AllOfMyLife

It seems to me that we mostly hold the same values and beliefs,,, on paper,,, Both sides claim to believe discrimination is wrong. Both claim that Justice and safe streets are important. Both claim that we should be kind and generous, help the disadvantaged, but people should contribute to society in some way. Both claim to hold freedom of speech and the ability to defend ourselves in certain types of situations as rights... and so on... We then get into two areas that cause problems. The first is the definition of, or the limits of those things and how to achieve them. That's an area where honest, non violent debate can help us agree on the definitions even if we struggle on where to draw lines. BUT, the larger problem, sometimes despite our similar beliefs, we base our opinions of each other not in those beliefs, but what the other side has been convinced to believe about the people we each choose to prop up as symbols for our beliefs. Trump and Clinton are the perfect examples of this. Most people that pick one or the other, don't do it because they see those people as evil, but the other side does. So even if we have similar beliefs on most topics, in principle, the fact we each have a champion or symbol, is the problem. If we're convinced the other person's champion is evil, we inherently decide the other person is evil and base our beliefs about the other person/group on our own beliefs about their symbol or champion. Depending on which sources we get our opinions from, and what we CHOOSE to believe about these champions, is what's going to greatly effect our choice based on our personal beliefs on the topics... When we get back to judging each other on our personal beliefs about these topics instead of the symbols or people we invest in, we'll be able to understand each other better. Because judging other people based on what we think of the people that they support is confusing and unfair on both sides. And this is how I truly feel about how we should treat each other. That doesn't mean we can't still have fun at the expense of our respective hero's from time to time. ;)