The new political divide is a lie

It started with Brexit and to be honest I never joined the debate because I didn't know what everyone was fussing about because i am not from Europe. I have a bunch of friends from the U.K. and I was witness to people I know are great pals in real life tearing each other apart in a public forum for everyone to see. Family and friends got to watch two people get heated and then eventually say terrible things about eachother instead of what they were meant to be talking about in the first place.

it's like this, only thousands of miles apart

Then the 2016 USA election happened and things got much much worse. I myself was guilty of this "flipping out" as I defended one particular candidate and got a bit hot under the collar when people challenged me.

A semi-famous personal trainer I know made a comment for the New York Times in favor of one particular candidate and her business Facebook feed got filled with loads of her customers saying horrible things to her and saying they were deleting all of her workout videos and encouraging their friends to do the same.

There are stories out there of parents disowning their children because they supported Trump, or vice versa.

While I never blocked or deleted anyone over this I admit, I have unfollowed quite a few because it was every single day they were posting something negative about Trump, or negative about Hillary or something positive about those 2 other people that didn't stand a chance in hell of winning. Then they would get into a public argument with someone I know they had drinks with just a couple weeks ago.

After Trump won the election the amount of “nah nah nah boo boo” taunting from his supporters towards non supporters just turned into another never-ending fight about the electoral college. In one particular exchange I saw two brothers basically e-shouting at one another for all the world to see.

It carries on with basically any political issue you can imagine. I learned a long time ago to not get involved in the debate so one day in the midst of a “throwdown” on a friend's page I decided to post a silly meme in the comments that had nothing at all to do with the conversation at hand. it was probably a trash dove .gif as that was one of my favorites back then. I was viciously attacked by the OP at which point I said something along the lines of “sorry pal, I hope we can still be friends :) “ to which he responded

"Friends???? I barely f&king know you! I haven't seen you in 20 years, f%k you!"

This is a guy that I sat and chatted with at the lunch table EVERY SINGLE DAY for 3 years in high school, we hung out on a regular basis outside of school and were both important members of the offense on the soccer team. This is a guy that if I were to meet up with him at a school reunion or just randomly on the street he would probably hug me.

There are many people out there that say the world is more poloarized and divided politically than ever before but I have a different theory: We have always been this way, we just never had a way to do our verbal laundry in public before.

We would never react towards someone with a differing opinion face-to-face like this. I think it is the fault of social media and that is what changed in the world. Think about it: I know Facebook has been around for a while but it wasn't all encompassing until the past few years. How much time were you spending on social media when Al Gore was running for president?

People have always been divided nearly 50/50 on politics.

Let's focus on US presidential elections as an example because the stats are easier to find.

If you look at the election results for the past 50 years or so you will see that there has been a near 50% to 50% split in almost every election. This includes ones that in our memories we thought were blowouts such as Reagan vs Mondale in 1980 where Reagan only won by a whole 9% (he won by 18% the second time.)

Remember when a very weak Bob Dole ran against Bill Clinton? Bill Easily won that right? Is 7% “easily?”

You have to go back to 1972 to find any real “blowout” where Richard Nixon easily defeated George McGovern by 25% and we all know what happened to Nixon.

Anyway, you can look up that information yourself if you think I am making it up. The point is that (at least in the United States) we have always been divided politically and this is particularly evident if you consider that younger people who were not alive during the 1972 election, let alone allowed to vote, are much more likely to be using social media today.

The reason why we didn't disown one another over political differences or perhaps even know the differences existed is because there is a certain amount of decorum that goes into a conversation when the person is right in front of you that doesn't exist behind the veil of the internet. The pal from high school would never say those things to me to my face over something so trivial. I don't know exactly what it is but words on a screen turn all of us into animals that are willing to throw away something that took 20 years to build in an effort to be “right.”

There are a number of people in my own community that I see on a regular basis and we differ extremely on our political beliefs but yet we are able to have a civil conversation and even heated debates but yet we all leave as friends – normally because someone says “maybe we should talk about something else” - and we do just that.

This doesn't happen on Facebook. Both sides feel as though they need to win the conversation at hand. Let's be honest with ourselves: Have you ever been convinced to completely switch your viewpoint over a FB comment?

There are still a few people that I have not unfollowed that insist on believing that the world really needs to see an article about Trump every time something happens. The people who disagree with them rarely take part in the conversation anymore because they know they are just going to be yelled at. The people that do comment already agree completely with the OP so they have succeeded in creating an echo chamber and no one ever learns anything. I find this sad and it makes us all dumber because of it.

I know many people who never use facebook anymore but can't delete it entirely from their lives because they need messenger (how many times have you heard that one?) I have actually restricted myself to only look at FB between sets at the gym, which is a good idea for any of you out there that need some sort of motivation to go to the gym.

Anyway... Do you agree with me? Do you disagree? Do you have a story to tell about people becoming irrationally angry on FB and throwing away a long-term friendship because of it? I would like to hear about it if you do.

I ask only that we leave the political affiliation out of this. I do not care who you support and I really enjoy how Steemit almost never devolves into an argument.