• whynotzoidberg@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I heard it put something like this once:

    We used to all live around each other, and on the weekends we’d go to the bowling alley and have to listen to each other. It didn’t matter if I agreed with who was talkin, and it didn’t matter if they agreed with me. We talked. We argued. And then we bowled and had fun.

    Today, we talk, we argue, and, after the “fuck off”, we get angrier at each other.

    • MilkToastGhost@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Anecdotes are fun, but the reality is this:

      State are taking action to eliminate abortion, severely restrict voting rights, alter the state constitution (like in my home state ohio), and gut programs that support poor individuals while giving tax breaks and incentives to the rich.

      Outside of the way your neighbors view politics, when your state says “your worthless get out, were looking for someone else” does that really make you want to stay? Is political tension in this country a factor for the comfort that makes people choose a home? Yes. That doesn’t mean that where you live in today’s day and age significantly defines your rights as a human being.

      • whynotzoidberg@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        You’re right — my SO and I were just discussing how different states are alienating different parts of the populace. It’s driving people away from each other. It tears apart seams in the social fabric. It violates some of our social contracts, even.

        I don’t think that voids the anecdote, though. The more that we can come together and “bowl it out”, if you will, I think the better off we could be. Compassion can come from exposure. Then, maybe, we could get some of the power back from those using policy to divide.

        Or, maybe not.

    • TerabyteRex@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      This isn’t true. There was always hate but with social media bad people find more bad people. Hell, when the first issue of captain America came out, it had a picture of Cap punching Hitler. They received death threats, not just on the phone but in the street.
      The main difference in my childhood was that I never heard from people of hate because i grew up in a very liberal area. There wasn’t a good way for them to organize.

    • Neato@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      No. We talked, got argued at, and whichever side was louder or more numerous bullied the others into stop talking. Then the dominant side laughed at the others and the others left, or shut up or stewed privately. People were ostracized for being different. There were countless sitcoms and tv shows in the 80s-90s that showcased this exactly and tried to fight it, ideologically.

      Now, like-minded people can actually find communities they feel safe in. That’s true for LGBT as well as Nazis, so it’s a double-edged sword there. I’m not going to say the past was better. Look at gay and trans communities: they were closeted or didn’t exist in the past because bigots shouted them down, bullied them and murdered them.