Why Is This The Way We Are

I am sitting here listening to a certain podcast, that shall remain nameless (for now), the host and their guest brought up a phenomenal point.

When did this country turn to insults/death threats/threats of violence/acts of violence/etc., when you find out that someone else supports the opposite political party as you?

I am not starting this thread to start a fecal throwing match from side to side, I really want to know.

When I was growing up, yes you had people who were die hard for one side or the other, but it was never like it is now, at least from what I saw and remember.

If you had a blue guy sitting next to a red guy at a bar they could hold a civil conversation about politics without getting personal, without throwing around hate, violence, and just utter nonsense because the other guy had a different view/opinion.

I know people that are die hard Trump supporters, I know people who are die hard Biden supporters, I know guys that can't stand either one. We are all entitled to our opinions.

I want yalls honest opinions on this.

And again, please don't turn this into a political argument about Trump/Biden/Hillary/etc. This is about the utter hatred and disgust that either side has for one another and I want to know if others can pinpoint the turning point when it went to what it is now from the, somewhat, civil convos people used to have about politics.

a reply to: PorkChop96

If I had to guess, it's probably a combination of all the chemicals in the food and water and social media echo Chambers mixed with the intelligence agencies sewing chaos and propaganda.

It's a big psy-op.

a reply to: watchitburn

So would you say that when Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram etc. came online, or become more mainstream, that peoples civility with each other went downhill? Do you think it was more of a slow decent or a rapid drop off?

a reply to: PorkChop96

It was a slow build up. I'd say it started under Bush with Fox becoming overtly biased. Then it continued under Obama with the rise in social media and CNN and MSNBC becoming overtly biased. Then it all culminated when we elected a President that was using social media to push political conspiracy theories.

a reply to: PorkChop96

I think the MSM has done much to fan the flames, they blow up and sensationalise things out of all proportion, more like propaganda outlets than objective reporting. Like the poster above said it’s a huge psy-op like covid thing was.

a reply to: Threadbarer

With the slow build up, ending in Trump just going off the rails on SM. Do you think it was the conspiracy theories he was spouting, or was it the fact that nobody could control him that was the real issue for people?

Did people hate him as a person, or did people hate the fact that he spoke his mind, told it how it was, or called people out as they should have been?

a reply to: AllisVibration

With MSM, do you think it was unintentional at first, but once they saw the traffic that grew from their headlines and misleading information, they went all in and started to ride the bias line?

Or, do you think that it was intentional form the beginning and all they wanted was to culminate hate and division in the country?

a reply to: PorkChop96

I think the way Trump behaved on the Internet emboldened a certain group of people to act out in ways they might not have previously.

I can't say whether or not the amount of hate speech on the Internet increased under Trump, but it definitely started spreading outside of the niche sites it was previously contained to into more mainstream sites. I think this spread of toxicity ultimately poisoned the well.

a reply to: PorkChop96


No star of flag for you my lazy friend as other than an opinion and thought process you didnt out in the work. Seems to me the USA-Chinese controlled media started it when they referred to George Bush as stupid. The slang name calls really rolled out when Trumo came along.

Cambridge Analytica brags about weaponizing ‘Crooked Hillary’ slogan

Crooked Hillary

IMO Trump is a 1950's period relic who uses name calling as they did back in the day. Yet he himself is a fat slob with a penile lift and joystick along with a sewer for a mouth. Based on what I know was supposed to happen hes lucky to be alive. Anyone remember that missile launch near a Seattle naval submarine base back in 2018. Oh, helicopter?

Not a Missile Launch?

I voted for the A hole in 2016 as he was merely the lessor of two evils. i didnt vote in 2020. Based on my political connections the CIA didnt want either he or Hillary in the white house in 2016. I heard that back in October of 2016 in discussions with my DELTA pilot neighbor who was connected to the you know who agency.

Then we have the bimbo parade

a reply to: Threadbarer

I remember watching SM, and throughout my every day life, leading up to and after the 2016 election and the absolute chaos that ensued after the results were posted was mind boggling. The amount of people that were so put off by the idea of someone who said what they thought and had his own opinion was almost comical.

I will say, there are plenty of times he could have bene more tactful in what he said or how he said it.

If the thought is, that was the turning point, which side was the one who was most outspoken about their thoughts on the matter. Those for or those against the current events in politics?

a reply to: PorkChop96

So Pork Chops ever see Chris Coumo with the CNN Presential Election expert on November 4, 2020 on the ~ 6:00am show going through all those swing states and uncounted mail in votes. They went state by state and at the end of the show Couno concluded that "there is NO way in hell Biden can win the election" The exert agreeed with him.

That video was stripped by CNN later that day. AKA it never hapened and no linger exists. hy I know this is I wanted to write a thread here on ATS as I felt something in the wind about this election was off.

Cuomo was discredited and fired. Typical UNCLE Sam "job" was done on it. Thats the FEDS playbook. The FEDS next step if Cuomo didnt comply was sucicide.

It ws rigged but NO one here on earth will ever be able to prove it.

a reply to: Waterglass

What work was there to put in when this was meant to be an opinion piece for everyone to install their own aspect into?

Calling out Trump for name calling, then going right into name calling against him is pretty counterintuitive if you ask me....


What does this missile launch have to do with this topic? There is no mention of anything political in the article linked.

a reply to: PorkChop96

Your way too shallow water to understand. I am wasting my life on your ignorance. Go deep young man and you will understand.

a reply to: Waterglass

What a time we live in where asking for peoples opinion is viewed as ignorance

a reply to: PorkChop96

Forget me. Just dig deep indepentdent of others. You will SYP. The recent name calling seems to have begun with Trump.

I get an understand why he trashed John McCain, Dingle. Horsey Face and many many others. Yet its sleaze to the extreme as he doesnt push it diplomatically so others would get what he knows.

For that I consider him a POS dirtbag. He could have made america great again but he resorted to his "mean". That he can play 3D chess play is a falacy.

a reply to: PorkChop96

Imitation is the highest form of flattery. Is it cliche to say you've chose the wrong role models time and time again?

Idk, I'm not even American but I have seen your culture plastered around for the last 20-30 years, others also do that imitation thing too. I'd say you're getting nothing you didn't ask for. All the way from high speed chases right in your living room to WWF or even cruise missiles landing on Baghdad.

That's the thing about trauma and drama, always seems excellent when it's over there and somewhere else, right? That's entertainment! Maybe elsewhere someone is laughing at you and your nation's demise because it's actually funny to them. Yet you won't hear me saying "suck it up buttercup and stop being a snowflake" because I can understand just how tragic such views are.

a reply to: PorkChop96

It's really nothing new. The civil war didn't start overnight. It took a while for the division to reach a boiling point.

When I was a kid in the 60's, I remember seeing two old guys come to blows over politics. Tensions were high at the time in this country.

Well, here we are again. Tensions are high, news spreads in a flash, and today we have politicians and big media playing the "Marginalize and villianize" game to their advantage.

As a country, we are at a fork in the road. What happens in 2024 will determine whether we take a hard left or a hard right, and more people are aware of that now than ever before.

a reply to: PorkChop96

I'm going to disagree.

It's always been contentious. Back then we had duels, so people were polite or else they got shot.

Remember the riots in 68?

originally posted by: PorkChop96
a reply to: AllisVibration

With MSM, do you think it was unintentional at first, but once they saw the traffic that grew from their headlines and misleading information, they went all in and started to ride the bias line?

Or, do you think that it was intentional form the beginning and all they wanted was to culminate hate and division in the country?

That’s a great question, because on the one hand the rise of the internet and alternative sources of information was making the old MSM increasingly irrelevant. They had to transition to go online which they did poorly at first. Once they realised it was all about clicks and traffic, they went increasingly sensational because that’s what grabs people’s attention.

On the other hand governments and big corporations need to control the narrative and spend a lot on public relations, by propping up the MSM with advertising and donations the goal is to drown out independent and grassroots alternatives. By polarising people you get them blaming each other over just about everything, rather than the real culprits. I suppose this divide and conquer strategy has always been the playbook, but the internet threatened this by giving people access to alternative sources of information. For example without the internet I doubt I would have questioned the official narrative of what happened on 9/11 I didn’t even know about building 7.
This is why they push so hard for censorship, de-platforming calling things disinformation etc… it’s all about controlling people’s beliefs and what they think. And if you set up echo chambers on social media and such that reinforces those beliefs and ideas, which then sets up a state of cognitive dissonance, so no matter how true something may be, as long as it’s perceived to be coming from “the other side” it will be rejected outright.

a reply to: PorkChop96

America has always been like this... I'm not sure it's a new thing. Look at the history of adding Kansas to the union, the violence in New York during the Civil War, the Civil War itself, the entire nation was built upon violent uprising and plotting agaisnt political oppositions.

I think what's happening now and within the last 60 some odd years is pretty tame compared to around 1760 - 1900.