There is no denying that political discussions get heated, and with today’s polarized attitudes about politics, the tensioned discourse is only worsening. This issue has gotten to the point where people may go through hours of therapy sessions to help themselves be content in society, but once someone mentions their political opinion, all that hard work and time they put into crafting themselves into a person they can be happy with can be taken away in an instant as scathing debates about politics arise. This is a serious issue in America that keeps the country divided.
Obviously, having different political opinions is crucial for a country to succeed; a country needs different perspectives on certain issues within and beyond its borders. However, that is no excuse for people to fight just because someone disagrees with someone else’s take. The “U” in the U.S. stands for United for a reason, and America as a society has forgotten that. Nowadays, it seems that when people come together about a topic, it is rarely something the entire country mutually agrees on. Instead, political opinions usually stray to one side of the spectrum fully disagreeing with a topic or the other side fully on board, which is not right. Having sides at a complete split wouldn’t be bad if it weren’t so frequent.
A prime example of this is news outlets picking which political party to favor. News outlets used to be civil until around the mid-2010s, when news outlets like CNN and CNBC picked the Democratic Party and others like FOX News and Newsmax favored the Republican Party. This wouldn’t have been an issue if any of the outlets had decided to be at least reasonable and still compliment each party and have civil disagreements. However, if a person searches CNN and then FOX News, there is a night-and-day difference in the way each outlet attacks candidates, world leaders and other government officials. With news outlets each using fear-mongering tactics and slander toward the opposing political party, supporters from each side then attack each other because of how the media uses certain words and phrases to anger U.S. citizens. While older people may be affected slightly by this, the younger generations, specifically Generation Z and millennials, are affected more by the rift in America.
Generation Z is reasonably the most inexperienced regarding politics compared to older generations, and the media acknowledges and takes advantage of this fact. Most teens are not fully invested in politics and see things at face value instead of doing extensive research on certain topics. Younger voters more than likely did not take into account the other government officials besides the governor and presidential candidates on the ballot. Voting for those other officials is very crucial in shaping your state and country. Due to most young voters not looking deeply into topics, this can also cause them to vote for a candidate who won’t necessarily benefit them. A lack of research in any topic, politics or not, is a very dangerous game to play. It makes the person speaking look unfit in a conversation full of people who are more educated on a topic.
Especially people who post their takes online. People who make uneducated takes online end up receiving a lot of hateful comments because of making uneducated comments. While making an uneducated comment publicly is not a good look, it’s the response that is worse. Other creators end up making response videos that start arguments between multiple creators and fan bases of said creators. There are enough arguments in this country, and starting online beef and making money off of it is not right. Creators should turn the other cheek and walk away from the situation—not just content creators but regular citizens, too.
People do not know how to manage a civil debate and refuse to look through each person’s lens. This causes outrage during political discussions, and friendships, relationships and relationships with one’s parents end up being tarnished because of a differing political take. It is very unnecessary to lose a relationship over a political disagreement, and it is even more unnecessary to care. Gen Z is in a very important time in their lives; they only get to be around this age once. There is too much to worry about at their age—a person’s political opinion is not one of them. The world already has a lot of evil and hatred. Adding more to the world due to an opinion is not the way to unite Americans. Instead of putting energy into something that won’t give a person gain, use it toward something useful and have some restraint.
