Hyper-partisanship

Saturday 18 January 2020 | general

I saw this the other day, and I can’t really stop thinking about it.

This could, of course, go both ways: a supporter or opponent of Trump could post this, but the old acquaintance who posted this is, I think, a fairly staunch Trump supporter.

I usually refrain from saying much of anything on social media these days except to share pictures of the family with other family members, but I couldn’t let this one alone for some reason. Or rather, I chose not to.

“So now we’re reveling in hyper-partisanship and its destructive effects on relationships?” I asked. A bit provocative? Unduly sarcastic? I tried to be neither.

The response: “You’re more than welcome to unfriend me if you can’t handle my opinions 😊.”

I thought about that response for a while. Was she perhaps hoping I would do so? I don’t know. But it made me realize that that’s what the whole enterprise is about: politicize your feed to the point that people who have different political views just no longer think it’s worth their time to wade your stuff. In this case, she would probably see it as “getting rid of the snowflakes;” a liberal might define it as “getting rid of the wingnuts.”

“Oh, there’s no problem handling them,” I replied. “Just leaves me shaking my head that politics defines (and then breaks) so much today.”

Party Allegiance

0 Comments