Adding to the Blame Game: The Distraction Game
Politics and Culture Wars Explained by the U.S. Political Compass
Brene Brown (2012) wrote, “Finding someone to put down, judge, or criticize becomes a way to get out of the web or call attention away from our box. If you are doing worse than I am at something, I think my chances of surviving are better” (p. 98, emphasis added).
I was listening to the Ralph Nader Radio Hour podcast yesterday (from March 4 titled “Failing Red States”). I was listening not because I’m arguably a Green and once voted for Nader, but because I listen to a handful of diverse political podcasts to try to keep myself balanced. Some of what this podcast says, I can immediately identify as overstated, but other points resonate. I heard one argument that made perfect sense, and that felt obvious and consistent with the larger picture of social ills. I wrote it down (see the green quadrant below, the nefarious scheme part). I shared the self-validating idea with my teen, who I have indoctrinated to the point that their Pew type turns up the same as mine. Later in the day, I glanced at that note and realized, from my mediator perspective, “If I give it some thought, I can probably come up with an analogous argument that the three other quadrants are convinced of.”
If some bad actors from each of the quadrants are promoting—possibly actually believing—a similar story about how their opponents are using deliberate distraction of a trivial issue in order to hide their own nefarious schemes, this is how it might go. The arch-rival is the diagonally-positioned opposite: red versus green, and blue versus yellow.
What Each Quadrant Believes About Their Arch-rival
A habit of questioning assumptions is promoted by Byron Katie, which she calls the work. As a reality check and spiritual practice, she suggests we ask: Do I know for an absolute fact that this is true? What if the opposite was true?
What is said about your party, maybe you can’t conceptualize it applying to you personally, but is there the smallest grain of truth? Could there be others in your party who overdo it, who exaggerate at least sometimes? You may think the ends justify the means, but is it justifiable when the other party exaggerates or lies? It’s not that we can’t understand or empathize with each other’s challenges. It’s that we don’t trust each other enough to give an inch of concession.
References
Brown, B. (2012). Daring greatly: How the courage to be vulnerable transforms the way we live, love, parent and lead. Portfolio Penguin.
Herman, J. L., Flores, A. R., & O’Neill, K. K. (2022). How many adults and youth identify as transgender in the United States? https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/trans-adults-united-states/
For Verbal Repeat of Quadrants Text
This section repeats the writing in the quadrants, for any who have difficulty reading in that format, and because as an image it won’t be verbally read by assistive technology. What’s the benefit of the quadrant format anyway? It’s a heuristic that can stick in the visual memory.
Blue Quadrant
According to Democrats, this is the fake or overrated concern Libertarians promote:
The libertarians yammer on about free speech. They complain about getting booted off platforms that have “become the public square,” so they are being silenced from public discourse. True they have been denied access to a megaphone that someone else built, where they were rude and made it unpleasant for everyone. These privately owned media companies have the right to exclude them for shitposting. Their complaints are alarmist, as if the next step will be putting them in jail for what they say on the street or write in their own publication. Yet if some low rider parked in front of their house with stereo bass thumping, these complainers would feel justified to make them leave.
According to Democrats, this is the nefarious scheme Libertarians want to distract attention away from:
As with their hero Thomas Jefferson, even if “all men are created equal” in the eyes of God, some people are more worthy of power and freedom than others. They reserve to themselves the right to keep their family away from public school & social services, which means they can oppress women and children in a world where might makes right.
Red Quadrant
According to Republicans, this is the fake or overrated concern Greens promote:
If we give them an inch, they take a mile. The U.S.A. is one of the most free and prosperous nations in the world. Greens aren’t satisfied with this high level of freedom of opportunity and meritocracy. Critical race theory is based on the idea that if wealth isn’t redistributed to where everyone has exactly equal everything, then it’s not because anyone worked harder or had better ideas. It’s because we’re unfair, or worse, we are evil exploiters who purposely oppress and plunder.
According to Republicans, this is the nefarious scheme Greens want to distract attention away from:
“Girls just wanna have fun,” and that’s fine, as long as they pay for it. What they don’t want anyone to notice is the extent to which they don’t offer anything of value to those they criticize. They want to be paid for their art and their theories, and if no one with money wants any of it, the government grants should pay for it. They should be paid to sit around and smoke pot and have time to heal their traumas. They don’t want to work or suffer or risk or be grateful for their freedom or someone else’s hard work that built up the cushy lives they live.
Yellow Quadrant
According to Libertarians, this is the fake or overrated concern Democrats promote:
It’s true there are unjustly suffering people, born disadvantaged, hungry because of famine, not by any fault of their own. I am supposed to think I am a baaaad person if I’m not willing to make my family go without so that I can share my last shred of goods with every disadvantaged person I don’t even know? Wait, is this a scam where the disadvantaged person is getting two cents on the dollar after all the administrative costs that include bribes and shipping processed foods to Africa? I do help my neighbors. I can see the need and meet it.
According to Libertarians, this is the nefarious scheme Democrats want to distract attention away from:
The United World Order is supposed to fix all this. No one will go hungry. No one will be oppressed. The self-appointed benevolent dictators this time would never end up perpetuating hunger or mass killing of their own people as did idealists Stalin, Pol Pot, and Ceaușescu. Read Animal Farm. They will take control of everything under the auspices of making the world safe and orderly. After they’re done spending other people’s money to create their utopia, which usually means everyone is equally in abject poverty. What wonderful equity! Everyone must share even if you hate each other. You must hold hands and pretend to get along.
Green Quadrant
According to Greens, this is the fake or overrated concern Republicans promote:
Ideologically insular transgender activists have bullied educational institutions into promoting critical race theory to promote “equity,” are sexualing our youth with drag queen story hour. They use social belonging as an inducement to convince teens to mutilate their bodies during these tender confusing years, telling parents their teen will commit suicide if they object. They push laws to label such parents as abusive, to remove their child from the home, or support a child running away.
According to Greens, this is the nefarious scheme Republicans want to distract attention away from:
They aren’t really worried about the minuscule number of trans people, who just want to not be beaten. They are just stoking the flames of a culture war to distract people from their continuation of a project to funnel wealth to the 1%. Obviously punching down. The only way they can rile up the religious and get their vote is to turn attention away from how GOP policies are horrible for the working class. A 1.4% “transgender” in the U.S. (Herman et al., 2022) aren’t a large and powerful coalition; they’re a stigmatized minority. Those who identify as transgender include the gender non-conforming who simply don’t want to be boxed into limiting social roles. They aren’t a threat, just want freedom.
References
Brown, B. (2012). Daring greatly: How the courage to be vulnerable transforms the way we live, love, parent and lead. Portfolio Penguin.
Herman, J. L., Flores, A. R., & O’Neill, K. K. (2022). How many adults and youth identify as transgender in the United States? https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/trans-adults-united-states/