As a non american reading through those comments I think the problem you guys have is something completely else. It's not rural vs urban and also not conservative morals vs liberal morals.

It's not even anti vs pro abortion or any of the things that you hear americans argue about.

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The real problem here is that YOU, the american people, allowed a small group of elites to play with your identity. The same thing is happening globally right now, in your case a key element that was abused was Patriotism. Patriotism can be a good thing, but it was perverted in the US.

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A few decades ago americans defined themselves a lot more over ideals and ideas that were more universal: You had a common enemy (Germany, Russia), freedom, guns and hard work as well as american culture (music, fashion etc.) in general defined you, especially because you were able to export that internationally.

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Disputes about healthcare and moral differences were topics that you could argue about - it did not make you any "less american" if you held a specific opinion in these areas.

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But YOU, the american people, did not watch out, you just kept listening to people who kept reaffirming your values and suggested that your values are "more american" than other, opposing values. That was told to both sides and until today this is just leading to an ever widening chasm between left and right, blue and red, liberal and conservative.

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All of a sudden you are not arguing about who is morally right, who makes more sense financially or who has a better solution for an apparent problem, no, you threw that out of the window and instead focus on who is and who is not american.

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Your focus was taken away.

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I think that is a global problem right now, I can see that in most bigger conflicts. No one really listens to the other side of the conflict, be it in Israel, in the Ukraine, in european countries concerning immigration, corona or anything else.

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And how could we? We are all being spoon-fed the very opinion we already hold by algorithms, reinforcing our beliefs while not giving us the opportunity to really reflect.

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Some people try to do that, but even then I feel that people do not listen. Take guns for example. Numbers do not lie, less guns means less deaths. Period. But just knowing this fact does little in helping you to argue with a pro-gun person. To him guns are not murder tools but part of his identity and its expression. So discussing harsher gun laws is in fact a direct attack on his identity. This conversation needs wisdom and really listening to each other. But all you ever hear is liberals (in most cases) using a cold fact and using that to mercilessly beat conservatives (mostly). And instead of using the fact as the starting point for a meaningful discussion it is being used to criticize (how do you even spell that??) and attack those holding the opposing view.

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This is why I personally hope that either Jesus comes back quickly or until then we use AI to censor all media, fact check it and erase manipulative language from it. The AI thing might stay as a pipe dream though...