There have always been political disagreements in the USA; it's part of the normal fabric of our society. What is new lately, however, is that we now have factual disagreements so great that they rise to the level of people living in different realities. Here's a good example: Anti-Semitic Democrat congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota gave a speech to CAIR in California the other day in which she referred to the 9-11 terrorist attacks as "some people did something". Those are her exact words, there's video of the speech you can find easily if you want to check this out. The response was pretty quick and very vehement. The New York Post put a picture of the World Trade Center buildings collapsing under attack on the front page under the headline directed to Omar, "Here's Your Something". Congressman Dan Crenshaw of Texas tweet that a member of Congress had actually described 9-11 as some people did something. And there were about a million other responses in various social media. Normally, one would have expected an apology from Omar, but that isn't what is happening. Nope, instead of an apology, we are being told that these headlines and tweets are racist attacks on a victimized woman of color who also happens to be a Muslim. People like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is all over the internet defending the poor victimized Omar from her oppressors.
It's hard to imagine that anyone would call either the NY Post headline or the Crenshaw tweet "racist" or Islamophobic and mean it. The crazy thing is that it seems that Omar and AOC actually do. For them, racism seems to not be fact based. Instead, they perceive that any criticism of them is racist or sexist or both. Omar thinks that no matter what she says, no matter how bigoted, anti-Semitic or bizarre, any response which does not support her is Islamophobic, racist and the like.
It's impossible to come to any agreements with someone who doesn't share the same reality. We cannot operate as a democratic society if a big chunk of the society sees any opposition as racist, sexist, etc. You cannot negotiate on those terms.
This is very dangerous.
It's hard to imagine that anyone would call either the NY Post headline or the Crenshaw tweet "racist" or Islamophobic and mean it. The crazy thing is that it seems that Omar and AOC actually do. For them, racism seems to not be fact based. Instead, they perceive that any criticism of them is racist or sexist or both. Omar thinks that no matter what she says, no matter how bigoted, anti-Semitic or bizarre, any response which does not support her is Islamophobic, racist and the like.
It's impossible to come to any agreements with someone who doesn't share the same reality. We cannot operate as a democratic society if a big chunk of the society sees any opposition as racist, sexist, etc. You cannot negotiate on those terms.
This is very dangerous.
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