Politics is Ruining American Culture in 2024

There is an etiquette when discussing politics with people. Be civil. People view the world in a certain way and do not always just see politics as simply policies. They legitimately believe that how they vote says something about their morality. Political affiliation is nothing more than how one votes. We all see the world differently and social media and the mainstream media have waved the fans of dissention.

The media has a bias. Everyone points out Fox News, but neglect to mention CNN and just about every other news outlet has a left leaning bias. Which even a bias is not too terribly bad, but what is bad is not only skewing the facts to mislead people but, also blatantly alienating half your audience. And of course people being so easily lead fight each other all day long on social media and shame and attack people because they can hide behind a computer.

Now, a common mistake people make when debating include resorting to name calling. They also make the mistake of attacking the oppositional voters instead of policies and the issues. They shame people for how they vote. They will make assumptions about the opposite side and attack the voters as well as the politicians.

Mocking the politicians is fine. They are public figures and they expect it and have thicker skin usually. The assumptions and name calling and taking offense on behalf of the politicians causes fights as well. Taking offense on the politicians behalf means some people take it as an insult if you mock the politician they like. My dad punched a guy in the nose for saying, ''Cleveland Browns fans suck.''

He distinguished he didn't say the Browns suck, he said their fans suck. Why people take offense on behalf of their favorite politicians are beyond me. If one is real, no one gets behind a president they did not vote for. They are wrapped up in their own political beliefs, and think because they vote a certain way they are more moral because of it.

This really baffles me because you shame people all day and the minute someone disagrees with you, you will yell over the other person and do not even use facts to debate. Assumptions are easier than doing research. It is honestly baffling how politics is becoming some peoples' entire personality. I mean it is even hurting film and television.

There have been political messages in movies forever. But they were usually much more subtle and did not really alienate anyone. I had a creative professor that talked about, ''if you write something liberal, I'll put on my conservative hat and vice versa.'' He emphasized the importance of showing both sides.

Now, All In the Family was a very finger wagging show with a clearly liberal bias. The conservative character was perpetrated as an idiot and a buffoon and of course, racist. Now, Rob Reiner could not understand why people would call him meathead because of Archie.

Archie was also portrayed in human moments, like Gloria not wanting her grandbaby near a cross burner. The hurt in Archie's eyes and not seeing himself as bad as a cross burner emphasized that despite the bigotry he is still human and not some inhuman thing. Today's politics a Republican is automatically racist. Like Tarantino said, ''message today trumps art, trumps character, trumps good.

A lack of subtlety in the messages paired with the one dimensional punching bag that is whatever flavor of the month they oppose that week makes modern works seem shallow and hateful but convinced it has a heart and compassion.

Meanwhile, people outside of politics can give you incredibly insightful debates in sports, religion, philosophy, film and literature critique, but they limit themselves with their political alliances and refuse to see when their side is in the wrong.