Divided and Conquered

[MichSwampbuck]

Your insight seems sound to me Parcival, although I would be careful about responding in other forums. Of course, if I were to admit that I actually agree with you, I'd be a MEGA MAGA Extremist akin to Adolf and friends.

[Maxmars]

I'm a day late or so on this.... 

... but my take on this whole thing is that over a period of years our school systems have been flooded with ideological teachers that tend to lean very far left. 

The teachers themselves are unduly "influenced."  In fact, the curricula across sings the same tune... isn't that meaningful?  Entire generations of higher education "experts" all sharing the same ideological indoctrination message?  Hmmm... me says...  "There be a foulness in the air!"

You couple this with the media being mostly controlled by 2 or 3 major corporations and all reporting the same slanted news day after day and you start to see ...

Preach it!  My entire generation thinks media "news" is the equivalent of "adequate information."  It's kind of disheartening.

Now look at the bigger picture and congress is no longer for the people. ...

Allow me to add that it is not the fault of "Congress" or what the "Congress" is supposed to be.

It's a cultural crystallization of the new hybrid ruling class... "Political Celebrities" a mix of thespian and politician...
where if it "appears good" it's good enough.  It's all about the media metrics, baby!

... Congress needs to have a middle ground.

The middle ground never ceased to exist... it's just never celebrated... ever.

In every argument where a middle ground proposed, opposite sides join together to call it nonsense.
It's the damned culture they embrace that leads us here.

[Parcival]

Your insight seems sound to me Parcival, although I would be careful about responding in other forums. Of course, if I were to admit that I actually agree with you, I'd be a MEGA MAGA Extremist akin to Adolf and friends.

Oh I am well aware.  I have to watch what I post on my social media.  I would be afraid someone would try to get me fired from my job and I am high enough on the food chain where I am working that my information is easily pulled from our website along with my contact information. That unfortunately is the world we live in today.

[sahgwa]

Divide and conquer, a technique used to weaken the enemy is often applied to left/right politics. I hear the claims that the deep-state players are using this to control the masses by keeping them at each other's throats and distracted from the people behind the curtain pulling the strings.

I believe whoever is using this technique has succeeded. There is no middle ground now, there is no opinion, no matter how logical, fact-based, or unbiased, that will not be placed on one side or the other. Families are being torn apart by this political polarity and it sure seems to be serving a purpose. My girlfriend experienced this personally at a recent funeral in her family.

I have an example of my own to illustrate the point. The incident with the black kid in Texas at the track meet who stabbed a white kid who told him to leave his seat. When that report hit the media, the facts were scant and people automatically made assumptions, you know the kind. A young black male stabs a white guy to death, so it is a problem black people have with violence. The other side of that is young southern white boys threatening an "uppity black" to leave his seat who then defends himself.

If you are a liberal who would wonder out loud if the black kid was a murdering criminal, your liberal friends would call you a red-neck Trump MAGA Nazi. Conversely, if you were a conservative white guy who wondered if this was some racist southern white boys threatening a black guy who had the right of self-defense, then you are automatically a closet liberal or some kind of political double agent. In some circles, you'd be called a fag or a Jew as well.

Now, I'm hearing that this black kid had it out for the white kid he stabbed to death, if so, then it was premeditated murder. Then, as predicted, this kid is the new liberal martyr who needs a go fund me for his defense and is racking up the defense funds as we speak. Meanwhile, the media is trying to imply the white kids were racist militant MAGA types because of a picture of them out hunting in camo clothes.

Unless I am making my observations public in the appropriate echo chamber, I will be doomed to be labeled one way or the other. You cannot be moderate anymore, you can't look at both sides and voice your independent thoughts and ideas without being placed in one camp or the other. We have already been divided and conquered when moderate objectivity is no longer allowed.

If I were to point out the extreme propaganda and rhetoric of both sides, I'd still get pigeon holed into one side or the other. I find that I must self-censor in public now, I discovered this at a local restaurant recently, not that I disagreed with the talk I heard. I have to keep it to myself for the most part, and that is the goal here, to stifle our free speech and keep us divided and unorganized.

This is true; it has been discussed here previously.
In my opinion the solution is simple.  Be as apolitical as possible. 
Don't waste time talking about it, engaging it, or giving it any of your precious energy or bodily fluids.

When you must engage then try and see above it like you already do, and express a logical third party and reconciliatory approach.

Don't self censor, but don't feed the emotional hyperbolic infant-fest either.

[Parcival]

The middle ground never ceased to exist... it's just never celebrated... ever.

In every argument where a middle ground proposed, opposite sides join together to call it nonsense.
It's the damned culture they embrace that leads us here.

Your not wrong,  The teachers and school thing is a snake eating its tail.  Teachers go to liberal arts colleges and are taught by liberal teachers then they in turn teach kids liberal ways all the way up through college and then they again become teachers.  My wife works at a high school and there are teachers quitting because they are afraid of the direction we are going.  That is where the media comes in.  The media will not report truth.  Lies sell more air time and lies support their causes.

As for the middle ground in congress.  I know it still exists and always has but if someone crosses the isle they will quickly be ostracized by their party and sent on their merry way next election cycle or worse.  You have to be loyal to "the party" now and if you are you become a millionaire and live the good life as long as you are willing to sell out whatever moral compass you may have possessed.  It on both sides of the isle and I truly believe that a change is happening but it may not happen quick enough to make any real difference and too many people are brainwashed to the point that they don't see it because their media will not tell them what is going on.   This is truly brainwashing on a scale never seen in human history.  Social media, news and schools are cramming the propaganda hard.

[sahgwa]

TPTB create this division using MSM and social media which most people are glued to. They don't want us to figure out it isn't US vs. US, it's US vs. THEM. I think this is why you see the massive bot campaigns on the large social media sites like Twitter/facebook/reddit. These billion and trillionaires do not care what we do to each other as long as we are busy being in conflict not coming together. They are not bound by political parties or ideologies. They're bound by their elitism and wealth.

Exactly.
To fight the polarity, you must realise that it is not binary.  It is a uniparty pretending to be two faces that hate eachother. 
Its one big mafia with various factions.
Common denominator is no loyalty, no principles, and obsession with money and power. 

Universal solvent for this kind of thing is opting out and engaging with reason and compassion.

[MichSwampbuck]

I have this thread posted elsewhere where the replies had me come to the conclusion I should modify my thesis statement at the beginning of this thread. I will repeat the introduction and thesis below then offer a modified thesis.
 

Divide and conquer, a technique used to weaken the enemy is often applied to left/right politics. I hear the claims that the deep-state players are using this to control the masses by keeping them at each other's throats and distracted from the people behind the curtain pulling the strings.

I believe whoever is using this technique has succeeded. There is no middle ground now, there is no opinion, no matter how logical, fact-based, or unbiased, that will not be placed on one side or the other.

On rereading and giving consideration to the idea that the internet and social media are organically producing polarity, I can see that the thesis needs work. I would like to rephrase that to read, 

"I believe whoever would use this technique, to divide and conquer, now needs only to conquer. There is no middle ground . . ."

By making that change, "whoever would use" doesn't mean that anyone would use or is using, it's an open ended statement concerning blame. That way it is unnecessary to state who or what is causing polarity because the first thesis implies someone is responsible. That implication demands proof that can throw the thread way off course into some extreme BS.

[Maxmars]

I agree...

The techniques and processes used were not known until after the 'experiment' had taken place...
(why does that sound familiar?)

But if I might risk a wrinkle: "Success," I propose, is actually a matter of degree, or a spectrum of results...
Perhaps, as there is no middle ground, there can be no ultimate "success."

Sorry if this is contrary to the thread direction you intend.  Not my intention to distract.

[ReturnofBroccoli]

Divide and conquer, a technique used to weaken the enemy is often applied to left/right politics. I hear the claims that the deep-state players are using this to control the masses by keeping them at each other's throats and distracted from the people behind the curtain pulling the strings.

I believe whoever is using this technique has succeeded. There is no middle ground now, there is no opinion, no matter how logical, fact-based, or unbiased, that will not be placed on one side or the other. Families are being torn apart by this political polarity and it sure seems to be serving a purpose. My girlfriend experienced this personally at a recent funeral in her family.

I have an example of my own to illustrate the point. The incident with the black kid in Texas at the track meet who stabbed a white kid who told him to leave his seat. When that report hit the media, the facts were scant and people automatically made assumptions, you know the kind. A young black male stabs a white guy to death, so it is a problem black people have with violence. The other side of that is young southern white boys threatening an "uppity black" to leave his seat who then defends himself.

If you are a liberal who would wonder out loud if the black kid was a murdering criminal, your liberal friends would call you a red-neck Trump MAGA Nazi. Conversely, if you were a conservative white guy who wondered if this was some racist southern white boys threatening a black guy who had the right of self-defense, then you are automatically a closet liberal or some kind of political double agent. In some circles, you'd be called a fag or a Jew as well.

Now, I'm hearing that this black kid had it out for the white kid he stabbed to death, if so, then it was premeditated murder. Then, as predicted, this kid is the new liberal martyr who needs a go fund me for his defense and is racking up the defense funds as we speak. Meanwhile, the media is trying to imply the white kids were racist militant MAGA types because of a picture of them out hunting in camo clothes.

Unless I am making my observations public in the appropriate echo chamber, I will be doomed to be labeled one way or the other. You cannot be moderate anymore, you can't look at both sides and voice your independent thoughts and ideas without being placed in one camp or the other. We have already been divided and conquered when moderate objectivity is no longer allowed.

If I were to point out the extreme propaganda and rhetoric of both sides, I'd still get pigeon holed into one side or the other. I find that I must self-censor in public now, I discovered this at a local restaurant recently, not that I disagreed with the talk I heard. I have to keep it to myself for the most part, and that is the goal here, to stifle our free speech and keep us divided and unorganized.

I agree with you 100% on this, I'm non political for the most part there's so much drama there but yeah this the world is black or white mentality needs to stop lol simply put thpugj people are profiting off of the divide so it really won't ever stop. There's too much money in it, if you want to see how they are profiting just look at stocks: When tariffs came and crypto plummeted I bought it at half the price it is today since the pause. Fear, panic, covid, war, famine, all of it money. Etfs bonds crypto, this is where it is played. It is the so called emotion board. Covid however was nuts the market climbed like 1000% for a bit it is now way back down and corrected but that right there hints to me that the event was manufactured in a way that people in the know could profit. If I knew then what I know now ya know. Stocks are just a hobby of mine I'm an amateur but it doesn't take a genius to see: Fear - stocks plummet, Joy - stocks rise. That's my piece on it. The rest is just a big manufactured illusion.

[Anna]

"You're either with us or with the enemy" is a powerful slogan to gather people, including all the potential fence-sitters, around some cause. It could be a ridiculous cause or a noble cause. Polarization is not always negative. Some ailments that plague the society require a decisive attitude and radical measures, especially if the other side deprives you of the oxygen to breathe. That concerns, for example a war, when the nation needs to defend itself against invaders, or authoritarian forms of government where the opposition has no other option than rebellion.

But extreme situations like this do not need to take place in order for people to feel strongly opinionated. The election times usually encourage polarization because the candidates want to motivate their electorate. It's often nanipulative but sometimes people might hold strong beliefs that can become the part of their identity. Personally, I'm not usually emotionally invested in politics until someone hits the nerve. Just recently I quarrelled with my relatives because I felt compelled to defend some ideal that, at that moment, seemed more precious to me than all the gold possessed by the National Bank of Poland.