Speaking as another older adult in Canada and witnessing the slide in both countries my controversial opinion is it’s not about politics at all. Politics are simply a symptom of an underlying problem with the society we have built.
What you’re seeing is classic behaviour of when a person is unheard, stressed and angry. It is scientifically proven when you experience those struggles you are less likely to think clearly and what options you have become limited. You start looking at every problem like a nail and you’re a hammer.
Individually we all deal with adversity different and I’d argue one party is heavily weighed with those who struggle with dealing with the adversity meanwhile since the 60’s governments have been doing nothing to improve life and lessen the adversity people deal with.
Then you have all those people struggling… And you throw in predators taking advantage of them, feeding into their struggles and weaponizing them.
At some point we all need to acknowledge we can’t fix this overnight and these people for the most part aren’t crazy. They’re you just a few medical bills behind or a few months laid off from your job. Hurt people hurt people.
It just sucks that they are too stupid to see who is actually making their lives shit.
And that’s where I disagree. I don’t think they’re stupid. I think they aren’t coping and because of all the stress and hatred in them it’s affecting their ability to think critically. People are not dumb. Decades of stress around food, job, health, etc security have negatively impacted people’s ability to make adult decisions.
That’s a very compassionate view, and one I should try to incorporate into my own views on the matter. However, I want to be very clear about one thing:
I’d argue one party is heavily weighed with those who struggle with dealing with the adversity meanwhile since the 60’s governments have been doing nothing to improve life and lessen the adversity people deal with.
People in both parties are suffering. Many in both parties. This behavior comes from the party who insists that they are the only ones struggling, and is directed against the party that proposes solutions that would help everyone. I realize that sounds very one sided, and there absolutely are assholes on “both sides”, but only one party claims to have a monopoly on suffering and/or the only valid suffering, only one party is trying to interfere in the medical decisions and sexuality of people not like them, only one party is banning books, and only that party obstructs all attempts to improve the lot of everyone. Democrats are NOT PERFECT by far, but they are either trying, or doing a credible job of appearing to try. R does nothing but blame, obstruct, and ostracize.
Nonetheless, it’s become too easy to vilify these people (what with the constant examples of their asshattery) and that is something unhealthy that I should probably try to get a handle on, so I appreciate your viewpoint even if I think you are making some assumptions that don’t quite mesh with what I see around me.
This should be class “warfare” not D vs R, but it never will be while R focuses on attacking LGBTQ, women’s rights, etc.
I may not have been fully clear. You are right people in both parties are struggling. My argument is those more rational people are better positioned to handle adversity so they’re still using all their options when drawing their political decisions.
That said, it may sound compassionate but I don’t necessarily practice what I preached there all the time. I think the people with “Fuck Trudeau” stickers are fucking morons.
Thanks for the clarification, and I regret that I typify the US stereotype at least in so far as I don’t know enough about your political spectrum to have any opinion at all, though I’m aware you’ve got your version of Trumpers (and - actual Trumpers? I’ve heard once or twice?) up there as well.
