The political polarization that is taking place right now in the western world (not just the USA, but many other countries as well) is becoming very worrying to me. I have noticed that polarization has been on the rise for a while now, thanks in no small part to social media....

The recent storming of the US Capitol is just the most recent symptom of a very divided society. One of the things that particularly worries me is our increasing inability to distinguish between differing viewpoints among both the Left and the Right.

It seems that if you identify with one side of the political spectrum, all of the worst excesses of the side of the spectrum now get imputed to you. I can already see it from the Leftists who regard anyone who holds traditional family values as being equivalent to Nazis.

"But you associate with the alt-Right, so that makes you complicit in their actions." First of all, what makes you think that just because I or anyone else is a conservative, that they are in any way sympathetic to the alt-Right?

I have been critical of the alt-Right since I first started encountering them back in 2016. My opinion of them hasn't changed. I'm not the sort of person who will side with Hitler just to beat Stalin.

Furthermore, this type of rhetoric is exactly what leads to radicalization in the first place. Once you start demonizing all conservatives as a bunch of alt-Right racists, don't be surprised if some of them actually do start adopting those tendencies just to spite the Left.

Unfortunately, I've seen it happen too many times. Disdain for the Left (which I can't blame them for, to be perfectly honest) leads them to adopt increasingly radical viewpoints. What becomes a basic demand for more free speech becomes full-blown association with Stormfront.

Maybe if you start acknowledging that polarization and radicalization is a problem that is being exacerbated by both sides, rather than acting like your side alone has the moral high ground, we might be able to break this trend and actually arrive at some semblance of unity.

And then maybe, once we accomplish that first step, we can actually negotiate and move forward in a more constructive manner. Sadly, I don't think that is where we are headed towards as a society.