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thisispainful76 t1_iydubuk wrote

Reply to comment by thenewyorkoffice in China's Zhengzhou, home to world's largest iPhone factory, ends Covid lockdown. Other cities do the same by KingSash

As someone from outside the US. Why is everything about left and right? Is that really the only way you guys split on issues? It’s so weirdly them and us it makes me wonder if you’re all just kinda tribal or something.

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Chetmatterson t1_iydv5ps wrote

nah it’s just that the people who buy into it never shut the fuck up about it

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roox911 t1_iydvat7 wrote

It's the most polarized place I've ever lived. For everything.

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yipmog t1_iydxw3n wrote

“Freedom is not merely the opportunity to do as one pleases; neither is it merely the opportunity to choose between set alternatives. Freedom is, first of all, the chance to formulate the available choices, to argue over them - - and then, the opportunity to choose” - C Wright Mills

Basically a summarization of one of the many key problems in our current system, you are given two extreme choices on a nuanced issue and must decide all or nothing on that issue, even if it goes against your interest or values. Almost every solution requires some degree of discussion and nuance, which is completely lost in this day and age.

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KS_YeoNg t1_iye8bf1 wrote

It's because of the two party system. All you can do is vote against the party you hate the most.

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Designer_Librarian43 t1_iye75so wrote

It’s programming that allows people not to think too deeply but most people don’t realize it. The tactic is to just take a word and attach a general negative connotation to it and then drill it into the public until it’s thoroughly absorbed. From there, you just invoke the word anytime that you want to demonize anything whether or not the issue fits the label. I’m generally skeptical anytime someone speaks from view of right or left, conservative or liberal, etc.

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foldingcouch t1_iye0cbc wrote

Because the Republicans realised that it was a lot easier to convince people to vote against Democrats than for Republicans.

Tribalism is exactly what they want. The goal is to have their supporters reject anything that comes out of the mouths of Democrats solely on the basis that a Democrat said it.

The goal of the GOP is to turn the US into a one party state like Russia and Hungary. That's not an exaggeration, that's stone cold facts.

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AoiKururugi t1_iye2mr6 wrote

They just keep accusing each other of doing the same thing. Article is about China lockdown but everything has to be about US politics lmaooo.

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robdiqulous t1_iyf2eje wrote

One side respects facts. The other side is turning down life saving surgery or blood because they can't prove the blood wasn't vaccinated and instead literally choosing to die. They are not the fucking same.

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GoldWallpaper t1_iyenfdj wrote

> Why is everything about left and right?

Because our Republican politicians have no actual policies (seriously!), and they've learned that they can get votes from stupid people by just creating strawmen to attack. One of those strawmen is "whatever we're pretending libruls want."

This isn't just happening in 2022; the Republican 2020 platform was literally, "Whatever Trump wants!"

I know that a Republican would read what I just wrote as "See - they're against us!" I'm not. I have actual policies that I support, and long-term goals that I think the country should be striving towards. I believe it's pathetic that the US spends more per capita on education, health care, and criminal justice than our peer countries and get worse outcomes across the board. That makes me the enemy in their very small minds.

/lifelong conservative, but too educated to vote Republican

edit: I should add that I was just in the UK, and it was just as bad there. In fact, I saw tons of people on the news there blaming Biden for their economic woes. lol

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Throwawaystartover t1_iyfc4dp wrote

On the internet, it’s always right vs left. In reality most of us could give a shit about either. Reddit is always the first to blame something on politics, even when it has nothing to do with it. The sun is hot “fucking republicans”, ants are soaring in numbers “democrats did this!” Etc etc.

I’d like to believe that most of these political spewing weirdos are paid trolls/bots.

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Feeling_Glonky69 t1_iyety7d wrote

Lol, this guy’s still wondering if the us is basically just tribal politics at this point.

No shit, bro.

You know except for those of us that DGAF. All you hear though are the loud mouth idiots on “both sides”

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fuzzyshorts t1_iyf4zhw wrote

americans sees everything as "winning" or "losing". They're like children that way.

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Themoastoriginalname t1_iye52bq wrote

Well eveyone has left and right views no matter the country...some are more extreme some are stupid ...some don't even know what's the actual truth but they go towards what benefits their ideology. Like for a small example conservative here in the US which mostly go with Republicans...they think that Church and state should be together but they don't know that they found fathers of the USA wanted separation of church and state. The extreme one think that probably Jesus was white also. I hope you start seeing a pattern .They don't belive that climate change is real also ... Probably your country has its nuts too.

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