re: The internet has essentially split reality

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Well, I agree, in part. It's communists trying to adhere to greater and greater demands of purity.

Today's left are acting very much the same, and yes, they're reading from the exact came playbook as those kids from the CCP.

There's no response from the Right which doesn't get framed as 'both sides do it'. It's absolute rubbish. Today's Left went off the rails in their persecution of him and his supporters. Anyone who scoffs at that idea , or the mere mention that yes, once side is wrong, and the other side is undeniably RIGHT are trapped by the very things you claim 'both sides do'.

It's not both sides.

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You’re right that the left’s purity spirals can look a lot like that Cultural Revolution scene. But some of what the left says about the right isn’t hallucination either.

The way you’re describing it actually supports what I was saying. Each side has built a closed loop where everything the other says is filtered through a lens of assumed bad faith. Even if you, yourself, are arguing in good faith, which I believe you are, the structure still works the same way. That’s why both camps are completely certain of their own narrative and end up shouting past each other. You’re not outside the dynamic, you’re illustrating it.

That doesn’t make either side evil or pure. It just means both have drifted from reality, living inside their circled wagons, driven mostly by those who benefit from keeping people divided, those profiting from it, and the real "them," the ones doing both.

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Non partisan pew research stated that 63% of that same group admitted that they suffer from mental health issues.

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It’s higher than that percentage

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That comparison ultimately works against your point as Salem was one side so sure of its moral purity that it stopped questioning itself and started condemning people to death.

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No, there are no witches. Never were. Just as with the things I listed. The things claimed by 1 side were totally without merit. Trump never called Nazis 'very fine people'. That's not up for debate. The speech is widely accessible for all to review themselves.

The one side unleased a flood of false narratives and claims with the intent on burying their opposition. We were socially controlled into buying known lies.

This isn't a 'both sides' issue, and it never was.

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The divide isn’t merely political, it’s psychological. Every attempt to bridge it only deepens mistrust, because when you believe everyone who disagrees with you is evil, there’s no room left to see anything but malice in those who try to meet you halfway.

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This. Communists are the best example of psychological demagogues who warp reality for their own ends.

You saw it

I understand where you’re coming from, and I’m not debating the transcript. What I’m saying is that this whole argument illustrates the larger problem itself.

You might try steelmanning the other side’s argument. It’s not about agreeing with them. It’s about building the strongest possible version of their reasoning so you can see both where it holds up and where it falls apart. It also helps you understand how someone got there in the first place instead of just assuming bad faith. It’s the only way to see the full logic chain behind an opposing view instead of just its weakest points.

I thought about steelmanning the left's "both sides" position here but decided against it. Walking through the full version of their reasoning would just invite people to argue with the steelman itself instead of the point I’m making. The goal isn’t to relitigate; it’s to show how two people can look at the same event, interpret it through different frameworks, and each come away absolutely convinced the other is blind or dishonest.

And that’s why this keeps looping. Two groups of Americans with mostly good intentions and reasonable interpretations of the same news cycles reaching diametrically opposed conclusions. I’m just trying to parsee of why both feel so certain they’re right.

Excellent thread, brutha. I coulda spend all day here.

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We aren’t talking about the same thing. That’s fine though

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I appreciate your honest attempt to meet me halfway.

So you’ve mastered splitting the baby instead of taking a philosophical stance. Clearly not having gumption, by your own admission, to taking a side on anything. There are sides to issues. There is right and wrong. There are debatable issues. You provided a chatGPT of centering instead of standing for something. That is neither admirable nor learned. Take a stance that folks can freely debate instead of doing all this shite of we’re all sheep and can’t put a cogent argument together because look at these message board topics