Hi, it's that time of year where I act like the douchebag I am and write an extended, ranting post about the state of humanity as a whole while listening to cynically-lyricized alternative rock.
Basically, if you've ever used the words "libtard" or "conservatard" unironically, this post is for you.
Seeing as it is 2018 and intensive scientific research has determined that everything in the world is black and white with absolutely no gray anywhere, I will start this with the following entirely true statement:
"Your team's opinion on (thing) is different to my team's, therefore you and everyone you associate with are awful people who literally rip unborn children from their mothers' wombs, stomp on bunnies, and throw kittens in gas chambers."
I've seen this constantly because particularly here in America we have found a way to make everything an issue in which each side can do nothing but demonize the strawman they have constructed to represent the other.
Great example that will absolutely not make anyone butthurt #1: Gun control.
For the far-leaning conservatives reading: No, the majority of liberals don't want to take away all of your guns.
For the far-leaning liberals reading: No, the majority of conservatives don't think shootings are an okay thing.
Believe it or not, people can have nuanced opinions on topics, or no opinions on them at all. Maybe they only have an opinion on a particular aspect of an issue, but not another.
Additionally, if you disagree with the way something is done or has been proposed to be done, you should probably have a better solution before you go around trying to change something or prevent something from being accepted. Particularly with laws, even if you believe the thing is inherently bad, just making it illegal doesn't usually make it go away, and will probably cause other problems.
Great example that will absolutely not make anyone butthurt #2: Abortion.
Regardless of your stance on its legality, pretty much everyone agrees that abortions are bad and nobody wants to see them happening more often. So let's say, as stated above, you just make them entirely illegal.
Well, it turns out people are unbelievably bad at coming up with new pastimes so now you have a bunch of babies being born that you didn't bother to provide any means to care for. And on top of that, because apparently people still think abstinence-only sex ed actually does anything, you have done nothing to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies so that you can manage the remainder more easily.
Nice job, knobgobbling snotgoblin.
Obviously people who demand dramatic changes like this on any issue usually have good intentions, but good intentions alone don't solve problems. You have to take into account not only that issue but also all the others that contribute to it, and that it in turn contributes to. You have to consider the net value of every change you make, because if you don't you'll often end up with something far worse than the problem you're trying to solve, and couldn't prepare for.
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But of course, all this rambling I've done implies that anyone in this country who's at the root of these problems would care enough to actually consider that there are layers to every issue.
No. That will not do.
Everyone knows the thing you do when you want to look like a big boy/girl is ensure everything is as black and white as possible. Hurl insults, tell people how the liberals/conservatives/lizard people from the core of the Earth are literally destroying the country from the inside out and their ideas are entirely irreconcilable with yours.
I propose that the first thing you should do when you get done reading this is go on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Tumblr, etc. and post a rant about the most horribly constructed and non-nuanced caricature of "the other side" and how awful it is. Take care to ensure that everyone knows you will inexorably show them how wrong they are by painting a picture of the world that's so beyond inaccurate that it's impossible to do anything but laugh at it.
And I know that right now you're thinking "Well that's a stupid idea", and you'd be right, but that hasn't stopped far too many people I know, both on the internet and off, from reposting and reciting memes that are so unamusing and horribly composed that I'm getting Poe's Law'ed six ways to Sunday and can't tell if they're real or parodies.
There's some obsession with acting like a petulant child and hurling insults just because people are so afraid of considering that compromises are possible. Because they've shaped any opinion opposing their own to not just be one they find disagreeable, but one that requires either sheer delusion or pure malice to hold.
I've honestly been getting more and more confused for the last two years as to what the hell happened that has made me feel like I'm a mediator and non-confrontational compared to a lot of people. I have a lot of really strong opinions on a lot of things that a lot of people, both conservative and liberal, disagree with. And yet somehow the fact that I can recognize that there are multiple possible and equally viable solutions to most problems makes me feel like a full-blown "love and peace" breed of hippie at times.
I feel like it says a lot that I fully believe myself to be in many ways a caustic, cynical, contrarian, childish (and other words beginning with C) piece of trash, but I'm still regularly astonished by how petty and immature people act while complaining about those with different opinions being uncivil.
Sure, I could tell those people to take a step back and consider that they're being unreasonable, but that's kind of the issue with people like that. They usually aren't capable of understanding the fact that they're acting like idiots. They're so rooted in their beliefs that anything they perceive as an attack on those, they in turn take as an attack on themselves.
They don't want to have a discussion or learn, and they don't want to reflect on their own actions. They want anyone who challenges their ideas to be wrong, so in their mind they make them wrong. They use strawmen to refute points while at the same time pulling the "No true Scotsman" card because they're so biased they honestly can't perceive themselves as wrong or even simply unreasonable in any manner.
Politics in America are primarily hardline, and because of the tribalistic way things are treated, anybody who tries to be moderate tends to be dismissed by both sides, with left and right accusing that person of being a RINO or DINO because that's simpler than actually talking to each other and figuring out the most practical solution.
It honestly makes me think of elementary school kids forming their cliques and taunting and bullying those outside of them. It's shameful, and even as somebody who's never been overly patriotic, it makes me disappointed in the US as a whole to see this stuff happening on a regular basis. Not just in the common peasant folk, but also our government.
We've reached the point where we ignore issues and do things that will harm people who did nothing to earn it, just because it will anger those who we disagree with.
And that is infuriating.
"To what length would you go to reach your goals?
What mantra will you use to justify your means?
Who will you betray to secure your dream?
What sins will you commit to avoid your sins be seen?
Do not look down. Do not look down
Or the abysmal beast of nonconformity
Might stare some unpleasant truth
Into your desensitized mind"
- Meshuggah
