What would it take to unite the U.S. citizenry?

To address the OPs thread, IMO, other than an attack by another country or terrorist entity, I happen to belive that natural catastrophes, and peoples reaction to it, have been shown to bring cultures together.

Of course, disasters (especially weather related) happen in the U.S. frequently.

I'm talking about a major event such as a disease vector equal to 1346 - 1351, Yellowstone blowing its lid, the reverse or stopping of the Gulf Stream per the article Gtr posted recently, severe drought, or the rise of Ocean Level 100 meters.

Something like that. A situation where so many people die, that the social compact and civil cooperation is again an absolute
necessity for survival.

IMO of course.

 

I agree unfortunately. It would make things worse.

 

I genuinely beleive there’s no fixing this issue. Social media and smart phones have rotted a significant enough % of the population’s brains and there’s no getting them back. Just take a look at this board as a perfect example.

I believe younger generations are more savvy about digital manipulation and won’t be easily led down the rabbit hole. At least I hope. So in essence, it’s going to take a few decades for the rot to die out.

A less likely option is for social media platforms to make a genuine effort to clean things up. But I have zero hope that will happen. Too much money involved.

 

Oh I agree that tribalism is the centerpiece of the maga movement. This is a major reason that I will not support it. However, despite my disdain for tribalism, I am in my old age (is mid 40s old??) more interested in bringing them back to us than I am in making them renounce their views.

Of course, I don’t mean to say that we shouldn’t refute their demonstrably false beliefs, but I do think we can show some understanding for the distorting power of identity. I’m sure we’ve all been its victim, be that believing our kid is the best volleyball player on her team or that Urban Meyer only recruited athletes with character in thr top 1% of the top 1%.

 

Sorry pup, mid 40s is not old

 

Natural disasters always unite people tho it is short term and recently often ends up being a blame game as to who caused the disaster.

A foreign attack certainly unites the country for awhile tho I've thought for some time that we are far more likely to suffer a domestic terrorist attack which would ultimately divide the country even further.
Maybe we just need a few oldsters to die off.

 

It’s hard to bring both sides together, especially with each side mostly believing they are the righteous crowd.
I mean, it is two groups of people with very different personalities and values.

 

Projection at its finest!

And sorry, judging from your posts I wouldn’t have thought it possible for you to feel bad.

Now we all know that you define legitimate media as: Pompous fools posing as intellectuals spewing nonsense that you agree with. Doesn’t that sound about right.

 

LOL. Yeah, sure buddy. I read the majority of my Sunday Washington Post today. It was certainly not that ^.

Now you be sure to digest every page of OANN. Also, Alex Jones' Infowars wasn't shut down just yet. You should be learning as much from there as you can......before it's too late.

 

And Biden is being blamed for it. Each side wants to blame the other for whatever ill, real or imagined, they believe has befallen America.

 

Nah....most of the command and control systems are hardened against EMP attacks. All it would do is make the average citizen even more dependent upon the government and wealthy. It would accomplish in one stroke what Republicans have been trying to do for decades. Move us back to the dark ages.

 

Nothing can unite us it's too late. Even if we were attacked we would blame each other for letting it happen. The only way to unite is to have MAGA turn themselves in at their nearest police station

 

Being that I didn’t know who Alex jones was until the civil judgement and still have no idea what OANN is, it looks like you may waste more time on them than I ever have.

I also don’t really want to do with someone who hasn’t seen the WP hard tilt left over the last 50 years other than realize that “they just like hearing what they want to hear”.

 

Misinformation is obviously a massive factor, maybe even a fatal factor. My mother was in her 90s when the Affordable Care Act was being discussed. If I'd actually believed the 'death panels' BS, that bureaucrats would be deciding how long she was going to be allowed to live ... I can't measure how angry and opposed I would have been.
Imagine now the millions of people who believe the election was stolen. If you truly believe that, you're going to feel like you've got an excuse for almost anything.

 

LOL. Hard tilt left.

So you don't know about the loonie right media, and you don't read the legitimate journalism either, because it's just so leftist.

So how do you get any information? Fake tanned orange guy with a dead ferret on his head? Just go with your gut on what to think and believe?

 

Truth Social or FB

 

A limited extent? Who did not feel united after 9/11? I agree with most of your original post but strongly disagree with this one statement.

 

I was just saying simultaneously us being attacked but also knocking the disinformation campaigns offline and off screen. All at once.

 

I think the starting point is leadership. And we are sorely wanting in good leaders. Instead, what we have, is partisan finger-pointing, and the need to “win” every argument. There is no listening to points of view; only blame and disingenuous self-righteousness.

Give us a leader who places Country over Party, and we will have a good start to healing.