fake news' and bigotry. over time, being deceitful and divisive will have less tactical value, with it being less tactical, less will do it, and with less doing it, when someone it caught in deceit, we won't just say "that's what politicians do", we'll say "hey, wtf. you can't say that!"

weeell, i'm very sleepy and rambling, so might not have made sense and haven't really address the question, but i'm just going to hit send anyway..

[Not_Average]

Well one, when you deprive people of their personal liberties such as earning a living or socializing- people tend to rebel and enact violent behavior due to onset mental illness.

Number two, government corruption. The media plays a big role in this as well. There’s more political gain and power up for grabs when they strategically divide the country. It eventually calls for drastic change, or an overhaul of an entire system. It also builds a strong and reliable voter base since you are psychologically entraining that it’s good versus evil instead of this way and that way.

The left tells everyone that Trump supporters are bigoted racists. The right tells everyone that democrats are communist and irrational social justice warriors.

It’s all an act, and most people are too blind and sheep-like to think for themselves and question authority when there’s clear indication of corruption. It’s quite sad.

[marrk]

I’ve noticed that leaders/media and then the people tend to speak in dichotomies. Perhaps this is a human characteristic. “This is good so that is bad” when that usually isn’t reality. This causes people to choose a side. When we choose sides, our pride often makes us dig our heals in even when presented with information that directly contradicts what we believe/are told. This leads to group-think, in-group bias, and hatred for the other. A lack of humility and considering others’ experiences as another truth (or piece of the puzzle of truth) is prevalent. As a Christian, I also think we put too much faith in our leaders to fix things and not enough in God and our need to live our own lives as a testament of our ideal. Many say they want peace, but make a habit of saying/doing hateful things. I’m not perfect, so I’m trying to focus on fixing myself and loving more rather than pointing out a specific person’s (or group’s) flaws.

[StaceyR]

I refuse to talk about the UK and their politics, because I'm an American and it's none of my business. I just wish the people of the UK held the same standard.

But if you want unity in America, we need term limits. This witch is 80 years old, and has been in office for about a half a century. This is why we're not united. Get in, one and done, and then go back to your law practice.
What type of pathetic piece of shit needs to impeach a president that will be gone in a week?

[BeMuse]

Divide et impera… Evil people are orchestrating a coordinated plan for control, wealth, and shits and giggles apparently… They Wold Economic Forum are funding the BLM and ANTIFA to create chaos. You’ve got the communist vs fascism struggle which is classic Rothschild shit like the Russian revolution and Weimar Republic/Nazi Germany. Edmond de Rothschild is an organizer for the World Economic Forum. His evil ass is likely provoking Black people and the soy boys to lead a color revolution. They’ve been allowed to riot without too much interference to build their confidence. Little do they know they are vastly outnumbered, out gunned, and out skilled by the American warrior class if they choose to go down that dangerous and very foolish road. They are being marched to their death most likely… It’s possible their financiers will provide them with automatic weapons, body armor, new trucks to act as technicals, etc… That sort of shit has been done in places like Cambodia and Rwandan before… :/ Not that it would help much when an Apache lights your ass up... During “Storm the Capital” you had BLM and ANTIFA acting out scenes from the Sack of Rome in 455 when the Kingdom of Vandals & Alans and the Moors attacked the Romans (Even though the current heir of Rome is likely a German not an American). The Vandals & Alans played by ANTIFA and the Moors played by the BLM. You got the guy in furs and horned helmets, the guy with furs and a spear/staff, you got the guy carrying off the pillared podium, you have the guys scaling the wall, you have the horns of war in the crowd, and obviously looting and Black men are really obsessed lately with taking White women. So either there are a lot of history majors in ANTIFA and BLM or rich people are cracking jokes with historic imagery while they ruin poor people’s lives… That could be a shout out to China/Iran/Aryans. They are obviously in the mix… They made large donations to BLM as did Soros.At the end of the day those people want totalitarian rule over other people to enslave them. They use the easy divide of bitterness and racism in the Black community in an attempt to re-enslave a free population by using the freed slaves as pawns to do their evil bidding and ultimately re-enslave themselves (fucking numb nuts)… Well at least semi-free... They have already installed central banks and corrupted the courts and congress... Anyway, there are fail safes in the USA to fix a situation like this but it’s not going to be pretty. It’s sad that it has gone this far when it could have been fixed many different ways very easily… I guess DHS/FEMA/Marines are going to have to save the country and send a bunch of commies to GITMO to meet Big Bob.https://www.youtube.com/embed/R4k2ZjketOkThere were so many more preferable outcomes that would leave people feeling better. I just hope they act responsible with the overwhelming level of power they have or things are going to go south...

[Barbaric]

The divisions won't be mended. Things will continue to get worse. I think that a lot of this division is being deliberate engineered - divide and conquer. Even if not it won't be reversed.

The gap between the rich and poor is rising. What's the best way to prevent a rebellion by the lower classes? Divide them by political affiliation and have them fight amongst each other.

The same thing is also happening within these groups on the left and right. They get infiltrated and divided. Best way to stop the black power movement? Divide them by gender and sexuality then have them fight amongst each other.

The biggest threat to all of us are the people in power, but we're all more concerned with fighting people on the opposite political side.

What's more, many of the things happening today are signs of a culture in decline, heading towards collapse. There's nothing new under the Sun, history is repeating itself.

Obsession with feminism, LGBT, multiculturalism etc. are all signs. No culture has ever survived long-term with these things in place. Most people today want that to happen, but it won't. Every argument about how it could work will include the words "if only". Those "if onlys" have never and will never exist.

The relationships between men and women and the family unit are the backbone of a strong society, because happy, healthy couples raise happy, healthy children - feminism destroys that as trust between men and women decreases, families break-down, children are damaged by all of that and repeat the cycle.

A functional society requires gender roles, once men become less masculine and women become less feminine the culture is on it's way out - LGBT, transgenderism etc.

A functional society requires most people to be on the same page, with similar values and working towards the same goals, multiculturalism leads to conflict in these areas and diversity is not a strength. If it were we wouldn't be experiencing any racial tension, everybody would be getting along just fine.

What tends to happen if you look at the history of the rise and collapse of cultures is that a culture will reach a certain level of success, and beyond a certain point they become victims of their own success. All that I just said would have been obvious to people of the past, because they lived in harder times and they did those things by necessity in order to survive. Once people get comfortable they think those things no longer matter, mainly because they don't understand what I said at the beginning of this paragraph.

So you have the people in power purposely using divide and conquer tactics as well as supporting all of the above knowing that it helps with that agenda, to gain more and more power for themselves. And this always happens. There is no going back to the good times, the party is over.

[Teyfet]

Conservatives are xenophobes. In both the US & EU they are predominantly "white" & fear/hate people of other "races," whom they consider to be inferior. Because they errantly believe themselves to be superior, they become angry whenever they see foreigners or someone of another race doing well (especially if that person is doing better than they are); they HATED Obama, for example.

EU policies caused an influx of foreigners into the UK (because it has been one of the strongest economies in Europe) which triggered all the small-minded folks there to vote for Brexit.
In the US the stupids fear people from south of the border, though those people don't typically do jobs that Americans want to do, the stupids claim that the "illegals" are "taking our jobs" & they chant "Build the Wall" to keep them out (as if a wall ever stopped any determined individuals) & that got trump elected in 2016.
For a bit of irony:
https://youtu. be/ADzobhJVtnw

The conservatives in both countries want to turn inward & practice nationalism/isolationism, without acknowledging that they still want & expect to take part in the global economy. Unfortunately as Climate Change worsens it diminishes natural resources, yet demands for those resources will continue to rise as populations increase. This imbalance will in result mass migrations, in more wars both intranationally & internationally, all of which will, in turn, stoke greater fervor among nationalist causing their numbers to grow as fears increase.

In fact, the conservative parties in every democratic nation are stoking these fears, in many nations across Europe (https://www. google. com/amp/s/www. BBC. com/news/amp/world-europe-36130006) & in other parts of the world, notably India & Brazil.
There will be no end to this cycle of stupidity until the nations of the world manage to stop (& reverse) the effects of climate change.

[Floppy2112]

I could write a dissertation on this. There are plenty of reasons. There are plenty of people who are mad who have damn good reason to be. But we just need to lower the temperature, but that is not happening.
I am a big history buff and the historical precedents (they do exist, none of this is actually unprecedented) do not indicate that what happens next is anything good.
Optimistically speaking, the west is in serious trouble. Batten down the hatches because the seas ahead are going to be rough. Everybody is doing everything wrong simultaneously and nobody is backing down. I only see 3 ways this all goes and all 3 are bad options. God help us.

[Anonymous]

Because we have lost site of our values as a country and don't have any form of respect and love for our fellow citizens. Doesn't help that politics has worked its way too far into key infrastructures like media, education and economics.

It has access to push rhetoric regardless of side to people like never before who don't know what to think because critical thinking is absent these days and end up picking a side simply because someone of high social status they admire does or because they were told to.

[Bang5luts]

In my opinion I believe that anyone who is running for office as a public servant that does not express vocally that specific title out loud publicly doesn't deserve our votes. Furthermore anyone who accepts money from lobbyists towards their campaign also does not have our best interests in mind, and anyone who contradicts themselves publicly on numerous occasions and then says, "I was joking" or tries to avoid accountability in any way for any of their choices also does not have our best interests at heart. People make mistakes, that's how we learn, and grow from our mistakes. No one person comes out of the womb knowing everything how to walk, how to ruin, how to do all things in life and accomplishs them in his/her first attempt. That's why it's called practice, to get better at any given task. And we only do that from accepting and owning up to our mistakes and moving on not repeating them or blaming others for our short comings

[acooke-13]

Ok, so as much as I think the handling of COVID-19 in England could've been done differently, I still think Boris has done a great job and considering he's had that to deal with, he's dealt with Brexit. The rise in cases isn't to be blamed on him, but all the citizens breaking rules aswell. Just hope this is over soon

[Legacy95]

We are divided because the Democratic Party has wasted the past 4 years trying to get Trump out of office they would not work with him. When they couldn't they decided to do something that has never been done before in the United States they decided to change the way we voted it was illegal and they did still denomination. That is the main reset

[Bee-Hatch]

I disagree with you about the UK being divided - Brexit is old news. There's bigger things to worry about at present, like national lockdown and sustained death rates and hospitalisations that are likely to swamp the NHS in the next few days. All compounded by selfish picks who still keep doing their own thing.

[genericname85]

we can come together by making "listening to those we don't agree with and respecting their opinion" a habit. fuck safe spaces. expose yourself to shit you hate to fix some of it and realize that others aren't even as shitty as you thought. that's the only way to be a responsible and productive member of society.

the social justice ideology takes more and more acceptable ways to be offensive away... obviously being offensive for the sake of being offensive is stupid but you can not change anything for the better without risking to offend someone.

[The_Sal]

I wish you would of asked that in 2016.
we've been trying to get along with democrats and liberals for four years but they are so saturated with blind hate and ignorance they're just a lost cause. the Democrat leaders did a very good job in twisting facts and brainwashing the left supporters into believing there is no hope with trump. they could of come together and work with Republicans for four years and unite to build and help the communites but they focused on one thing only and spent hundreds of millions of tax payer MONEY on one thing, IMPEACHMENT.
that alone either says two things..

1. they are so petty and childish they couldn't accept a loss from anon politician.

2. they are hiding something and they don't want him to expose their corruption, like hunters China dealings, biden selling us out while under Obama, hillarys dealings with Ukraine and Bill Clintons weekly visits to epstein Island.

in my opinion I'd say it's a combination of both

[Snakeyes7]

I think all we need to do is to learn to do is to put ourselves in each other's shoes and come to a compromise. From what I can tell, the left and the right agree on a lot of things (social justice, corrupt city police, poverty etc) but their ideas on how to solve them are what differ. From what I can gather, for example, the left seems to be in favor of equality of outcome and the right think equality of opportunity is the best way to solve the problem of social justice. We need to get the parties to realize this and attempt to get us on the right path.

[MountAverage]

Because there's a large group of people who reject and deny basic reality. People who deny the reality of a global pandemic, the reality of climate change, the reality of gun crimes completely out of hand, , the reality of rampant systemic racism and police brutality, the reality of white supremacy and white privilege, the reality of having lost the election by several million votes, the reality of the right-wing Fascists terrorizing our Democracy, and and and.

These people live in an alternate reality with "alternative facts". Objective truth doesn't matter anymore. And what do you do with these people? You cannot have a discussion with people who don't accept basic reality. You just can't. So, what do we do with up to 74 million utterly insane lunatics? Seriously, what do we do with them?

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

Why? When one group decides to move far left or right in their philosophies and world views politically then the other group will by default become extremists too in their world views to balance the power in society.

Its a struggle between who socially dominates with their philosophies in the political realm.

Being extremists in the political realm is a receipt for disaster since one will group will have to end up losing the "war" of social dominance which often times turns violent to gain victory.

How can it be mend? Cooler heads prevailing and being balanced in their social political approach. Its the only way or through violence.

[Jjpayne]

I'm not sure there is a way 🤔 my only thought is to have biden in office which could defuse trump supporters and help the country to get into a different mindset but it also could be a way to upset Trump supporters and make it even worse. So I honestly don't know what the best solution is and I'm not even sure if there is one

[DCooper]

Stop collecting taxes from the working class. Have the politicians go hold their hands out to the people they actually work for. Also recognize county sheriffs as higher authority than federales.

[Stoner710]

we need to realize that the other side is evil but we disagree, if you think your appointment is hitler or Stalin then you will do anything to stop them

[TeeBar]

Just ignore the deliberately hysterical rants and overwrought BS streaming non-stop from the MSM. They are trying to keep people in an emotional bubble for the benefit of their advertisers.

[TheFlak38]

This is the natural consequence after decades of communist brainwashing. An ideology based on the existence of supposed oppressors and oppressed groups of people. Division and civil unrest are integral parts of communism since 1918.

[Anonymous]

Personally I’ve never really understood why people are so divided because I can always see pros and cons to both sides in my country in the UK. I rarely completely agree with just one, I’m usually somewhere between.