Can the current state of American political discourse be remedied?

[mrdk_04]

Just stumbled across a YT video made by "Innuendo Studios", an outspoken leftist, and it got me thinking.

Since the 2016 elections (Brexit and Trump), the Western world has seen a massive increase in polarization and aggresive rhetoric across its political spectrum.
American politics have become quite brazen in the past 3 years, what with its winner-takes-all system, only 2 parties with any political power (and thus responsibility) existing and an increase in carelessness from what you could call the "culture war".

My question is: can it remedied? If the answer is yes, how should it be remedied? If the answer is no, where should it go from there?
Bonus question: what caused this degeneration to begin with?

 

[Red Hood]

Three key words:
lol calm down

When people learn to calm down and stop acting like everything is a world-ending threat/personal threat it will get better.

 

[byuu]

Just nuke America.

 

[Red Hood]

the only way i see to end the division is for one side to win decisively and impose near totalitarian control to curb all opposition. once one side is in total control and all opposing voices are silenced, the public sphere can start calming down.
i honestly see no other way out, the dividing issues are too important and fundamental for either side to let go.


prolonged leftist control over the media, academia, and education.

I would argue social media's constant need for people to sperg immediately to get that dopamine rush pushes the spergery.

 

[Krokodil Overdose]

The postwar consensus has been decaying for decades, but with technology enabling the rise of nationalism, the cold civil wars that were percolating in the West are beginning to turn hot. In the past, there was no real culture "war" because you need two armies to make a war, and with the left's stranglehold on the institutions, they were the only ones who were allowed to actually play, hence the constant leftward ratchet effect we've seen since the 50s. However, with technology enabling the circumvention of those institutions even as they collapse due to their own unsustainable bloat, suddenly the other side has a voice and the ability to mobilize, so the prog steamroller suddenly doesn't have the clout that it once did. The left's alliance with Silicon Valley monopolists to prop up their hegemony is indicative of their concern for their own power above all else, and may yet succeed in enforcing a manufactured consensus on the population as the mainstream media did before the rise of the internet.

As far as remedies go, I don't think there's a silver bullet that's going to make all the badness go away. The postwar institutions have become so corrupt, overbearing, and parasitic that leaving them will only cause the social ills they're wrapped up in to fester, while reforming or (more likely) removing them will be akin to amputating a limb. Even if we manage to get our feet on the right path, there's going to be a lot of pain getting back to normal.

Big picture, I think that the answer lies in free speech, specifically as a tool to enable the rectification of names. If we can extricate ourselves from the tyranny of the old media/social media naming and shaming anyone who breaks with their line of approved thought, we can start to actually call things what they are in public and actually debate, as opposed to trying to navigate verbal minefields while tackling problems. In practical terms, I think there's a few necessary elements to this: 1) regulate the internet monopolists (Facebook, Twitter, etc) as common carriers: they should hold absolutely no editorial discretion on "curation" rights to things posted on their platform that aren't actually illegal. 2) make political affiliation/philosophy a protected category. 3) Adopt a "loser pays" system for torts nationwide. Most of this ties into my belief that most of the practical solutions are already there, but haven't been realized due to the breakdown in antitrust jurisprudence and free speech protections that we've seen in the last few decades.

 

[NeverHappened]

This is not a problem for poorer and working Americans who care more about the economy. Politics have always been shit for those whose interest are unrepresented. There isn't actually much polarization among the common citizenry. Most people just don't have the energy to go along with the hate, outside of a small fraction of the population. I remember the Bush year where more IRL people went along with the rhetoric, whereas now it's the media that's driving most of it.

 

[eldri]

It should be put into law that, once a month, all politicians are tarred and feathered.
If you want power, you have to suffer for it.

In reality, there's nothing that can be done except for violent revolution. The powers that be have only been strengthened by political polarization and liberals (as well as some conservatives, but in general it's liberals), are too stupid to realize that.

 

[Helvetica Scenario]

Everyone currently involved in political discourse never mind what side they're claiming to be on has to sit down, shut up and let someone else have a go. You guys had your chance, and you blew it.

 

[jewelry investor]

Just nuke America.

You could pray to yellow stone.

 

[bemeas]

Just nuke America.

California alone would be enough I think.

 

[oldTireWater]

Everyone currently involved in political discourse never mind what side they're claiming to be on has to sit down, shut up and let someone else have a go. You guys had your chance, and you blew it.

Is that you Michael Moore?

 

[darkshadowfox]

remove the Car restrictions that mercedes imposed in the 1980s, block tor exit nodes to pedophillia sites from US based IPs, more accountability on political corruption, drug war.

turning the ghettos into nice neighborhoods.

giving more jobs to the poor and pulling money from the upper rich.

nuking america.

 

[Hellbound Hellhound]

prolonged leftist control over the media, academia, and education.

This is a myopic view that ignores the popularity of Fox News, televangelism, and conservative talk radio.

The reality is that both sides have played a decisive role in trivializing, sensationalizing, and polarizing political discourse in America, and the fault ultimately lies in an overarching culture of anti-intellectualism, coupled with the generally dismal standard of American political broadcasting.

 

[Draza]

A good ole' civil war.

 

[Judge Holden]

InnuendoStudios is a full on lolcow in his own right. Nigga has been pushing the "EVERYONE WHO DISAGREES WITH ME OR MAKES FUN OF ME OR USES MEEEMEEES IS AN EBIL NAZI RAPEMACHINE TERRORIST!" schtick harder than the likes of movieblob since the early days of gamergate and so his latest whinefest is of little import since its another example of "meanie trolls say meanie things. this means everybody i dont like is guilty and sekritly agrees with everything meanie trolls say"

If people want to stop the collapse of political discourse, the easiest fucking thing to do would be to stop declaring one's opponents to be inhuman nazi rapist monsters that need to be corcively if not violently silenced.

Anne-frankly right now there is only one side in this shit that is doing this, and we all know which side that is.

Worst shit the right is saying these days is "cuck" or "globalist" or "shill" or other varieties of "pathetic and dishonest idiot". If this were the dumbest nadir of the Bush/satanic panic era and the right was declaring all opponants/dissenters to be islamist supporting babykillers or satanic child rapists or the like, then there would be parity but the fact of the matter is that this shit just isnt happening.

The left has systematically pissed away any claim to be the moral/intellectual side of truth and fairness, and against them the right wingers of the world merely have to not be as utterly repulsive as them to the voter base which is why they are fucking winning. Trump didnt win because everybody in murica loved his policies or shit, he was able to get his base and a nice chunk of the centre out there into the polling booths, while the dems managed to convince most of their base and the left leaning centre to just stay the fuck at home instead of partake in their political shitwagon. And THAT was back in 2016 when their schtick was infinitely less demagoguery and hysteria laden than it is today.

 

[Krokodil Overdose]

This is a myopic view that ignores the popularity of Fox News, televangelism, and conservative talk radio.

The reality is that both sides have played a decisive role in trivializing, sensationalizing, and polarizing political discourse in America, and the fault ultimately lies in an overarching culture of anti-intellectualism, coupled with the generally dismal standard of American political broadcasting.

Fox News, talk radio, and televangelism are both recent phenomena and drops in the bucket compared to the far-left stranglehold on the mainstream media, academia, and the bureaucracy.

The Big 3 networks were manufacturing left-wing consensus since Roosevelt gave them a functional monopoly over Americans' information. Comparing the effect of that to Rupert Murdoch's breakout (my favorite comment about Fox News: "Rupert Murdoch found a niche that contained half the country") fails simply due to the difference in scale.

 

[Red Hood]

This is a myopic view that ignores the popularity of Fox News, televangelism, and conservative talk radio.

The reality is that both sides have played a decisive role in trivializing, sensationalizing, and polarizing political discourse in America, and the fault ultimately lies in an overarching culture of anti-intellectualism, coupled with the generally dismal standard of American political broadcasting.

While I agree on the fact that neither side is blameless, it's hard to read the anti-intellectualism thing with a straight face. The so-called intellectuals we're largely asked to accept within academia are postmodernists, social scientists, and others that want to use their degrees as an excuse for demagoguery that makes them no different from a religious figure claiming God/Allah/Captain Howdy has ordained them and therefore they are correct. "You have to believe me! I'M AN EXPERT!" has been abused too much to accept at face value.

Everything should be taken with a grain of salt and no one from a homeless man on the street to mutiple PhD people should be considered as speaking in anyone's best interest other than their own until fact checked and proven otherwise.

 

[Krokodil Overdose]

Everything should be taken with a grain of salt and no one from a homeless man on the street to mutiple PhD people should be considered as speaking in anyone's best interest other than their own until fact checked and proven otherwise.

Gonna back this up with a bit that I capped from a blogger years ago:

 

[Trasha Pay That A$$]

If you vote Democrat, you get deported. Same for anyone who is a legit member of the KKK.

 

[break these cuffs]

dotr is the only way forward