Would you vote for the presidential candidate known in some circles as Comrade Kamala, to her enemies who are said to be simultaneously channeling Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini? Chase Oliver or another third-party candidate? Or maybe they’ve had enough of gestures with little in return and are ignoring the political theater as non-voters.
In any case, candidates are likely competing to reduce their unpopularity and making the most of a situation where their options are more or less unfavorable. There’s also a good chance that even though you’ve made a real effort to choose the least bad option, you’re still getting shit handouts from true believers who insist on voting differently than just being the bad guy. . Unfortunately, for many people, politics taints their lives in strange ways and damages their relationships. In fact, many Americans need to calm down.
The pervasive poison of political hatred is clearly impacting how people relate to each other and how they relate to each other.
The Rattler is a weekly newsletter published by JD Tuccille. If you care about government overreach and obvious threats to everyday freedoms, this is for you.
Relationship broken due to differences of opinion
According to a September Yahoo News/YouGov poll, “28% of Americans find it very stressful (9%) or somewhat stressful to spend time with friends and family who don’t share their political views. (19%). “About 26% of Democrats and 30% of Harris supporters say they have ended a friendship or family relationship because of a disagreement over politics, compared to 24% of Republicans and 30% of Trump supporters. 24% of respondents said they ended a friendship or family relationship because of a disagreement over politics.
I haven’t broken up relationships over political views, but I have distanced myself from old college friends because I don’t share their deep loyalty to the “right” candidate or cause. It was cut. I understand how stressful this can be. My friend, who was sitting shotgun in my car on the way to dinner, had recently been vocalizing his disapproval every time he saw a political sign he didn’t agree with. The signs were many.
My good deed this week was not kicking him out the door while the car was running.
Workplaces are also poisoned by political feuds. A survey conducted by the Japan Society for Human Resource Management earlier this year found that “20% of employees said they had experienced unfair treatment at work by a colleague or colleague because of their political views.” A third of respondents said they expected the situation to worsen as the November election approaches.
The problem seems to be getting worse. Twenty-eight percent of workers of all ages told Indeed/Harris pollsters that they were likely to quit their job because of political differences in the workplace, but “nearly 40 percent of workers ages 18 to 34 % of respondents would quit their job because of political differences at work, and 40% of them said they would quit their job because of political differences at work.” When a CEO expresses political views they disagree with , the same age group will also retire. ”
Given the disinterest in reaching out across party lines, especially among young people, it’s no wonder political conflict has a negative impact on relationships between men and women. In recent years, young men’s politics have swung more towards the center or centre-right, while young women’s politics have swung considerably to the left.
“According to Gallup data, in the United States, after decades when men and women were roughly evenly distributed between liberal and conservative worldviews, women between the ages of 18 and 30 are now are shown to be 30 percentage points more liberal than men,” John Byrne-Murdoch previously commented. This year it was in the Financial Times.
Inevitably, then, dating apps add political standards to their services, allowing users to identify potential partners with whom they disagree with taxes, social policy, or the chance to make government a little more obnoxious and intrusive. can be excluded.
“Political polarization in dating is a microcosm of a larger problem,” said Casey Klofstad, a political science professor at the University of Miami. “It’s a problem that’s becoming more and more possible.” This month’s CNN article.
The “oil spill” of politics into unrelated areas of life
In recent years, there has been a growing tendency to isolate oneself from “unpleasant” viewpoints. In doing so, it has seeped into areas of life that are decidedly apolitical, such as dating and the workplace. It also has an impact, as music tastes and brand choices become symbols of partisanship.
“Political divisions have become broader, and these divisions are now incorporating more voices, including voices that were not previously engaged,” Daniel Dellaposta, a sociologist at Pennsylvania State University, said in a study four years ago. It seems like that’s the case,” he said.
In his paper, Dellaposta called the phenomenon of political polarization “spreading from its roots and gradually tainting previously ‘apolitical’ attitudes, opinions, and preferences” as an “oil spill.”
This is how you get potential romantic partners who might be able to put up with each other’s habit of refusing to match based on voting preferences. This is why workplaces boil over with partisan hostility. It describes how friendships that survived decades through good times and bad ended with the imprint of a pen on a ballot. This is how relatives who have endured their grandmother’s cooking for generations stop speaking to each other during election campaigns.
It is also how we are subjected to political violence. Reuters reported that at least 51 incidents have occurred this year, including two attempts on Donald Trump’s life, as well as low-profile shootings, assaults and arson. . Collectively, the news agency described these events as “the largest and most sustained increase in political violence since the 1970s.”
Political differences shouldn’t taint all of our choices
That doesn’t mean political opinions don’t matter or can’t be a deciding factor in a deal. Is that woman on the dating app really a communist? Yeah, I’ll pass on that. Is that person at your workplace really a Nazi? I would like to avoid him too. Better yet, introduce these two. Just for a fucking laugh.
However, within the normal range of opinions, no one will completely agree with the opinions of others. Instituting ideological and partisan litmus tests for families, friends, lovers, and co-workers is guaranteed to have a negative impact on society, and as the tests of purity become stricter, we will see even greater divisions. will occur. You can’t make space for deviants, right? And we retreat into our shrinking bubble.
None of this is necessary or inevitable. Americans need to calm down.
