I've never gotten the idea that RedKing embraced hatred, Dunamisdeos, he's just really pessimistic about it because hes experienced how shitty it gets on the Republican side. I don't think he's actually declared himself to be Republican, but that doesn't matter.
I'm pessimistic because I've seen the "why can't we all just get along" trope used my whole life, at times far less divisive than these, and the only effect I've observed is a steady lean to the Right in this country.
When the Left is in power, Republicans talk about the importance of bipartisanship and consensus, because they're on the outside looking in. Meanwhile their allies in the punditocracy screech hate and lies and pull the electorate to the Right.
As soon as they gain power, bipartisanship goes out the fucking window, because "elections have consequences". They do whatever the fuck they want, and if anybody tries to stop them, they get hanmered with rhetoric.
When Democrats get back into power, they generally lack that "fuck you, got mine" aspect to policymaking. Which means they don't counterbalance the Right. At best, they halt the bleeding.
So to my mind, arguing "we should try to understand each other and compromise" is just a tired old wolf-in-sheeps clothing argument to try and defuse the Left from actually doing unto others as has been done unto them.
Fuck that noise. The Republicans have been building this for 30-40 years, it's time to reap the whirlwind, bitches.
Just because we can't all get along doesn't mean we shouldn't work toward it. Dismissing everyone who disagrees with you as an evil scumbag is working against it. Using dirty tricks and enacting petty revenge (even when the other side did it to you before) is also working against it. By doing so, we're simply escalating a completely meaningless conflict which does nothing but alienate everyone and reinforce tribalism. Maybe we shouldn't compromise in everything we do, but we also shouldn't consider everyone who isn't on our side as inferior. We're all human beings; we all have more or less the same mental capacity and same moral sense. We're all capable of change. Look at any Republican, and realize that they are exactly the same as you.
Besides, Democrats aren't as holy as you think they are anyway, not by a long shot. They often do use the exact same tricks and tactics as the Republicans. They are just as corrupt as Republicans, and they abuse their power and authority just as often as the Republicans too. The whole Dems Can Do No Wrong trope could not be more wrong. Politicians in general are pretty bad.
Oh look, a "both sides are just as bad" equivalence argument! Never seen that before...
1. I am not now, nor have I ever been, a Democrat. In part because they regularly do stupid, corrupt, short-sighted, greedy shit. And in part because they lack precisely the killer instinct I was referring to previously. Republicans don't offer mercy when their opponent is down, they gut them like a fish. Democrats help them up in the interest of 'building bridges', only to get gutted as soon as their turn their back.
2. Remind me again when the Democrats openly supported a pedophile for public office? Or passed a tax bill that goes against the very core of what they're supposed to stand for, as the Republicans -- the party of 'responsible fiscal conservatism' -- have done by adding a trillion to the deficit? Yeah, both parties suck. But one sucks WAY harder these days. If I have to tell you which one, you're part of the problem.
We're all human beings; we all have more or less the same mental capacity and same moral sense. We're all capable of change. Look at any Republican, and realize that they are exactly the same as you.
No, they are not. It's one thing to be ignorant -- that can be corrected with education and experience. It's entirely another thing to be willfully, defiantly ignorant, which is what we're up against now.
Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.
Teach a man to fish, only for him to burn the fishing pole and scream at you that you're evil and God will provide fish from the sky? Let that fucker starve to death, and stop wasting time and resources on him.