countryguy
|
|
« on: January 25, 2019, 12:59:36 pm » |
|
The recent incident involving young men from a Catholic high school in Kentucky, a "black Israelites" group, and a native American, has started a rather heated discussion about Trump's signature "Make America Great Again" hats. A good place to see this, is in the "comments" following any news story about the incident. There are a few trends in these "comments" sections, that I find to be especially notable:
(1) -- almost none of the commenters are interested in having a serious, rational discussion of the issues involved (and I do mean None --- conservative or liberal;
(2) -- how the incident happened, and who is to "blame" for it, almost exclusively depends on whether the commenter considers himself/herself to be a conservative, or a liberal;
(3) -- what the MAGA hat represents, also almost exclusively depends on the political leanings of the individual commenter. To conservatives, it represents the positive promises Trump made, during his 2016 campaign. To a liberal, it represents what they perceive to be the negative aspects of Trump, himself. In fact, there seems to be a yuuuge difference among conservatives, just what the "... again" part means. Like the WWII era? Like the 1950's? Or the 1980's? Does it mean the period before the civil rights movement? Does it refer to economic conditions, or social changes? Or our military strength? Our international standing? Just what part of America do they think is not great now?
(4) -- Conservative commenters, overwhelmingly, accused liberals as being opposed to America being great, because of their opposition to Trump's "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan. Their stretch to stating such hyperbole is classic misdirection. They're not opposed to America being great, at all. What they are opposed to is Trump's idea of what it would take, for "... America to be great, again". They perceive that Trump's idea of a great America is very much akin to what Hitler's idea of what a great Germany would have been. They formed this perception from Trump's own words and actions.
(5) -- when scrolling through the comments following several such news articles, this morning, I couldn't help noticing a very disturbing trend -- typified by the following posted comment, "I have a red MAGA cap, a white one, brown one, black one and a Trump 2020 cap, wear them along with my 357. You can talk and look at my cap when I have it on but do not touch it or you'll be hearing something that is loud." Only Trump supporters posted such threats. Only Trump supporters equated wearing MAGA hats and having guns. I didn't see any posts that objected to what the caps stand for, and threatened violence against those who wore them.
I won't get into the boorishness, the name-calling, the rudeness displayed in these comments sections -- those things have become such a commonality all across our society (by pretty much all groups within it), these days, that they're not even noteworthy, anymore. Actually, I blame the anonymity of the internet, and the rise of social media, for most of the "rude and crude" that typifies so, so much of our social interactions, these days. But, there's no denying that the current state of our politics still manages to amplify it. I can't help thinking that that's the most urgent way that America needs to be "... made great again". Until we can talk civilly to each other, there's really no chance of this country coming together, enough, to solve anything else.
|