06-15-2017, 12:22 PM
(06-15-2017, 10:38 AM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: What does need to come of this terrible event is an acknowledgement, from both sides, that things have gone too far. I've said before that it's generally the party out of power that engages in the fiercest rhetoric. I think Trump took this to eleven. Trump certainly took things too far on the campaign trail, e.g. offering to pay the legal bills of anyone who beat up a protester. The response from the left was to go to fifteen. I've mentioned before that anyone not heavily criticizing Trump's every move is immediately branded a Trump supporter by many (most?) left leaning people. There's a refusal to even see the possibility of a middle ground and it's pushing people to the extremes. Extreme thinking is eventually, for some, going to lead to extreme action. We see it with Antifa, we saw it at Trump rallies in CA and we just saw the worst example of it yesterday.
It's got to stop and it needs to stop at the top. Maxine Waters, Gillibrand, etc. need to tone down the extreme rhetoric and hopefully that will trickle down to celebrities, which will trickle down and so forth. If things stay as is I predict a dark outcome.
(06-15-2017, 11:57 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: The problem is that there has been an increased polarization in our government (which is funny to me, given how we don't have many real liberals in the bunch thanks to neo-liberalism) and that polarization is just a reflection of society as a whole. This isn't new, but is has been compounding for a couple of decades now. I've said before, the division in Congress has not been this wide since the antebellum Congress.
I don't know what it is going to take, but when we come out the other side it could be something different than we have known before. The 14th Amendment drastically changed how our government institutions and it was a result of the divisiveness that existed pre-war.
Two or three times per year something happens that prompts me to see what is being said in this PnR forum. If this attitude was the prevailing mentality I would contribute more but it isn't. Those of us in the middle are completely alienated by both sides. Meanwhile, those who foster the environment of divisive mentality remain the loudest voice so therefore they are heard by more people.
Oh, and yes, make no mistake if I read even the first page of PnR I will see people fostering the division that leads to the lone individual to truly believe their actions are justified. I remember seeing a forum once where there was a special section for political or religious talk to keep it out of the main portion of the forum. Yeah, they did such a great job at that. The members were allowed (excessively large) sigs and avatars that pushed their political views out into the other parts of the board. Hell, one of the members actually had a sig that very clearly equated the president of this country to an insane mass murderer. Yeah, that isn't divisive or a way of fostering the type of hatred to help a mentally unstable individual feel justified in committing an atrocious act.
One thing that will surely not come of this horrible act of killing is people will almost definitely not analyze their own behavior to determine if, even if VERY indirectly, maybe their own actions foster the environment of hate. Instead they will read a comment like this and feel more justified and might even try to rationalize their own actions because the feel they were called out as an individual. Clue for you all, the post isn't about just one person.
