Who are We Fighting, Really?

Who is our true enemy?

Photo by Alex Radelich on Unsplash

The realm of American politics is not faring too well at the moment, to say the least. Discourse is fraught with lies, hatred, and venom coming from both sides of the political divide.

We are in an epoch season in which the populace is more divided than it has been in recent memory. Talk of national divorce and even civil war has bubbled up into the national psyche.

To put it lightly, things ain’t looking good, folks.

One of the most bitter battles we are seeing on the national stage is between Team Red and Team Blue. Republicans and Democrats are at each other’s throats. Conservatives and progressives both think the other side wishes to subjugate them. When it comes to fringe elements in both camps, this assessment is not inaccurate. But this does not apply to the majority on either side.

The current political zeitgeist to which the majority of us have completely bought into the the Republican vs. Democrat paradigm. Almost from the moment we are born, we view American politics as being a pitched battle between the elephant and donkey because we have lived under a two-party system for centuries. In fact, it seems nearly impossible for most to even consider the idea that there might be other options outside of these parties, both of which embrace authoritarianism.

Most Americans either grow up as Republicans or Democrats, and they typically support the party their family supports. In this day and age, the advent of Big Tech and alternative media has established political ecosystems in which we have placed ourselves into carefully-constructed silos.

Democrats typically consume left-leaning news coming from outlets like CNN, the New York Times, MSNBC, the Washington Post, and others. Republicans gravitate more towards organizations like the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, the Washington Examiner, Breitbart News, RedState, and several other digital media outfits.

The majority of us dwell in political and cultural echo chambers in which we are surrounded by politicial viewpoints that agree with our own. In 2023, political discourse has become so fraught with animosity, hostility, fear, and toxicity, that far too many of us believe that it is people with differing beliefs who are the enemy.

We have been conned into viewing folks on the opposing team as wicked evildoers seeking to oppress us and destroy our way of life. On the left, they believe conservatives are slobbering bigots who wish to round up racial minorities and members of the LGBTQ community and throw them into gulags. They have fantasies about Republicans ushering an America that resembles the TV show “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

Conversely, right-leaning Americans think that folks who vote Democrats are Marxists who envision an America that would look much like Stalin’s Soviet Union. They seem to believe that Team Blue would have us lining up in bread lines while being forced to work for the good of the state while mutilating teenaged girls suffering from gender dysphoria.

What makes this worse is that there are elements of truth to both of these dystopian visions. But what we don’t realize is that folks that fall into either of these categories are mere fringe elements that come nowhere close to representing the whole of the group.

Unfortunately, the corporate press and our politicians have expertly groomed us into believing some of the most pernicious propaganda imaginable. By portraying those with differing believes as malevolent psychos seeking to force others to live as they dictate, they have conned us into believing everyday Americans are the enemy. It is a clever practice known as “nutpicking,” which involves a journalist or commentator hyperfocusing on the “nuts” in each political group and making it seem as if they are somehow indicative of the overall movement.

In this way, the elites have fooled Democrats into thinking the majority of Republicans are Bud Light swilling, Confederate flag-waving, KKK-wearing rednecks who want to bring back the days of slavery. They have Republicans thinking that most on the Democratic side are purple-haired obese white feminists who want to take children to drag shows and convince them to transition to the opposite gender.

Of course, these suppositions are little more than propaganda campaigns intended to pit us against one another based on political differences. But we have fallen so far into the trap that we don’t even recognize where we are.

This has created a situation in which members of Team Red and Team Blue will eagerly excuse the same type of vile behavior on their side that they would detest if done by an individual on the opposite side. We have entered into a dangerous season in which defending one’s team is more important than pushing for positive change.

But it is not only political differences that ripping us apart. The elites have also mastered the art of using race as an instrument of division. Race relations in the United States have always been fraught. The nation’s troubled history in this regard has created an environment ripe for exploitation by the powers that be.

In this season, folks on the right are becoming just as race-obsessed as the left. Conservative personalities are exploiting the issue to attack the left while also appealing to their base.

For example, right-wing influencers have become quite fond of spreading what I call “Black Man Bad” porn on the interwebs. These are videos typically shared on Twitter showing black people engaging in violent behavior. It has become something of a custom — every few weeks, these people start posting these videos to get a rise out of their audiences and portraying black men as vicious thugs.

They do so under the guise of trying to “expose” a problem in American society. Others claim they are doing it to counter the left’s narrative about white supremacy in America. Even others claim they are doing it to highlight what has happened to the black community due to fatherlessness and the Democratic Party.

Every single one of these people is lying — whether they know it or not. Indeed, these videos are nothing more than right-wing propaganda designed to portray black Americans as violent thugs, nothing more, nothing less. I understand that if you are reading this and you are on the right, your first instinct is to defend those on your team.

But ask yourself this: Can you name a single one of these influencers who post these videos that also presents solutions? How many of these folks are even speaking with black people living in these conditions? Which of these podcasters/commentators/writers use their platforms to highlight black folks on the ground working to affect positive change?

Exactly.

Not a single one.

They don’t want solutions, they want to propagandize — and they are doing so at your expense.

Awhile ago, when conservative Twitter was doing its “Black Man Bad” thing again, I had a civil, but pointed exchange with another right-leaning influencer who was joining her comrades in using these videos to supposeldy highlight a problem.

She told me she was posting these videos to illustrate “what sparks demands for change and what doesn’t” and insisted that she believes in “impartial justice and impartial compassion when it comes to the perpetrators/victims of crimes.”

I responded by telling her that the issues is that too many influencers in the conservative movement “seem to love posting these videos more to make black folks seem like animals than to actually solve a problem.”

I pointed out how these folks seem only interested in using these videos to score cheap political points against Democrats and that none of them actually want to use their platforms to address these problems.

Her response was telling.

“I do see what you’re saying, & I find myself hesitating to repost videos like this for exactly that reason,” she wrote. “But I think it’s worth pointing out how lopsided the mainstream narrative is when it comes to systemic problems/justice issues. Everyone has the capacity for evil.”

She acknowledges that these videos serve to promote a negative narrative about the black community, but felt it was more important to point out how hypocritical the activist media is — as if people were not already aware of this fact.

On the other hand, you have the far left fomenting racial division by doing what they have been doing for decades: Using racial strife to advance their agenda. Unlike the right, progressives prefer to demonize white Americans — white Christian men specifically. This is a relatively new trend on the right, but the left has been employing this strategem for a lengthy period of time. To put it simply, they have had a lot of practice and have mastered the art of dividing people by race and ethnicity.

There are folks like race grifter Robin DiAngelo who rakes in mountains of cash to lecture white people about how hopelessly racist they are. People like Dr. Ibram X. Kendi serve their white progressive masters as he talks about how it is not enough to not be racist, but you must be actively antiracist, otherwise, you’re a racist.

These people play on white guilt to manipulate their audience into beleiving that racial minorities are poor hapless victims in dire need of saving. In response, well-meaning white progressives don their red capes and blue tights and spring into action to save us from ourselves. They reach deep into their wallets to donate oodles of dollars to groups like the Black Live Matter Global Foundation, which was found to be nothing more than an elaborate grift.

In schools, progressives are infusing concepts related to critical race theory (CRT) to encourage educators and school staff to teach children to oppose “whiteness.” They promote racial affinity groups that separate students by skin color. They constantly rail against the supposedly inherent bigotry of white Americans — and they make tons of money doing it.

The reality is that there are some very unsavory people on both sides of the political divide that are deeply invested in making us hate one another. They do so by telling us lie after lie about Americans who are different from us. In so doing, the elites have us clawing at each other’s throats as they continue cultivating a centralized federal government to rule over us as they grow fatter, happier, and more powerful.

In the words of Malcolm X: "We have been misled, bamboozled, hoodwinked, and led astray. We have been given false hopes and told to pray for something that we had the power to obtain for ourselves."

Race and political parties are only two of the methods these elites have used to divide us. But they seem to be the most effective. What they have managed to do is to get us everyday folks to focus on fighting each other instead of paying attention to what these folks planted on their lofty perches are up to. We scream at one another while they continue to amass power and use it to suppress our voices.

They distract us from the hard reality that the battle is not left vs right or white vs black. Our struggle is between liberty and authoritarianism. Democratic and Republican voters are not our enemies. Neither are those with varying levels of melanin content.

Unfortunately, we the people have yet to understand the game being played at our expense. People from different walks of life are growing increasingly out of touch with the reality that most of us want the same thing. We have more areas of commonality than dispute.

Most folks just want to live their lives and be left alone, without some ragtag group of ne’er do wells in Washington, D.C. controlling us. Once we realize this, we can finally start pushing for change and a freer society. This is the eventuality that strikes horror in the hearts of the establishment elites who fear losing their precious control. At what point will we stop giving them what they want?

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