Just a reminder folks. We are ALL fellow Americans.......

[rolltide_21]

So is purple font the new trans for sarcasm?

Only for the color blind 😁

 

[selmaborntidefan]

I’m sorry but this is just going to be the “civility” thread again.

Yes we are all Americans but there is just too much “my side is good and your side is evil” to really matter in unifying behind some American standard. There really isn’t any compromise by the bulk of Americans

That video the other day hit it perfectly.

Send it to my Oregon bud.

He's more liberal than I (and MAGA thinks I'm a Commie), but the truth, the facts, reality, these are all important to both of us (he's pretty conservative on personal finance, for example). But he noted that his Trump-loving brother-in-law and his Trump loathing daughter both use the same flawed methodology for determining what they think. Trump can do nothing right (per the daughter) and has never done anything wrong (per the BIL).

However - the brutal truth is there is flat out cultism with Trump that didn't exist even with the constantly moving goalposts by Clinton's crew. I never saw folks who would tell you something the opposite in the afternoon than they did in the morning.

 

[bamacpa]

I ride my bicycle a lot, and there is a real division between auto drivers and bicycle riders. A few drivers feel they can threaten, intimidate, yell at, coal roll, and even hit riders. This is not an imaginary division, and I lost an experienced elite racer friend this year to a driver who crossed the line and hit him and another rider head on. There’s very little I can do to stop or even slow this kind of senseless hate. But I ride nonetheless, because it’s what I want to do, even if it triggers some drivers.

Good to know a fellow cyclist is in here.

But yeah, we're very divided. I don't think we are all on the same team anymore.

 

[bamacpa]

Very nice! But I have to say I don't believe we are a country divided at all.

Nice try those who are making money off division......but not going to work for many of us who can see through your "antics'!

The person making the most money off division is in the White House.

 

[spidermayin]

You used to not be able to go on facebook and other social media outlets to see everyone's opinion 24/7. No matter how hard you try, you'll never change someone's mind politically making a post on facebook. If that post is toxic and filled with hate, all it does is create resentment within people that vote for the opposite party. The closest I've ever seen this country is right after 09/11 and it's been downhill gradually ever since.

 

[Bamaro]

Also fellow Americans. Maybe its time we all started acting like we are all fellow Americans.

 

[CrimsonJazz]

This is one of the best things I have read in a long time. Absolutely worth the read.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2026517827612721422

In 2026, Americans on the Left and on the Right hate each other like never before. Families are falling apart along ideological fracture lines. Companies go bankrupt because the CEO gave money to the wrong cause, or a fashion model gets crushed for saying the wrong thing about the Middle East, or a social media account gets shutdown for wrongthink.

It’s pervasive. We hate each other, and the hate seems unresolvable.
UNRESOLVABLE. But I don’t really think it is, and I think we can fix it.

 

[Bamaro]

This is one of the best things I have read in a long time. Absolutely worth the read.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2026517827612721422

It starts from the top.

 

[CrimsonJazz]

It starts from the top.

Actually, it doesn't. We don't need a great unifier in office to make this happen. We didn't have that under any other president in recent memory. It starts with people giving the bird to the ones who stand to profit from our division and getting along anyway.

 

[75thru79]

It starts from the top.

Actually, it starts at a grassroots level, where ordinary people live. How Trump and Jeffries and Schumer and Vance and Rubio treat each other is visible to everyone (because they are all on TV every day) but we don't have to all act like that. Those who sit back and wait on their "leaders" to tell them how to act are missing the point and are themselves part of the problem.

 

[dtgreg]

Most of the second part of your post I agree with.

To the divided part, I offer this:

Don't fall for that trap, my friend.

There are people who are making a ton of money off creating the illusion that we are divided.

There are bots all over the Internet created by foreign agents that are doing the same (see @crimsonaudio 's thread on social media).

And when you watch or listen to the media.....who are these people they feature in their segments? They sure are not every day folks. They are pundits, politicians, and members of the media. All who make their living off giving a spin on things.

What really matters is what you see with your own eyes in the real world....meaning away from the Internet. And certainly away from message boards.

That is what I base my opinion on. 29 years in the same location here. Based on my conversations with residents here the stuff most are concerned about is the incompetence by local government to address storm-related flooding and how expensive stuff is in stores. And that about it.

Just my 2 cents....and YMMV for sure.....

I feel like we're living in America 1940.

 

[tusks_n_raider]

I feel like we're living in America 1940.

Germany with a Splash of America 1861

 

[dtgreg]

Germany with a Splash of America 1861

I'm from Alabama. I remember the Klan on our streets in the early 1960's. Now they have, what is it, the eighth largest military budget in the world and the backing and protection of the American government?

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I'm from Alabama. I remember the Klan on our streets in the early 1960's. Now they have, what is it, the eighth largest military budget in the world and the backing and protection of the American government?

My last two years of law school, I lived in Abram's Court, across the tracks by the river. I found out that, on the other side of the wall in our townhouse, the mother of the head of the White Citizen's Council lived. She was a night shift nurse. We shuddered when we heard that the couple who lived there before had an infant and she would bang on the wall when the child cried and disturbed her daytime sleep. However, to our amazement, she took to our one-year old daughter, even volunteered to babysit her. We were very lucky. Her son lived there with her, but we rarely saw him. He had been expelled from UA after the newsreel pix of him jumping up and down on Autherine Lucy's car (the first black to attempt to enroll at UA). Once, we were invited down outback for watermelon. I was talking with a guy who introduced himself as "Robert Shelton." It didn't ring a bell at first, but he was the Grand Dragon of the United Klans of America, the largest Klan organization. What woke me up was when he started ranting about Druid City's removing their "Colored Entrance" sign voluntarily! He would have understood, if they'd have done it under court order. There I was, someone who'd lost friends in HS by declaring against segregation at a time when that was not a popular stance by any means. I'd like to say I was brave, but I wasn't. I had law school to finish and my cross-wall neighbor was in a position to make life miserable for us, plus there was actual fear of personal violence where the Klan was concerned, so all I did was grunt, finish my watermelon and excuse myself...

 

[tusks_n_raider]

My last two years of law school, I lived in Abram's Court, across the tracks by the river. I found out that, on the other side of the wall in our townhouse, the mother of the head of the White Citizen's Council lived. She was a night shift nurse. We shuddered when we heard that the couple who lived there before had an infant and she would bang on the wall when the child cried and disturbed her daytime sleep. However, to our amazement, she took to our one-year old daughter, even volunteered to babysit her. We were very lucky. Her son lived there with her, but we rarely saw him. He had been expelled from UA after the newsreel pix of him jumping up and down on Autherine Lucy's car (the first black to attempt to enroll at UA). Once, we were invited down outback for watermelon. I was talking with a guy who introduced himself as "Robert Shelton." It didn't ring a bell at first, but he was the Grand Dragon of the United Klans of America, the largest Klan organization. What woke me up was when he started ranting about Druid City's removing their "Colored Entrance" sign voluntarily! He would have understood, if they'd have done it under court order. There I was, someone who'd lost friends in HS by declaring against segregation at a time when that was not a popular stance by any means. I'd like to say I was brave, but I wasn't. I had law school to finish and my cross-wall neighbor was in a position to make life miserable for us, plus there was actual fear of personal violence where the Klan was concerned, so all I did was grunt, finish my watermelon and excuse myself...

I’d like to hope that things were better in my youth and even today but I don’t know that they are at all.

When I was a Junior in HS there was a Caucasian girl in my grade who was quietly seeing a Black guy outside of school.

Her and her family woke up one night with a Cross Burning in her front yard.

This was 1994-1995 or so.

I felt naive at the time for thinking something like that would never happen in my hometown.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I’d like to hope that things were better in my youth and even today but I don’t know that they are at all.

When I was a Junior in HS there was a Caucasian girl in my grade who was quietly seeing a Black guy outside of school.

Her and her family woke up one night with a Cross Burning in her front yard.

This was 1994-1995 or so.

I felt naive at the time for thinking something like that would never happen in my hometown.

This was in 1962. Interracial couples around here don't draw a second glance and haven't in decades. Part of it is Huntsville being very much a military town. Mixed couples were common in the military long before they were common in the civilian population around here...

 

[CrimsonJazz]

Gen Zers don’t remember a time when this country wasn’t horribly divided.

If your political memory starts with George W Bush and only includes Obama and Trump you probably just assume we were always this dysfunctional.

But we weren’t. We used to all hang out together and make fun of each other and stuff.

Politics just weren’t that big a deal; besides abortion our biggest arguments were over crap like marginal tax rates.

I don’t see it happening again any time soon, but I’m glad I got to at least experience it.

I hope my kid gets to one day, too.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2060374669371244926

You know, he makes a good point. And speaking of Obama and Trump, people love to blame these two for this mess, but I think they only do so because they mistakenly believe this absolves them of their own terrible behavior. Fact is, most of us are guilty to one degree or another. If we are truly sick of this divisiveness and rage, there is only one way: be the change you want to see. Otherwise, do the rest of us a favor and shut the hell up. Either way, society will improve a little.