What Happened to Us?

The election is over, and yet it doesn't feel any better. The same bitterness pervades society as has been since 2015, probably sooner.

Remember 2015? When #GamerGate blew up and the entire gaming fandom seemed to split itself in two. I had initially been a supporter of the movement, tired of what seemed like rampant nepotism and corruption in the games review industry, a move that got me perma-banned from Giant Bomb. Not long after that, I retreated from all games media, disinterested in the increasingly rancorous, partisan direction the whole thing took, as the hard left and hard right took sides and turned it, and every issue with game content, into a crap-slinging affair. I stayed away for many years, as you might notice from the large gap in posts from the time until relatively recently.

The partisanship on this and other sites, however, was only a symptom of a larger problem that has emerged arguably since large, monolithic social media largely replaced the focused, demographic-specific forums we grew up with. Algorithms have herded us all into echo chambers to feed not our hobbies and interests, but instead our darkest impulses, the worst aspects of who we are as a species. We've refused to listen and consider the legitimate points of others, allowing our own views to become warped and twisted, shaped by an increasingly narrow window into the world. It seems the only time we see the "other side," it's the worst examples of it. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Cenk Uygur, or Donald Trump and Alex Jones. We only see the worst in the other side. It's led to the death of civil discourse in the country. Social media is alight with hate and bile being thrown back and forth, the only interaction people seem willing to have with people who disagree with them. This is the sort of shit we used to see only in the games industry, and now it seems to have permeated throughout all aspects of life. Hell, you can't even look at porn without racial nonsense invading it (at least interracial porn). People can't even enjoy the most basic of pleasures without their biases coming into play.

You may wonder what the point of this rambling nonsense? Obviously, the election passed, bringing with it two victories for common sense - the election of Joe Biden over Donald Trump, and the defeat of several Democratic congresspersons who championed extreme ideas like court-packing and the Green New Deal. However, this has only engendered anger, hatred and violence. A police chief has called for violence against Democrats, aggressive protests by fringe lunatics and armed, self-styled militias based on lies and disinformation, family and community relationships strained over who someone supports politically....

What happened to us? Why have we so readily embraced this dysfunction as the new norm? When did we become unable to see the people across from us as fellow humans? It neverendswell when we lose our mutual respect for our humanity, our ability to discuss things with people, or at least leave them be. Now, it seems like the US is a powder keg that just needs the right spark to set off the second American Civil War. We don't talk about things anymore in terms of how to fix them. Now we just look to "win," whatever that means.

I honestly wish we were still in a position that forced us to see different viewpoints. Whether watching a Sunday news program or reading the paper or huddled around a GamePro or EGM looking at the latest releases. Somewhere along the line, we've made things so complicated, and the things that were meant to bring us together have ripped us apart, perhaps irreparably.

Is there a solution? Maybe, maybe not. I just hope we can get past the anger, the derision, the hate, and start listening to one another. Hell, I don't even really know what the point of this post was. Just... Just don't let it consume you.

I said this at work. Imagine some of the things happening 10 years ago. It wouldn’t be tolerated at all. I suspect years from now they’ll be studying current events as the decline of USA.

Ach. Times are tough, indeed.

Probably belongs in the Politics Forum, but whatever.

Anyway, it's just the inevitable fate of so-called "Democracy;" which is really little more than a dumb math sport wrapped over a legislative majoritarian regime. A cripplingly flawed system that is destined to eat itself. Let's just say I speak from personal, first-hand experience.

Ironically, I believe the problem with "Democracy" isn't actually the system itself, but the squishy yapping apes that participate in it. The weakest link of every system is the human factor, and "Democracy" simply lacks adequate measures to address that weakness. Personally, I don't believe humans should be allowed to govern themselves at all - at least not without some kind of counter-balance to their myriad of fundamental flaws.

@YukoAsho: I move this thread to Political Gamers since this is where it belongs vs Off-Topic forum since OT users don't want nothing to do with political matters.

Social media made it a safe space for the mentally ill and deranged people to have a voice and to also have a mainstream platform. Narcissists, BPD, identity-crisis, self-righteous individuals now run the internet and we tolerated it.

I think a lot of it is tied to social media in conjunction with a glitch in American capitalism where everything is geared towards profit at the expense of everything else. Trump is the result of that, he exists because the algorithm found him be be extremely profitable.

Eh the election just happened. Takes time. This is but a blip on the radar and eventually it will calm down.

@Gaming-Planet: I blame Twitter

Poor education. Greed.

I have a lot of the same concerns. Technology has gotten to a point where we are never foced to disconnect. Back in the day, you read the local morning paper and watched the evening news, and spent the rest of your time living an actual life.

Now you contantly get bits of news, from multiple outlets desperate for your clicks. They keep one-upping each other to get your attention, making mountains out of mole hills, finding the most outrageous stories they can, and presenting them in the most sensational way possible.

And I can't blame them for it, this is what makes money. Cooler heads go broke. We need to take it upon ourselves to disconnect. It's hard, this stuff is designed to grab our attention, give us little shots of dopamine throughout the day. But we have to do for our own mental health.

I disagree.

Things have been pretty civil in the days leading up to, and the days following, the election.

Votes were counted, Donald bitched about it, and ultimately the candidate the people wanted won with both the popular and electoral vote.

It's important to not let the media and the outliers of society dissuade you from viewing this objectively and without emotion. It's easy to hear reports of right-wing terrorists driving with guns and bombs planning to hurt people and people on the left rioting and harming people and businesses and become cynical about thing, but not everyone is doing that.

In fact, relatively no one is doing that.

Equally important is to consider both sides. Trump lost, but he also ended up getting more votes than he did in 2016, and is also [I think] the second most voted for president in history. Just under half the country wants him in office again.

Trump didn't just come out of nowhere. He is a symptom of the country being dissatisfied with elitism, cancel culture, and far-left agendas that don't really work for most people.

Trump supporters are not all stupid, they're not all hillbillies, and they're not all racists or bigots. You can think BLM is a bad movement and still support civil rights. You don't have to embrace lifestyles that are not your own to be tolerant of them (you can still disagree with it and be tolerant provided you don't act on your dislike).

Moderates have been left out of things for too long. I hope we all slow down, sit, and talk about stuff. I hope we realize we all won't get everything we want, but if we work together we will get some of what we want and be happier about it.

*and FFS stay off Twitter, stay off Facebook, and stay away from network media. Read your local newspapers.

I disagree wholeheartedly.

Things feel 1,000,000% better, and the future is looking brighter and far more hopeful. You should’ve been out in the streets in Philly the other night, people are so happy. It’s like the end of WWII celebrations all over again, and the entire world is joining us.

As for what happened, I don’t think these past four years are at all surprising when we were led by someone who was so divisive. Not to absolve the responsibility on both sides of the aisle, but Trump, at every opportunity, has poured fuel on the passions of an already divided people. I believe much of the angst and fighting can be somewhat mitigated with a president who won’t be constantly tweeting out antagonistic, combative, blaming, toxic partisan tweets on a daily basis.

While hesitant, I really hope Biden can start healing us. He’s already on the right path. It’s just going to be amazing not having a bully in the Oval anymore.

You'll be happier if you stop making everything political and just understand that everyone is unique with their own life experiences and therefore, differing points of view. At the heart of life, we all want the same things. The freedom to express ourselves and live as happy of a life as we make it. Stop blaming and pointing fingers, stop affiliating yourself into groups that are self servant and absorbed...just stop. There's lots of happiness out there to be had, you just have to make the daily decisions required to find it. You're not going to find it here or at the end of a Twitter account or dipping your tea into someone else's cup, that's for sure.

agreed. Looking forward to things being less politicized. Got in an argument with someone the other day that said BLM is a democrat-sponsored movement and the fact is it is not; it's a cultural and social movement, it is not political. Only citing that an example btw, not to say anything about it.

You can be a libertarian or republican and support BLM if you so choose.

I say we leave tribalism in the past with Donald.

@mrbojangles25: You're right about this being a relatively minor group of people on both sides. It's easy to forget that when the big three news nets are screeching as if the world is ending. I talked a lot about the internet, but surprisingly little about the toxic effect of 24-hour news. Newspapers are a great alternative as long as you're not reading anything overtly partisan, but the local news is also good, as there simply isn't enough time for partisan nonsense, what with local news, sports, weather and the obligatory human interest story at the end. I think we all would feel better if we stuck to that limited news.

And yeah, as a moderate myself, I do feel rather left out most of the time. Honestly, I suspect most of the nation is moderate. We just wanna be left alone to find happiness, and feel the government should be working together to solve problems rather than trying to "win" everything. Honestly, that's what drew me to Biden - He seemed like the only one talking about bridging gaps instead of running the other side down. But that doesn't get clicks, I suppose.

And you're SOOOOOOOOO fucking right about Twitter and Facebook. I left Facebook back in September after it resulted in family trouble, and I'm about set to do the same to Twitter, and just making a shell account for artists I like that started posting there when Tumblr went all SJW.

@YukoAsho: ‘that's what drew me to Biden - He seemed like the only one talking about bridging gaps instead of running the other side down. But that doesn't get clicks, I suppose’

Is this before or after he called Trump supporters ugly? Is that the correct way of ‘building bridges’?

There will always be a political divide in this country - just like every other non communist or dictatorship rule. It’s part of democracy.

There's division and then there's using the government for personal bias. This is the worst the country has been divided since the Civil War. But you're in Canada...........doesn't matter to you to sit their and make excuses for non-patriotic behavior from a major party which needs to die.

@LJS9502_basic: ‘But you're in Canada’

Actually, I’m presently home in the US for the remainder of the year/holidays.

@Sevenizz: Biden's entire campaign was built on that. Compared to his primary opponents who were pushing hard left, Biden stuck to the mainstream. It's why he won and several congressional Democrats lost.

People are tired of the self-serving nature of politics on both ends. The only reason the voter turnout was as high as it was this time was because of Trump's unique brand of toxicity which excited his detractors as much as his fans, and even then, it was only ~65% of eligible voters.

Eh I think the down ballots were lost because people that didn't want a Democrat but wanted trump out made sure to vote for republicans down ballot.

Yeah, I can't wait until January 20 these last 4 years have been exhausting. I'm already starting to feel better knowing the orange turd will be gone soon it's a great way to start off the new year. :)

notice how it got worse the moment Trump was sworn in... the Right is on a bender of listening to a lunatic instead of facts and reason. the very same GOP politicians that were saying how terrible Trump would be as a president are currently kissing his behind so hard that Trump has their lip marks on his butt

Cancel culture was already in full effect. Trump was the only thing standing in the way of libs destroying our country with socialism. I hope people realize what they voted for and don't cry when they take away your pay, your guns, your free speech, etc.

A bunch of uninformed zeroes voted against Trump just because he "offended" them on social media.

This is the most non self aware post I've read here.

@LJS9502_basic: That's what I was talking about yesterday. Are people really this stupid or are they trolling?

Definitely uneducated and unwilling to do any research. Just follow the echo chamber and believe it 100%

Thread of the year. Both the left and right are full of idiots crying for attention, unable to see both sides of anything. The only people who can save us are in the middle.

Even the middle saw the train wreck we've been going through.......

'bOtH sIdEs!!!!'

The calling card motto of the lazy.

This can all be blamed because of social media. We will look back at all of this and understand that social media caused more damage then what the platforms are worth.

'socialism'? yes, having the rich pay their fair share of taxes and trying to give every citizen free or low cost healthcare, like many other 1st world countries, is considered 'socialism' to conservatives. the fact that you believe such nonsense says everything we need to know about your intelligence level... in that it's barely there.

stupid... definitely stupid

Social media was a big mistake I miss the old world before Facebook and Twitter.

Hopefully we don't look back on social media as being the ultimate cause of the death of Western democracy.

I hate to play the blame game here, but I blame human nature more htan anything.

As humans we are prone to tribalistic thinking. Looking out for our ingroup. Evolutionary speaking, it has allowed for much greater ingroup cohesion but, it has made us incredibly hostile to outgroup members, it was favorably selected in natural selection, but doesnt help us much in the modern world. We also are very prone to fallacious thinking, many which helped us quickly jump to conclusions, which was favorable to avoiding predators. But is terrible for truth seeking.

The internet makes matters even worse. To you guys, I am little more than a Wario Avatar with a pro-PC/Nintendo or left leaning text followed by it. There is no human face behind anything I say, and to some extent that kinda dehumanizes me. With other people dehumanized, they get incredibly easy to villify.

As humans we tend to be more prone to believe the first things we hear, and being wrong has a similar effect on our psyche as pain does (I will try to find hte study on this). So we tend to stick to our conclusions even when we are wrong. Because of the winner takes all nature of american democracy. And the nature of opposition politics. I disagree with person X on this so he is a bad person and I will oppose him on everything. Partisanship is born.

Not social media's fault but the fault of those willing to believe the BS spewed.

Unfortunately it is way too easy to spew crap and get millions of people to believe it. Just look at the Xbox smoking crap. I know some may have this issue, but there is one that is obviously a hoax, but people think it is real.

When do we hold those accountable for believing in lies? We all hear these things but we don't all believe them. I do think we need better education. But the internet can also educate if you use it that way.

That's the real reason that this is going on. The bottom line is that there are no consequences whatsoever for spewing these lies because they know that their people will believe and support them. The same applies at the congressional level; no action because you know, you never go against the team.

I hope this blows up in the GOP face and Americans vote against the party destroying democracy for power.

It may very well be a case of equality looking like oppression to people who were previously used to receiving one narrative on the news. 2016 was a high water mark for Trump's message and similar social media figures that broke into the mainstream for the first time. People who were certain of Hillary's landslide victory (the news had told them this, after all) came out shocked that there was something different from the liberal status quo resonating with people. Unfortunately this led to doubling down and the mentality that if those voices were censored and swept under the rug, they would just go away.

So you saw the left go heavy into censorship as "revenge" against Trump supporters, the right become further outraged at censorship and more signs of a deck stacked against them, and each new move triggered another outrage spiral. The resentment is not going away.

WTF are you even talking about?

The short answer:

Gingrich->Tea Party->Trump

Gingrich- set the stage for combative, normless, "**** your feelings" politics in the modern era. In the days since it has ebbed and flowed to various degrees, but it's always been there under the surface.

It isn't new. It will probably ebb again soon, but it won't be gone. And it will almost certainly rise again.

@MirkoS77: You think things are better just because Biden won?

a) Biden is a terrible person and Harris is evil, those are none disputable facts.

b) you are trying to give the impression that the entire world is happy about the results when you seem to forget that Trump was only short of HALF THE ENTIRE POPULATION in receiving votes. The only people celebrating are the ones who got what they wanted and the mainstream media is heavily left bias, what do you think those very same people would have done had Trump won? accept things peacfully? because the past 4 years tells me otherwise

c) that attitude of yours and a lot of people here is EXACTLY the problem with america, you think Trump is the problem, but once you get the president you want you just neglect the rest of the country and then have a Pikachu surprise face when another Donald Trump wins, you guys are the ones being divisive, not Trump, have you personally even bothered to address the concern of Trump voters or did you just stand on the side line and dismiss them as people beneath you? your post is proof that there is division in the USA, the divisiveness hasn't died down one bit, if anything its intensifying. Trump has lost (or is losing) so how can you blame him now? maybe its about time you look at yourself instead of looking for someone to blame?