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[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

I agree with this entirely. Nothing cures adherence to bigoted "isms" like regular exposure to individual members of the groups about which one recklessly generalizes.

But I think the current problem goes beyond just exposure to people of different backgrounds.

A large percentage of the country has lost the ability to engage each other intellectually. Conversation is dead, advocacy its replacement. People view discussions not as opportunities to have their minds changed, or to test the validity of their positions, but as zero sum games.

There is no absolute right or wrong in most complex matters. The Left and the Right are a yin and yang. Everybody sensible person knows this. A society run on exclusively progressive or exclusively conservative policies cannot persist. There has to be horse trading. There used to be horse trading. But it's damn hard to horse trade when you you come to the negotiating table and open with, "Everything you stand for is fundamentally invalid."

Every civics class should require students to memorize this statement:

"Progressivism and Conservatism are both incomplete, like any 'ism.' Neither is tenable alone, both working best as counterweights to one another, ideological checks and balances."

I don't disagree with this proposition. But this is the situation:

• In terms of gross support, the right is losing. If everyone were forced to vote, Republicans would be murdered. Because they are losing ground, they cheat. They manipulate the voting districts and suppress the vote in ways that Democrats simply do not. (Please don't tell me that there are entrenched Democrats too. We know this. But one side is doing it at rates that simply are not comparable.) Republicans are changing the net numbers to maintain power and they are succeeding wildly.
  
• Republicans have abandoned facts and science in favor of policy based on wishful thinking. You can point to idiot liberal anti-vaxxers all you like, but the steps being taken by Republicans to actively deny science and fact-based analysis are astonishing. Science is now a left-right issue. That's fucking crazy.
  
• Republicans have abandoned the norms on which our government has been run. Because these norms are not codified, they simply ignore them. Steal a Supreme Court seat to maintain control. Set up committees to investigate bullshit and when your own investigation concludes no wrongdoing, ignore it and start another one. Look the other way and actively enable a President who is clearly using the office to enrich himself and his family. Undermine the rule of law by running a pretend investigation into his activities and wrap it up for political reasons.
  
• Encourage and enflame racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia to maintain your political position. Fucking codify it when you can (freedom of religion act? Straight bullshit). Ignore it when you can (destroy the voting rights act, support racist policy with pretextual bullshit at every turn).

I could go on and on.

One side of this country is so off the fucking rails that your efforts of trying to talk sense to both sides actually sounds crazy. If one person says, "It's not that cold outside," when it's 29 degrees and another person says, "The trash monster told me I must destroy all skateboards," trying to sit down with both to talk about why they should each be careful about saying irresponsible things makes you seem deranged.

TM