Radio CG 11: Can We Still Speak Freely?

These days, there’s a lot of talk about our freedoms. We’re worried about them, and what impact the party in power has on those rights. We were not talking about those rights for this particular show; instead, we focused on the amount of policing we’re doing to each other. Right, left, or centrist, it’s getting harder and harder to voice an opinion about politics without getting absolutely dogpiled. On Saturday’s show, we tried to address the question: Are we “talking” ourselves out of our democracy?

The Problem

If you spend any time on the internet, then you’ve probably seen the following scenario play out at least once. Someone on Twitter, Facebook, or elsewhere voices an opinion. They are promptly virtually dogpiled by people who disagree with them. If they’re lucky, they escape after some name-calling and shaming. Maybe they get unfriended or unfollowed.

If they’re not lucky, whatever they said online can follow them into their everyday life.

The web offers a multitude of ways to torment people even after they’ve logged off. You can quickly be “doxxed” (identified, even if you’re using an anonymous handle) and then face all kinds of trouble offline. Not just pizzas sent to your house (although that’s happened); letters of complaint can be sent to your workplace, your friends can be harassed, and so on.

All because of your opinions.

Ideology

We started Common Ground because we believed people wanted to talk to each other: “If our politicians won’t talk to each other, then we’ll do the talking.” It was a reaction to the complete political deadlock that seems to paralyze our country.

Except a lot of folks who say they want to talk really just want you to agree with them.

We kind of get it. It feels great to be right. It feels great to feel like you’ve convinced someone of your point of view. But what started out as disagreements between Democrats and Republicans have morphed into deeply-entrenched ideological conflicts.

Let’s take it a step further: Can someone who votes for Trump be friends for someone who votes for Biden?

On the surface, sure. It’s “just politics.” Except both Democrats and Republicans have bought into the sense that the sides are too different to ever come to an agreement. They aren’t just disagreeing over what percentage of funding is allocated to public schools. They have deep, deep disagreements on certain policies and/or even characteristics of the political party or politician in question. These disagreements become schisms.

If you don’t mind Trump’s policies, you’re obviously in favor of racism, sexism, and numerous other -isms. You are probably also a fascist.

If you don’t mind Biden’s policies, you’re obviously a pinko socialist who wants to see the country torn apart and/or invaded. You also don’t care that people are losing their livelihoods.

Those are obviously exaggerations, but we’ve encountered them ourselves, to varying degrees. And again, this is coming from fellow citizens. Not just politicians.

Consequences

We know what happened, or part of what happened. Communication broke down somewhere. People stopped respecting each other. “The people on the left don’t understand why the right feels the way they do, and the people on the right don’t understand why the left feels the way they do,” Dean remarks during the show. And as we’ve learned from our callers, a lot of the efforts to explain why one side feels this or that simply devolves into screaming.

Which gets us nowhere. It only deepens the divide.

So what else does this lead to? Well, kids and teenagers are often encouraged not to engage about political topics online because of the consequences that might be in store for them. How is this fair, when this is precisely the time when they should be learning about politics and legislature, and forming their own opinions?

Businesses must be careful about what they post – but also who they follow, retweet, or even mildly agree with. Did you retweet a comedian who’s been critical of the president? You might lose a lot of your right-leaning business. Are you following the president’s Twitter? You can kiss some of your leftist business goodbye.

Of course it’s not everyone. But these are real situations we’ve seen unfold time and again. “I’ve lost clients I did the right thing for, insurance-wise,” Pat recalls later in the show. But they didn’t agree with him politically, so he had to go.

A Rough Ride Ahead

We’re starting to wonder if finding common ground is going to be possible. Maybe we need to just sit back until after the election, and hope people aren’t as wound up.

Regardless, we’ll keep pushing ahead and trying to meet in the middle. This is a wonderful country, full of good people – even if a lot of us aren’t getting along at the moment. We believe in the USA, and in all of you.

Stay safe, and remember to vote! We’ll see you next week.