A FRIEND // WHO BELIEVES SOMETHING DIFFERENT

 A FRIEND // WHO BELIEVES SOMETHING DIFFERENT

originally published on December 16, 2018 on the now defunct tedpackard.com

I listened to Rush Limbaugh's and Sean Hannity's radio shows today while driving to hear what that world is sounding like. 

It's really incredible. Compared to the non-conservative press, it's entirely different - a different set of facts, different basic assumptions about the past, present, and future, different interpretation of the same quotes. 

Here’s the update: Every aspect of the Mueller investigation is described as illegitimate on many different levels. Mueller himself is portrayed as so flawed and partisan that anything that comes of the investigation is suspect. Not only is there no collusion, there’s an elaborate network of liberal evil-doers that are part of the deep state back to the Clinton era. 

Ted Steven's case is used prominently to demonstrate this. They say that Mueller's investigation pressed charges and ruined his career and none of the charges came through. A political hit job. 

It's a completely different reality set from the network news, a completely different set of ideas from other sources like Democracy Now. 

It's a bizarro world. And the late night shows and the network news are their own bizarro world. They do not line up. It's like two philosophers trying to have a conversation but it's impossible and frustrating because they actually disagree on the ground rules - but they aren't actually trying to figure out the ground rules, they're just astounded at how idiotic the other is. 

It's so hard to come to any middle ground because everyone is standing on different sides of a fault line. Different bedrocks of belief and what is fact. Different fundamental assumptions about what makes up the history, both recent and not, of this country.

This is what causes so much of the actual interchange between people to be simplified and virulent. People are so threatened because these Other people have such insane ideas, ideas that couldn't possibly be real because Reality is not like that! At least that's what it feels like when you're standing on your bedrock. 

I remain terrified of any actual legal action against Trump. The deep level of division and basic disagreement about the reality of so many events in this country makes me actually scared that there will be violent reprisal. 

The language I hear being used tells conservatives that they are being attacked, that they are threatened, that they are demeaned, that they are insulted, that they are despised. They are told that they suffered terribly under the opposition's administration and that they were the most kind and gracious and now the other side is just being the worst losers ever. 

That's also what the liberals are told. 

They are ALL being told that it's time to defend themselves against the Other. 

This is not safe. This is not okay. Neither of these groups, the national leadership, and the myriad corporate beneficiaries want actual conversation. Neither of these groups wants actual news reporting. Neither of these groups even cares about their own constituency, because if they did they would focus on healing this incredibly dangerous rift. 

Who benefits from this?

I have my own long-held prejudices here, about corporate control of most aspects of the world, mind-warping brainwashing of us to be consumers, military-industrial complex profiteering, and the insatiable vision of this culture to dominate the world instead of acknowledging that we are this world. Dominance. Division. Development. Destruction. Dollars flowing all the while. Where do the dollars flow and do those controlling the flow care how it happens?

I digress, and I'll not try to convince you of my view! I have a request, though.

Before you throw another insult, before you utter another complaint about the idiocy of the other side, actually ask yourself, Who benefits from my saying this? 

When you see a meme that trashes others that you believe are wrong, and you want to share it, who benefits? 

If you feel that differently, you probably don't understand them. 

I found out today that I don't understand. I don't know where the bedrock came from that supports this incredible complex of beliefs. 

It's so foreign that I was fascinated: What is this? How did it get here?

And I knew, in listening, that I actually didn't understand enough to even say that it was wrong.

It was that different. 

I imagined a conservative fan of this radio listening to Democracy Now or NPR. 

It absolutely would sound like an attack. The tone of incredulity and combativeness I have heard lately on NPR would confirm everything that the opposition says. 

Everyone is becoming an Other. 

Everything is Fake News to the other side. 

But we're not anonymous here. This is the internet, but we're still people on a social network. Imagine that this is a big party, and we're all hanging out.

Better yet, imagine that we're all sitting at a council table and we have important decisions to make. Imagine how respectful and curious you might be. 

And if that doesn't ring true, imagine how it would feel if one of those Others approached you with respect and curiosity. 

I don't have anything more tidy to end with than that. 

Imagine if you were approached with respect and curiosity. By a friend who believes something different than you.

By a friend. 

I think that's why we're on this thing together. You know, Earth.