Is America too divided?

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YHWH_Christ

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  • Yes, we need to tone down the rhetoric.
  • No, it was always like this.
  • I don’t know.
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If so, how can we come together?
 
We need to start having civil discourse and start to actually listen to each other. We also need to realize that neither side should get their way but a compromise needs to be found. I heard it said that you can tell when a piece of legislation was good was when each side didn’t like it!
 
Just not sure. I will say that there is a huge division in America that wasn’t there (or I didn’t recognize) as a child and teen and then into my adult years. Other people have said that it’s always been there and, for various reasons, has just become more visible.
 
I have just heard about the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. It is awful that our president says that the synagogue should have had an armed guard. We should not blame the victims for the crime. Yes, my church has police officers during Mass only. The 2 police officers would not be able to prevent a shooting. They would do their best to prevent loss of life.
 
therese1998 said:
Other people have said that it’s always been there and, for various reasons, has just become more visible.
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There’s always been a divide, yes. And there have always been extremists who called names, etc. But it wasn’t like it is now. I’m so old 😉 I can remember Democrats and Republicans disagreeing on actual issues, without calling each other libtards and fascists, etc. I even remember when racism was something to be condemned, not reflexively defended by trying to brand it as something else.

I miss those days.
 
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It is akin to saying ‘if you were robbed it’s all your fault because you didn’t put in 6-foot-high barbed-wire -topped walls/armed guards/top-of-the-range security system/shark-filled moat to stop the robber’.
 
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LilyM said:
It is akin to saying ‘if you were robbed it’s all your fault because you didn’t put in a 6-foot-high barbed wire fence/armed guards/top-of-the-range security system’
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No, it’s not. Unless he actually said that it’s their own fault, he didn’t attribute the blame to the victims.
 
Of course it is - he is saying victims could and should do more. Which is sending a strong messge that they weren’t already doing enough and therefore it is partly or completely their own fault.
 
How is that blaming the victim? What? That’s a suggestion out of many to see what can be done to prevent this from happening again. So if I say that buildings in places where there’s a lot of earthquakes should be better reinforced, I’m victim blaming? The left constantly attacks, especially the media. Looks like they are the ones pushing this country apart.
 
Not at all - when politicians look for better solutions after things like earthquakes it is usually in terms of them making some useful contribution by way of legislative action or government funding.

This is simply, as far as I can see, a case of ‘let me tell YOU what YOU should do - and hang actually helping you to do it in any way shape or form’.

What purpose does that serve except making the poor victim, who possibly cannot financially afford the ‘solution’ or cannot implement it for other good reason, feel bad and at fault?
 
It’s always been this way to an extent. It’s just all filmed and out in the open now. And the advent of social media has given the fringe movements of both sides (alt right, facists, white supremacists, communists, conspiracy nuts, etc…) an outsized powerful voice. Thus exacerbating the problem and pulling the right farther right and the left farther left. The pendulum has always swung between the two sides, but now it’s swinging vilolently and in a far more exaggerated manner than it used to.
 
TLDR: we have lost common principals. The right and the left are both guilty of telling critical lies. I think, though I am far from sure, that the right philosophy is to be extreme on the right AND on the left because the Truest forms of those philosophies compliment each other.

I believe that America has lost a common belief in some fundamental principals. America is a secular state but it is built on principals which a fundimentally Judeo-Christian in origin. We all ought to believe that All men are created equal… but it seems like the extreme far right doesn’t believe that premise at all and the extreme left believes that “equality” means sameness and that being created equal means that our actions and skills are equal. The only sense in which we are equal (and it is the most important possible sense) is that we all are made in God’s image by God and God who loves us wants us to be restored to that perfection.

This post is getting long but if I can add one thing. The role of the left should be to ensure that we are one people standing up for every one of our members, they protect that sacredness and loyalty of the collective to its members. And the right protects the dignity-even the living divinity within the individuals. Right vs left is a false dichotomy. They are both true and important and when one is made complete and perfect so, I believe, is the other. I try not to on the left or right I try to make my left and right both correct and complimentary and I try to leave behind the lies from both sides… I fail often but that’s my goal at the moment.
 
What America needs is to wake up… the only way we can beat evil is with Good. Look around you - who is that sinner, who is that enemy you can help to bring closer to Him? At least identify the enemies of the Church, then realize that God loves even them, and suffers for them. Imitate Him by praying and suffering for those around you, while at the same time never backing down from true principles of the Faith. God wins in the end; we did our part, He will do His, and if His enemies don’t convert, at least the blame is off our hands…
 
While it hasn’t always been like this, there have been many times we’ve been divided. The Vietnam war, the Civil Rights movement, before WWII, and the worst was the abolitionist movement and Civil War. Sadly, 24/7 news and social media feed the differences today, raising heated divisions to levels faster than we’ve seen in the past.
As Catholics, we need to not fall into the traps set for us by these people out to provoke others. We need to focus on prayer and following God’s will. Keeping our eyes on the Kingdom of Heaven and not jumping to conclusions about worldly events.
 
Convert3 said:
hile it hasn’t always been like this, there have been many times we’ve been divided. The Vietnam war, the Civil Rights movement, before WWII, and the worst was the abolitionist movement and Civil War. Sadly, 24/7 news and social media feed the differences today, raising heated divisions to levels faster than we’ve seen in the past.
As Catholics, we need to not fall into the traps set for us by these people out to provoke others. We need to focus on prayer and following God’s will. Keeping our eyes on the Kingdom of Heaven and not jumping to conclusions about worldly events.
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I agree with all of this.
I think a lot of people are overly focused/ hung up on politics. We have people right on this forum, and on many other social media forums, who post about almost nothing but politics. If they have a job as a politician/ staff member/ activist, or a regular hobby of following politics, joining political organizations etc, then I understand it being a big interest of theirs and perhaps even their bread and butter. But a lot of them have some ordinary job and are not involved in politics beyond posting, voting and maybe going once in a while to some rally.

People make politics into their god because they want to feel connected to something bigger than themself or find some explanation for why their life is not ideal. I’m sure this was going on in Jesus’ time too. I find it pretty boring however. All issues will resolve in time, one way or another. All politicians are going to have a moment in the spotlight and then fade away. 150 years ago people got all fired up over Presidents and legislators who most people today couldn’t even name, much less comprehend what they did. We should be focusing more on the things “not of this world”.
 
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