Quote:I agree with that.  

 

I blame the multitude of 24 hour, all over the place media we have these days.   Anger sells.   Every December, Fox News starts alleging that there's a secular "war on Christmas."   Liberals do the same thing.   It's all about money, raising money from contributors, getting viewers, getting eyeballs on the internet, getting people to listen to your radio broadcast, and you do that by making people angry, by demonizing the other side.  My parents made a small political contribution years ago, and now they get all sorts of mailings, "Look at what the Democrats/Republicans are trying to do!  We need a contribution so we can fight against this!"  

 

People make money by driving us apart.   Divide and conquer.   There seems to be very little attempt to find out what we have in common.   There's very little attempt to find political unity.   There's no money in unity.   There's money to be made in anger and polarization. 

 

"We must have your contribution today or the country is going to go down the drain!"  

This is why I don't watch the news....other than I don't have regular TV. I get news from bbc.com because all the other news sites just suck. When I go to other people's homes and they have the news on I go to another room or go outside to chill. I can't stand the divisive nature of our society these days. It's no wonder why we're all at each other's throats and you touched on why. Another issue is everyone feels like they must be are right. All the time. No one is right all the time. But that's a whole other conversation.

 

I don't have a problem with differences of opinions, I have a problem when name calling and insults and intentional baiting happens. It happens all too often on this board and it makes for poor communication among folks whose differing opinions could be interesting or a learning experience but ends up in verbal schoolyard type brawling. I have no reason nor inclination to listen to folks who resort to name calling and the like. There are a few people on here who I find to be quite interesting and informed even if I don't always agree with their POV but when they resort to name calling or other such things and I lose some respect for them. 

 

Sadly we have become a society that resorts to pretty ridiculous things to get a leg up on everyone else. Just look at the debates for POTUS. Good grief we must look so foolish to folks from other countries. And to say that doesn't matter is wrong. As the supposed leader of countries around the world we should set a high standard and give those countries reason to respect us. As it is we give them nothing better than the stuff from the bottom of our shoes. And we allow it to happen by not holding those in authority accountable. Heck, we don't hold ourselves accountable anymore. It's all about who we can point the finger at because "it is not our fault." Every word we speak, action we take, and reaction we have is our responsibility. It's not how others treat us that shows who we are. It's how we react that shows who we are. 

 

*stepping down from my soapbox now. 

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