“In a Pew Research Center study conducted before the pandemic, Americans were more ideologically divided than any of the 19 other publics surveyed when asked how much trust they have in scientists and whether scientists make decisions solely based on facts. These fissures have pervaded nearly every aspect of the public and policy response to the crisis over the course of the year.” America is exceptional in the nature of its political divide by Michael Dimock and Richard Wike https://www.pewresearch.org/fact- tank/2020/11/13/america-is-exceptional-in-the-nature-of- its-political-divide/
America is a greatly divided nation, and tensions have not subsided even after the November election. Passions are smoldering, percolating under the surface waiting for the next opportunity to explode. The US is a house divided, and as Abraham Lincoln stated “A house divided cannot stand.” Emotions are running high, and we are seeing the tensions cause fissures in families, at em- ployment sites, and especially on social media. The acrimony, passion, and emotionalism are worsening.
A recent Pew Research Center documented the chasm facing this country and some of the reasons for it. “Why is America cleaved in this way? Once again, looking across other nations gives us some indication. The polarizing pressures of partisan media, social media, and even deeply rooted cultural, historical, and regional divides are hardly unique to America. By comparison, America is relatively rigid, the two-party electoral system stands apart by col- lapsing a wide range of legitimate social and political de- bates into a singular battle line that can make our differences appear even larger than they may actually be. And when the balance of support for these political parties is close enough for either to gain a near-term electoral advantage – as it has in the U.S. for more than a quarter-century – the competition becomes cutthroat and politics begins to feel zero-sum, where one side’s gain is inherently the other’s loss. Finding common cause – even to fight a common enemy in the public health and economic threat posed by the coronavirus – has eluded us.” America is exceptional in the nature of its political divide by Michael Dimock and Richard Wike
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/11/13/amer- ica-is-exceptional-in-the-nature-of-its-political-divide/
Part of the issue is that the media stokes differences, and we have devolved to the point where there is very little in- formed debate or intellectual discussion around the great issues of the day. We routinely retreat to group think bunkers and silos and the resultant name-calling and calcified ideology, theology, and political positions. The oligarchs and plutocrats take full advantage; in fact they further stoke the flames of disharmony for their own benefit. This way we are at each other’s throats, and they get off scot-free. Our anger is deftly misdirected mostly through diversions the oligarchs create or use specifically for that purpose.
The media is owned by oligarchs hell-bent on maintaining their stranglehold on the levers of power while projecting the illusion, “We the people” actually have a say or power over how the system runs. We don’t.
“Who has predominant power in the United States? The short answer, from 1776 to the present, is: Those who have the money–or more specifically, those who own income- producing land and businesses. They have the power. George Washington was one of the biggest landowners of his day; presidents in the late 19th century were close to the railroad interests; for the Bush family, it was oil and other natural resources, agribusiness, and finance. In this day and age, this means that banks, corporations, agribusinesses, and big real estate developers, working separately on most policy issues, but in combination on important general issues — such as taxes, opposition to labor unions, and trade agreements with other countries — set the rules within which policy battles are waged.” The Class Domi- nation Theory of Power by Professor G. William Domhoffhttps://whorulesamerica.ucsc.edu/power/class_domina- tion.html
For a relatively minute cabal to remain in power over the masses of people on this planet, we have to be neutralized, distracted, duped, and divided. What we are seeing in the US today is exactly that, only on steroids everything is politicized and weaponized. The oligarchs’ control institutions like the mass media, education (both public and private) and they use religion to their advantage also.
Yes, their objective is to make and hoard all the money, but their most important goal is power and domination. They will use any and all means to achieve their goals, even if it means killing off millions of humans, causing massive social, economic, and ecological devastation in the wars they instigate and profit from, https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html, the famines they cause or pandemics they engineer.https://globalcooperative.wordpress.com/2020/05/07/bac- terial-pneumonia-killed-tens-of-millions-not-spanish-flu/.
Part of their divide and rule strategy is to play the unaware against the aware, the informed versus the ignorant, and the brainwashed against free thinkers. Don’t fall for the oligarch’s okey-doke.
