It’s become increasingly clear that there are two unbridgeable sides in the US, each with their own version of reality. For the left, Trump is a danger to US democracy and the US constitution, and for the right Biden is a secret far-left extremist who will destroy the US and plunge it into socialism.
These two realities have been shaped by two things: (1) Each side’s media and social media presenting only the subset of events that fit their narrative and (2) Each side’s media and social media have been using fake news to support their narrative. (I am not claiming an equivalence in the degree to which the left and right wing media engage in these practices, only that it does occur at varying degrees on both sides)
A lot of attention has been given to #2, fake news. I consider #1, the careful curation of real news and removal of any contrary news to be the biggest culprit for the mess we are in.
For the same event going on at any given time, when you go to right and left leaning websites, you are presented with a very different view of what’s going on. For example for the Portland protests/riots most right-wing websites provide no mention of cases of police brutality and focus solely on the damage done by the rioters, and most left wing websites provide no mention of the damage done by the rioters and focus solely on the police brutality and how cops beat up innocent bystanders.
Or when the US passed 100,000 deaths from Covid, that was the top news on most left and “mainstream” websites, but was nowhere to be found on most right wing websites.
Neither side’s media needs to lie: They are both reporting truths. However, by being selective about which news to report, they create a very different reality for the readers on the two sides.
The illusion on the two sides is very strong. It does not yield to reality. It reminds me of “The Three Christs of Ypsilanti” where three people who thought they were Jesus were put in a room together. The doctor’s hope was that if these people met each other, they might start to see that their belief in being Jesus was not correct. Unfortunately, their self-delusion was so strong that they found ways to explain away meeting two other people who very confidently also claimed to be Jesus.
That similar strength of clinging to one version of reality is seen when people ask the left and right about instances when, objectively, their side did not act properly. Some examples are conservatives waving away any issues with Trump’s disastrous Covid19 response, and liberals waving away any issues with thousands of people going out and protesting for BLM while at the same time condemning conservatives who went out and protested for things they wanted, for spreading the virus, as if the virus cares about your cause.
The human mind is an amazing machine that is able to come up with great responses to questions about anything that might go against our belief system and our version of reality. So there are people who have lots of “well-reasoned” arguments why Trump’s Covid19 response was fine and the situation we are in in the US is not at all his fault, and also several who have “well-reasoned” arguments why it’s OK for hundreds of thousands to go out and protest for one cause but not another during a time when we want to slow down the spread of the virus.
So, I have found that I simply am done with debating with people about why they are OK with X or Y. The mindset on both sides is so strongly solidified by the reality that’s been presented to them for the past months and years that it feels like trying to convince one of those people who think they are Jesus, that they are not, in fact, Jesus. It’s a useless pursuit and will not change their minds.
I’ve always been a fan and proponent of rational debate, but the situation we find ourselves today is one where the two sides are so polarized and their reality so different that rational debate will not change anyone’s mind.
So, forget debating politics with people. Let’s get to the voting to see which version of reality has the most supporters.
P.S. I should note that in my version of reality Trump is the worst US president in history and is a danger to US democracy and the constitution. Not because of his policies but because of what he has done to the institution of the presidency and the separation of powers, the fear and hatred he stokes in his base, and because of the outright fear he instills in conservative politicians who might dare oppose him, resulting in them being in lockstep behind him (with some notable and honorable exceptions).
