I have several comments that I have not published. It's not that they're overly contentious, it's just-- Most of them are trying to map recent events into the old familiar Left/Right paradigm, Democrats vs. Republicans. An awful lot of politicans and talking heads want to do that, too.
Maybe don't. It's easy, but the essential divide is between people who are willing to treat others as impediments, as things -- and those who refuse to. You don't kill people for espousing ideas you despise; you don't treat people like cattle. Suspected criminals offering no imminent threat should be arrested and charged, not killed offhand. Political opponents are debated, not demonized and threatened. You run against 'em in elections, you don't try to run them out of town.
These things used to be axiomatic, and while as a society we sometimes fell short of them, we knew it for a failure; we tried to do better.
When did we stop trying to do better?
Update
9 months ago
3 comments:
"When did we stop trying to do better?" I'd go back to the advent of Rush L and Newt G.
Problem is, The Media loves all the various conflicting activities and pushes the "us/them" thing to its fullest extent. Gets more clicks, ya know.
I agree, but it goes back further. It goes back to the introduction of jet airliners. Before then, most congressmen stayed in the District while Congress was in session. They got to be each other‘s neighbors and friends. Their wives saw each other at the PTA meetings.
That sense of community, of shared responsibility, is gone.
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