This is one of those yes and no situations.

Yes, absolutely, outside the political realm right and left are just ordinary people.

No, if you listen to and hold beliefs and desires inline with a monster you have to take blame for the monster.

So, yes it's good to reach people on the right. But you also have to hold them responsible for such things as watching fox news, for not thinking critically, and allowing themselves to be brainwashed, polarized, and allowing great harm to come to others.

The US was a liberal democracy. The right wing is hell bent on destroying that. People knew, or should have known this was coming and voted for it. That is hard to reconcile.

I was raised in a right-wing fundamentalist family. I was simply somebody who indulged in introspection, cared about positive values, and wanted some consistency in my life. Being willing to question myself and my beliefs made it easier to start questioning the beliefs of other people.

At first like almost any child I was a blank slate and took on everything I was told by my family. However, I wasn't mindlessly bonded to them and started seeing cracks in their behaviour. This led me to question things even harder. I am now very "left". However, I am Gandhi left and not Che Guevara left.

"Gandhi left and not Che Guevara left"

Yes!

"Gandhi left and not Che Guevara left"

Yes!

"Gandhi left and not Che Guevara left"

Yes!

If you take aim at the wrong problem, you are unlikely to get useful results.

The research supervisor for my PhD was heading up investigations into gambling addiction. She, and the graduate students working in her field of sociology, were aiming to find out how gambling addiction worked, and how to help gamblers and provide insights that would create better gambling legislation.

Sadly, corporations started hiring her students to make buying their products and services "stickier". They were actively looking to find ways that would addict people to their niche of capitalism.

Blame the struggling people at the bottom all you like. Make them completely responsible for the current US disaster. It's so much easier to kick down. Or get a back bone and start kicking the trillionaires and billionaires, and corporations who are sucking us all dry.

How come the students hired on to bad corporations? You would think they had learned better.

I'm not sure what you mean by kicking down. Are you referring to my saying right wing voters are responsible for voting against their own interests? If so that isn't placing blame, that is holding them responsible.

In a democracy we voters can only elect (or be) representatives, we have little if any real influence on big money powers except through elected representatives, or indirectly by collectively choosing which corporations we support.

"I’m frustrated with the people who don’t elect compassionate representatives."

It's really hard to do that when people usually have to have money to even run for office. This brings in people who represent their politcal donors rather than their constituency. Of course being a career politician also takes a person out of touch with what it's like being one of their constituents. This is why I am for sortition and Citizen Assemblies. These have been successful in Scotland, and people are pushing to replace the House of Lords with a Citizen Assembly. They are making good headway. It will be interesting to see how fast or slow this process will be.

@Will Nah. Dude. IMO "blame the individual" is something we USians were indoctrinated with by the sycophants of wealth to replace our freedom. Yes, personal choices have consequences. Yes, life isn't fair and others have to bear the consequences even when not directly involved. Welcome to living in a society of equals.

Look, my life hasn't been great - I've done my best to live with what I got, according to my values, which have been in conflict with my people (USian) since I did the math as a teenager and came up with: This is bullshit. There's no way our United States will survive as it is - the numbers don't work.

@Muse and @Richard

What's with this "blame the individual's" stuff?

The US is a democracy. Individuals elect the government. The government will regulate the rich and power if and only if individuals elect representatives who look after the people.

If individuals elect bad officials, they get bad results.

What part of that logic don't you agree with?

I said, “I’m frustrated with the people who don’t elect compassionate representatives.”

You said, "It’s really hard to do that when people usually have to have money to even run for office."

And you said, "we USians were indoctrinated with by the sycophants of wealth to replace our freedom"

Sounds to me like you two are blaming individuals for not being able to maintain a democracy. And you are blaming the rich and powerful for exploiting people.

Sounds to me like people need to take responsibility.

You certainly are not going to be able to nag the wealthy into submission.

What part of this logic don't you agree with?