Stream of consciousness entry, so prepare yourself :P
I have been perusing a lot of right wing blogs and filling my brain with their talking points and this 53% nonsense which I see a lot of people supporting (at least where I am) and it's infuriating me. Debunked photos and histories of lies and hypocrisy are sidelined because someone loves a "message." What I'm noticing, though, is that the tactics to divide and conquer us are as effective as they ever were. Nothing has really changed. Each tribe hates the other for much of the same reasons, and amidst calls of "let's band together," we instead get disunity and strife. We hear the same truths about our own society, and then promptly ignore them once our ideology is attacked.
I don't think I need to tell you what goes on at the other side. They have visions of hippies stepping out of a time machine from the 60's trying to destroy the rich with flower power. They see the dark silhouette of George Soros and rail against unions. However, after reading some of their comments, I began to pause. The way OWS is being portrayed has a lot of analogies to the way the Tea Party was portrayed and how that has polarized us. Don't get me wrong, they are NOT equivalent, in any way shape or form. You can say they're equivalent when a TPer gets pepper sprayed while sitting down. But, it's the same psychological mechanism. We each have our fears. I'm a mildly liberal person. I tend to fear theocrats, corporate stooges, racists, and bigots. I'm sure there's more on your list, but really, those are the big ones. So, when the Tea Party comes out, what does corporate media show us? Super Christians, the Koch Bros., Birthers, and old rednecks. Great. So sure, there are lots of Tea Partiers who are nice people, but a lot of what and who they are scares the crap out of me. Their libertarian core has long since become disgusted with what the movement has become. Of course, had they asked liberals about what would happen when you let a money making entity like evangelicals into your hen house, they might have avoided it. Still, Mission Divide and Conquer: Stage 1 complete.
Now OWS comes to the field. What are right leaning people scared of? That's a good question. Well, the older ones are scared of communists/socialists, they're scared of people taking away their gold, they're scared of the poor, and they're scared atheists are going to persecute them (I kid thee not), and they're scared of the government (in a nebulous sense). They're scared you're going to stand in the way of them becoming great. The communist thing? It's a Cold War holdover. My mom, who is from that era, is not afraid of communists because she figured that was some made up boogeyman they used to increase defense spending. Gotta love her. They're afraid that someone they don't like is getting something, and they don't like the fact we don't fawn over success the way they do, or even define it in the same terms. Any talk of questioning the people who hold the levers of power is taboo; they wanna hold that lever once they get to the top. Sorry 53%ers. I understand through grit and individuality you carved out a meager existence for yourselves. Great. That doesn't mean you can't question people in power or what your society has become, and it most certainly doesn't mean the rest of us can't either. You could have had better. Hating other people for wanting better, where you would also gain, is idiocy. Divide and Conquer: Stage Two - Success.
I can't understand someone that just worships themselves. A lot of my friends who are conservative, while otherwise outwardly nice people, there's a lot of junk on the inside. Of some of my acquaintances, one has said that he has a hard time empathizing, another doesn't care if someone suffers to build him his products, and another thinks that every time I mention a rich person, that means Warren Buffet and never Rupert Murdoch. He wonders why I don't get the same sense of wonder, thinking about the billions that Warren Buffet made. I think it's great he's rich, but I don't really care all that much. He's 1 out of millions. The morality that grows from this leads to disaster, and as long as they shield themselves from it, it's all fine. It's easy to think of many of these people as abused and accepting of the hatred and deprivation of life. A lot of them are positive people, but there is something counterfeit to it. They actually grow weary of hearing about doing things for other people. "Liberal causes" they call them. They're trained to not only not give a damn, they're trained to feel derision for people who do, all the while bathing in their smug superiority. This is why I can't get behind libertarians.
Does anyone ever have any of these thoughts? I know we're accused of having a monopoly on truth, and a lot of times we tend to criticize without delving too deep into the issues. A lot of people say what OWS wants would destroy industry. Taxes would be too high and businesses would go bankrupt. They need to fight the man by following his system! Who knows? All I know is that there is some unconscious sense that the problems we have requires everyone on the same page, but we can't do it. We're too afraid of each other. We think we want to kill each other, and we blame ourselves for believing that and tuning into any corporate media type who peddles that over the waves. Are we just stuck?