So this is the second divisive election Chris and I have watched go down during our time as bloggers. I found both quite disturbing. I am not disturbed for the reason many people in my age bracket are, or even by who won. I was not for Clinton or Trump. Both were far from my ideal candidate and I identify as an independent and truly don’t feel any kinship toward any American or British political party. I knew whoever won, I’d be getting someone I thought was unsuitable. I was prepared to not get what I wanted, so I’m not upset.
Something I think this election demonstrated was the effect of what I like to think of as the Facebook Bubble. The internet has created a new social problem in that it makes you feel simultaneously connected and informed while Facebook helps you build your own personal bubble with its algorithm. I think the Left were extremely shocked by the results of this election because their bubbles were so complete that their interaction with the other side was near non-existent.
Something I don’t relate to and find deeply worrying is the dehumanization of the other side. Politics on both sides of the Atlantic has become disturbingly tribal. I have seen so many people on the losing side of both Brexit and this American presidential election treat the other side like subhuman monsters. The Remainers in Britain and the Democrats in the US all seem to like to talk about how inclusive they are and how open minded they are, yet far too many of them have seemed happy to slam their opponents by making sweeping generalizations about millions of people. That does not come off especially open minded.
There also seems to be a disturbingly anti-democratic movement afoot. There has been far too much in social media about being ‘misinformed’ or basically voting badly. More than that, looking at something through a different lens doesn’t mean someone is a fascist, a racist or anything like that. If anything, I saw so many caricatures of pro-Trump voters this week. To disagree with the Left is to branded a racist and shut down rather than having a good argument brought your way.
We saw some of this in Italy as well last summer when we met a woman who basically wanted to disenfranchise her grandmother for being old, her mother for not having a university degree and herself for not having the right degree. I think I was being overoptimistic in thinking that this anti-democratic attitude had not arrived here or in the UK. From what I have seen in the media and on Facebook, it’s everywhere. A large amount of people seem to be anti-democracy. They don’t call themselves that, but everything else they say suggests it.
Something else that was troubling was the inability of many people I saw on the Left to understand that someone didn’t necessarily vote for Trump for the reasons they would never have voted for him. There seem to be many people that cannot fathom that someone may just have different priorities. I mean, it’s not as though every Clinton voter agreed with everything she stands for and that would not have been assumed by the Left. It has been absolutely assumed by many on the Left that Trump supporters all agree with everything he’s said or done. They must love Trump because they hate gays, women, minorities and so on, when I think a more likely reality is that it’s a two party system. People on the left generally went left even with a poor choice, and people on the right did the same. That should not be taken as surprising or offensive.
I strongly recommend to the Left that next time around, they get a candidate that actually has a chance. The Right have despised Hillary with good reason for many decades. Donald Trump was never going to be crude enough to wash that away. I also recommend treating your fellow citizens as people and saving the r word for people they’ve actually met or experienced at least. It’s been about as diluted as the word fascist at this point to just mean ‘person who disagrees with the Left’. Name calling got the party nowhere. Learn from it, stop it and actually engage the other side next time around.