The other day an article from The Odyssey popped up on my news feed on Facebook. While I’m not normally the type to read them, this article grabbed my attention and I followed the link. It was by a young woman from my hometown who wanted to write about her reasoning for not calling herself a “modern feminist.” The article, not surprisingly, was shared multiple times on Facebook by both my right and left leaning friends and caused quite the stir. The reactions were mixed, pride from some and disgust from others. While I didn’t agree with the article, that was not what upset me. There was name -calling and low blows. People bashed this young woman for where she went to high school even though all of those who shared the article graduated from the same place.
I spent the summer interning on the Hill for a high-profile Senator, and if there is one thing I took away from that experience it is this: the problem with America is that we have stopped caring for one another. I would receive calls from constituents yelling at me even though they did not know my opinion on healthcare or Trump. And while at first this upset me, after some time, it only made me sad. These people had their reasoning for their beliefs and I had mine. And so instead of being upset with those who disagreed with me, I tried to understand why they felt the way they did. I developed compassion for these people and their unique situations. I had an open mind to their reasoning. I discovered that the reason Americans are so divided on politics is because we hate anybody who has a different belief than us.
When discussing politics, we feel the need to defend ourselves and to stay steadfast in our beliefs because if we do not, then we admit defeat and we admit that we were wrong. And because we become so consumed with defending ourselves, we close ourselves off to other perspectives and experiences. We stop trying to learn from one another, and we stop seeing other people as people. We label them based on their beliefs and criticize them if they aren’t the same as ours. We rally behind those who are from the same party and we hate on others. And we hate not only because of their beliefs, but because the others are “hippies” or “rednecks” or “stupid” or “uninformed” or “privileged” or “lazy”. We hate because it makes us feel more secure about our own beliefs.
As I read comment after comment about this young woman and her education, her age, her lack of knowledge, her right-wing views, and her hometown the frustration within me builds. I’m not mad because she is not a feminist. I am mad because those who attacked her saw her as an idiot for not spewing their views. While I don’t agree with majority of the article that was written, I also don’t think that it is fair to share her post and bash her from graduating from a high school surrounded by cornfields.
We are all human. We all have our own beliefs. Stop trying to discredit people and start trying to discredit ideas. The problem with America is that we don’t care about one another. The problem with America is that we spread hate when we should be spreading love.