Right, Left and Somewhere in the middle
I find political discourse to be distasteful and the assassination of Charlie Kirk only made it worse. Instead of working together to bridge differing views, either side of the political spectrum have been point scoring.
I'd normally not have an opinion about the political situation in the West but as you may already know, I live in the UK, so I'm impacted by the politics. I try to add my voice in the safest way I can but the scene is quite hostile.
It goes without saying that killing of any person is a bad thing. Disagreeing with political views and opinions is definitely not a reason to cause harm to someone.
I think the scary part in all this is that both sides of the divide think they're "right". Both sides genuinely believe that their political view gives them the moral high ground, and as such, the other side should be silenced.
The way I see it, you can simply align to political views that benefit you. Everything else is bullshit.
There's no "correct" political view, there's no right or wrong answer, just opinions. Conservatives think one way and liberals are free to think the other way.
When you think about it, having differing views is actually a net positive for humanity. Constantly picking holes in the status quo is the only way the human race can move forward.
Right Wing
The average Nigerian has a lot of Right wing views because that's just how we were raised. For the most part, most Nigerians have a religious background, whether it be Islam or Christianity.
For example, I have a Christian background and held a lot of Right wing opinions. However, make no mistakes, I also held many left wing opinions as well.
One left wing opinion I've never hidden is the fact that I do not like or respect Donald Trump. I've found him to be incendiary, brash, undignified, and just downright silly at times. He's everything I don't want to see in a leader.
Donald Trump's rhetoric is distasteful at times and borders on racism. He may not be racist but his ambiguous public statements and brash views about immigration is contributing to a world wide movement that is making my life harder.
Right wing proponents all over the world have all jumped on the bandwagon to blame foreigners for all their problems. It started off as a movement against illegal migrants and has now evolved into a full on xenophobic campaign to kick everyone that isn't of a specific skin tone out of their countries.
The proponents of these movements have been spreading propaganda to tap into the public's fear of the unknown and invariably, get their wishes. Ultimately, politicians want power and will do whatever it takes to get it. They don't mind collateral damage.
However, on the flip side, I understand Trump has an endearing multitude of followers willing to do the unsavoury on his behalf because of his positives. From what I understand, he offers brutal honesty and speaks in a way that appeals to many.
The Left
I won't call myself a liberal because at times, I feel like the left's constant pandering is overwhelming. However, I'll unequivocally take the left's rhetoric over the pseudo-racist views that have been bandied about by the right, especially when it comes to immigration.
I think the mantra of the Liberal end of the spectrum should be "live and let live". However, I do find it hypocritical that despite this, cancel culture propagated from the left side of the divide.
I believe in second chance and benefit of doubt. I may not always be open to give them but I don't think anybody should be deprived of it.
At the same time, I'm an immigrant living in the West and the left's view about immigration is favourable. So it goes without saying that I'm with the liberals here.
The Crossing
Each end of the divide is reacting to the their current situation and none have a well formed view about how to improve. Either end want what's best for their society but until there's a centered dialogue, nothing good will come out.
The masses aren't interested in well structured conversations about the issues pervading their society because those tend to have very little impact on our dopamine receptors. Sensationalism is the way and people only want to hear extreme views.
There's never going to be a centered view. Even if there is a centered political ideology, humans will never accept it because it simply doesn't have enemies.
Humans want enemies, whether they be ideological or physical. There's this strange desire to point fingers at a different group and say "they" are the problem.
On social media and every platform, there's a wave of finger pointing and whataboutism. The left think they're right and right think the left is wrong. Everybody is jostling for extremes instead of just objectively trying to pick out the best bits and removed the unnecessary bits.
At the end of the day, only the masses suffer from this divide. Politicians don't actually have human emotions, they simply want to win and be in power. If they trample on 50% of their population, so be it.
I don't intend to convince you that you should like Trump. I do want to give you some background about why I and many others support him despite his shortcomings.
You mention trying to add your voice in the safest way. And I think this encapsulates the traditional conservative view. By nature, conservatives don't appreciate radical change just for the sake of change. A generic conservative would prefer changes to be orderly and based on some principles, preferably conservative. And we can generalize that conservatives don't like public conflict or scandal.
These tendencies have been effectively exploited by the left for decades. Republicans would propose changes and always faced the same criticisms: racist, sexist, homophobic, and only benefiting the rich. It didn't matter that these accusations were baseless. It was just difficult for Republicans to defend against these accusations because it's not easy proving a negative. Eventually, they would give up and either drop their proposal or change it to where it was useless. They always gave in to the left.
Conservative voters have long been frustrated at how ineffective Republicans have been because they shrink back from criticism. The main frustration is that they can't abandon Republicans because there are no alternative conservative options. And not voting only gives a win to the lefties.
This is where Trump stands out. Because of his popularity, he has had the political left working overtime to try to destroy him. But he fights back. He's not afraid to stand up for himself and for conservatives. What his supporters see is that there is finally a Republican who doesn't shrink back in the face of criticism. More importantly, he has a good track record, not perfect, of doing exactly what he says he'll do. It isn't that people support him 100% on his ideas and actions. It's more that he has a spine and is willing to say things most Republicans would have been embarrassed to say.
Trump is not a full conservative. When he first ran he wasn't sure if he'd run as a Republican. He has identified as a Democrat at different times, and supported Democrat causes. He's more of a populist. And he had been very cozy with the left through most of his life. Given his history, you can't claim he is racist. His actions show quite the opposite. But people don't know it because he is constantly accused of being racist and the news is very clever about showing things that support this view. He's not sexist. Many on his staff are women. And we have all benefitted from his tax cuts, not just the rich. Yet the left persists in accusing him of these things. But to his credit, he doesn't care. He stays on task.
In short, his popularity is the result of voters having had Republicans for decades who were too timid and afraid of criticism. Trump is showing conservatives that it's OK to have an opinion and to voice it. And by example, he shows conservatives that it's OK to fight back and call the opposition names. It's only in recent years that conservatives have come to feel like they don't just have to stand there and take abuse from the left.
In the UK, I see a similar sentiment that it's OK to have conservative views, to be patriotic, and to have limits to what will be endured. It's a bit riskier there as some views can land you in jail, still.
I guess I would broadly say that it isn't that there is a rise in conservatism in the UK. Rather, it's a realization that conservatives do not have to stay silent. The conservatives were already there. But now they have found their voice, discovering that they aren't alone. And they are realizing they can fight back like we are doing here in the USA.
I find the "them Vs us" rhetoric to be redundant and counter productive. You're not "fighting back" because there's actually no fight. At the end of the day, it'll be about net positive and the margins, whether the approach is republican or democrat.
What I see in the UK is simply propaganda by Conservatives. They're capitalising on the populace's biases to seize power. For example:
A doctor fucked a nurse mid surgery and you've got to admit, it's hilarious because the surgery was actually successful. This was turned into an immigration issue because the doctor's from Pakistan. Do you think this is right?
Regardless of the outcome of the surgery, I think it was unprofessional for both. They should both be sacked. The immigration issue seems a separate thing unless there are requirements stipulated in the process. For example, in the USA, people can be deported if they become a problem for society. What that means will be up to the lawyers to argue about.
One way of viewing it is if I come over to visit your home and I start behaving badly, it would be your right to ask me to leave. If I refuse, you could have the police remove me for trespassing.
You might say, it's unfair because citizens can act poorly without getting deported. But in that case, they're in their home. They can't be deported.
As a guest, in my view, you have a higher obligation to behave yourself than your host does. The principle in that is that a mistreated guest can simply leave. Getting a guest to leave can be more challenging if they don't want to leave, in a legal sense.
Therein lies the biases I was talking about. There's nothing to suggest the person isn't a permanent resident in the UK and do you notice that while the nurse was also irresponsible, her ethnicity wasn't mentioned?
We can only speculate. Although the press is typically pro-immigration. They may have considered the nurse's story to be less interesting or less likely to cause outrage.
It's like that old saying that if a dog bites a man, it's not a story. But if a man bites a dog, you have headlines.
It's sensationalism. However, if a man bites a dog, he should face the consequence of the law of the land he's in. Now if the law says he should be deported then so be it but if it doesn't, then why is it being brought up?
Like I mentioned, I don't know if the UK has such rules. I can't argue out of ignorance.
Something that popped into my head is that perhaps some anger towards the doctor is warranted. He should be aware of the extra scrutiny immigrants face. He didn't consider the effect his actions would have on other immigrants. Your life is challenging already without people like the doctor creating chaos for other immigrants to carry.
I`m forward! liberty and minimum state
Maybe a little too general here. I don't know who the masses are. Surely on the edges people are looking for red meat, for something to get angry about. But I think a lot of people crave the middle. It's just that we don't have leaders in the middle, or if they do exist they are drowned out by the edges.
The media play a role in this. Voices in the middle are drowned out because they don't have extremist views that make headline.