Since at least 2008, it seems to be that the US (and many other countries I'm sure) are blinded by partisanship: whatever THEIR team does is justified, and whatever the OTHER team(s) do(es) is evil.

It was super obvious under Obama: he was almost acclaimed like a Messiah, even though he made healthcare *objectively* worse, doubled the (nominal) debt, deported more people than any of his precessors and weaponized the justice system through the IRS. Any one who dared criticizing him was labeled a racist (of COURSE there were some), and media basically fawned over him, and they accused anyone not supporting Hillary Clinton or Kamala Harris to be sexist... even though they totally ganged against Sarah Palin in 2008.

Trump's second term, I think, shows the extent of the blind partisanhip on the GOP side. They were already in great awe when Trump first declared his love for the candle makers' petition, but now it's getting ridiculous. However you look at the stats, manufacturing employment is DOWN since he enacted the great wall of tariffs.

The worst part, however, is probably the Epstein files. He ran on the matter, but then gaslit the public by saying it was a Democrat hoax.


I know I ultimately have no control over people's blatant double standards... but how can I stay neutral in situations where people's opinion basically depend on their political color rather than their core beliefs?

I consider myself anarchist (no RULERS, NOT no rules), so I see the bad from both main sides

It's become extremely noticeable to me how radical American politics have become in the past 15-20 years. People can't form a coherent sentence without checking in with their obviously biased and unreliable news station first. Everyone brands the other half as fascists, terrorists, lunatics, whatever the zinger word of the day has become. You also are not allowed to agree on certain things and disagree on others anymore, aka have your own opinion, you just end up verbally attacked by both parties. There is no room for debating anymore, as long as you can talk louder and get your prepared lines in there for the media to pick up on it doesn't even matter what arguments are being made. Whatever is going wrong in the country is solely the fault of the previous guy, and everything going right is of course only due to the interventions of the new guy in office. It just switches back and forth over and over. .

Both parties have lost the plot. The Republicans, famous for calling themselves the small government party, are now kissing the feet of a senile narcissist forgoing legal procedures and precedents to push his agenda through like a wannabe dictator, separation of powers be damned. Many will buy any crap the man tells them on his social media account and will see humor in the fact that their president is throwing tantrums like a child nearly every single week instead of being deeply embarrassed by this behavior. January 6th was a disgrace and it's obvious to any neutral observer that storming a capitol building is very clearly an attempted coup, but somehow it gets swept under the rug whenever it is brought up.

The Democrats likewise rallied behind a clearly demented old man to represent them on the world stage and have access to nuclear codes. When it was clear that was a disaster, they basically agreed to forgo democracy entirely last election and just pushed Harris as the candidate on about a day's notice. That's like sending a work email at 11:59PM on Friday and pretending there was enough time for everyone to have seen it when you have a meeting on 8.30AM on Monday. Only it's about, idk, the election of the Presidency of the most powerful country on Earth? Any talk about politics and policies gets ignored ("It's on my website!") in favor of talking about what Trump was eating for breakfast for the 200th time, and then they get surprised when nobody is particularly interested in getting up off the couch to vote for someone who has never told them any concrete plan of action to tackle actual issues. Newsflash: if you want to win over new people to your cause, actually present a coherent policy plan and try to find someone who is even remotely likeable? And please stop laser focusing on identity politics and other crap that does. not. matter. to. normal. people.

Worst of all from both sides is the irrational hatred for anybody on the other side of the fence, to the point of cheering for their deaths. Someone gets f***ing assassinated, and if they are wearing the other color it's like a national holiday to these people. But if it happens to one of theirs, it's irrefutable proof that the other side are practically terrorists. How about we condemn this on all fronts? What a radical thought.

--

Like you said, this exists all over the world. It's here where I live too, but as we don't have a two party system but we do have a language border within our country there's more nuance to it. I'll just say there's a reason we hold the record for longest time with no federal government, a record we got by breaking our old record in the same stat.

I think you are almost entirely correct, and I agree with your general assessment. As someone that has historically voted Republican, I can't label myself as "Republican" or even "conservative" anymore because many of the most notable members of the party have embraced ideas and policies that are in direct opposition of what the party used to stand for.
Furret :

Not only are people willing to sacrifice their principles for party loyalty, they are also willing to sacrifice their morals. I think the recent killings of Charlie Kirk and Alex Pretti demonstrate this very well. I can't believe how many people I've seen be outraged by one of these two events, but try to justify the other because the person doing the killing was on your "side" and the person that was killed was on the other "side."

The only disagreement I have with your post is your characterization of January 6th. I think it was completely overblown by the media. It was a bunch of people that got caught up in the moment. They entered the Capitol, walked around a bit, looked through some drawers, stole a thing or two, and that was it. There was no goal beyond entering the building. Only one person was killed, and she was killed not by those entering the Capitol, but by Capitol police. I actually know someone who was there—he said that he went to protest outside of the Capitol, but he had no idea that anyone had plans to enter the Capitol, and that everyone was riled up and just seemed to follow along with what was happening. Obviously not a good thing to do, but calling it an "attempted coup" is a big stretch. It's pretty comparable to the Black Lives Matter riots in 2020, except that the BLM riots resulted in far more property damage and more deaths.

This is unrelated to party loyalty, but another concerning trend that I've been noticing lately that I think is a result of the same phenomenon is blatant anti-Semitism on social media (particularly on Instagram). Because people have decided that Israel is bad, they have also decided that it's ok to treat Jewish people poorly and to make anti-Semitic remarks about them. In these people's minds, Jewish people, simply by being Jewish, are on the "bad" side, and should therefore be abused. There's just a complete inability for people to see nuance in everything; everything is black and white. My side good, other side bad, bad things happening to other side good because they are bad. It's toddler logic.

" Everyone brands the other half as fascists, terrorists, lunatics, whatever the zinger word of the day has become. "

Ugh, tell me about it. These words, and every "ist" in the book, have become completely meaningless.

"The Republicans, famous for calling themselves the small government party"

In theory only. I have yet to see, on the national level, a Republican president that actually pays off debt

"when it was clear that was a disaster, they basically agreed to forgo democracy entirely last election and just pushed Harris as the candidate on about a day's notice. "

I believe they only did it to be "the first", just like Hillary. I wasn't paying attention at the time, but I believe Democrats blocked a W Bush nomination for SCOTUS (a black woman) because THEY wanted to be the ones doing it

"Because people have decided that Israel is bad, they have also decided that it's ok to treat Jewish people poorly and to make anti-Semitic remarks about them. In these people's minds, Jewish people, simply by being Jewish, are on the "bad" side, and should therefore be abused. "

One can oppose a government (Israel) without denigrating a faith; I do. That country has been implicated/suspiciously close to many affairs in the US - and have a disproportional influence through AIPAC.