Better Together, Richer Together, Stronger Together
It’s ingenious, really. Disgusting and infuriating, but genius nonetheless. The Russians played a clever game to fan the flames of discourse, expose and exaggerate tensions that have been festering for some time, and deepen mistrust in the the American political system. However, while they may have gotten the upper hand and won the first battle, there’s a clear path to victory in this war: unity. Luckily for us, historically, this is what Americans do best in times of crisis; put our differences aside and come together as one. Right now is the perfect opportunity to recognize that our fears, prejudices, and pride have been exposed as a major weakness, perhaps our greatest weakness, and exploited by a major foreign power so effectively as to almost render us blind. Right now it is imperative that we acknowledge our preconceptions so that we can move past and learn from them in order to render future such attacks useless. Having a foreign power engaging in such massive efforts to sway and divide public opinion is and should be of great concern to every American citizen, irregardless of political persuasion.
For example, it is known that the Russians bought an ad on Facebook ‘supporting’ Black Lives Matter, which exaggerated the extreme responses to Ferguson and Baltimore to play on people’s fear. They did this for just about every hot-button and controversial topic: promoting gun-rights and the second amendment, propagating false warnings about illegal immigrants, targeting LGBT issues, and so on. They also, then, put up sham websites so that those that clicked on the posts would be directed to more misleading claims. They harped on issues that caused any kind of strife among different segments of our society. In the meantime, others in our very own country were (and still are) also explicitly involved with spreading, if not initiating, false narratives based solely on hate and fear and with the intent to further drive mistrust in certain groups of people. Predictably, many fell in step with this because of deep-rooted preconceived notions and years of ill-conceived discriminatory teachings fed off of the smallest of kernels of truth, often taken out of context and exaggerated massively. These diabolical people who organized these attacks also know that it’s human psychology that people will engrain a notion even if the initial story that formed it has been proven to be false.
I’m not putting all of this on any one side either for, while I personally stand for equality and justice for all, I realize that this has occurred on every side of the aisle. BLM, Confederates, LGBT, women’s rights, you name it, these issues have been targets and are usually complicated by the fact that people are unwilling to listen to concerns and communicate effectively, which means the issues can’t be properly addressed. This results in those with said concerns further digging in their heels instead of finding common ground or recognizing their misconceptions. Of course, I realize that some people aren’t going to listen or adapt no matter what you say. But, those are also the ones that will lose out in the end. Once people come together, once people start talking and working to understand one another, the more likely we’ll see true equality and justice. Then, and only then, will we be able to fight off future attacks on our way of life such as those the Russians have pulled off.
Sadly, it’s going to be more difficult than it should be. Ideally, we should have leadership that stands against foreign interference, understands underlying issues and tensions, initiates peaceful dialog, and strives for equality. We don’t have that at the highest level in our government currently. That doesn’t make things impossible, though. However, it does require those supporting this administration to open their eyes and see the problem and for those on the other side to not assume every republican is like the President and some of his cronies. When the President is the only one calling the Russian interference fake, it’s a problem. Whether it helped him win or not is of no consequence, it’s a big deal. When the President enacts executive orders based on fear perpetrated by these stories, it’s a problem. Then, you have the issue of Breitbart News, who is notorious for publishing inflammatory and false stories. For example, they, along with Info Wars, Fox News, and others, purposely spread misinformation about a supposed knife-point rape by immigrants in Iowa that caused a massive amount of anger and mistrust of government and immigrants. These are exactly the kind of stories that Russia would exploit and some of our own biased media helped them right along. So, to then have Breitbart’s executive chair, Steve Bannon, become White House Chief Strategist, is a problem. If these stories were about a particular person it would be slander or libel. Yet, a man that makes a living doing this was tapped to one of the most influential positions in our government. To further demonstrate how successful these campaigns have been, just this past week the state of Alabama elected a man as their senate GOP candidate who had no clue what DACA was but cited blatantly false stories about sharia law being declared in ‘Indiana and/or Illinois’. There are many more issues, the list is disturbingly long, but there shouldn’t be a need to go on for people to realize the obstacles we face. I’d rather focus on the positives and solutions.
It’s up to us. If we want to win this war and stop letting a foreign power put wedges between sectors in our society, it’s up to us. Before you get too fired up about any particular article or news story, validate it. Before accepting the veracity of headlines and clips, try to find the full clip or story to make sure it wasn’t purposely taken out of context. If you’ve fallen for fake stories in the past, whether they be about muslims, immigrants, blacks, supremacists, etc., realize it, own it, and try your best to recognize any underlying bias that remains.
There is no single great race. There is no dominant sex. Freedom of religion along with the separation of church and state are fundamental to a well-functioning and long-lasting democracy or republic. White, black, gay, trans, muslim, catholic, male, female, rich, poor, doctor, janitor, democrat, or republican, we all have an important part to play and contribute to what makes this country great. As long as we’re striving for equality, we’ll succeed. As long as we’re accepting of our differences and recognize that as a strength, we’ll succeed. As long as we accept that immigrants and refugees make essential improvements to our economy and society, we’ll succeed. As long as we lend a hand and talk with all walks of life instead of making judgments based on those that want us divided, we will succeed. We win by loving, playing, praying, working, and when needed, fighting, alongside our diverse citizenry.
We are better when we all come together. We are richer when we all come together. And, when we unite and show the world our acceptance and faith in humanity, no one is stronger. We do this and Russia or anyone else’s push to divide us and cause mistrust in our government blows up in their faces.
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