Team D Versus Team R

Honestly, I have no idea who reads the tripe I post, but to whoever you are thanks.

I've had the privilege to live in a lot of different places, and interact with a lot of different people. I've lived with a Russian from Siberia, a capitalist Swede, an indigenous Mexican, an Australian that made his holiday money snatching ostrich eggs, a Wiccan from east Texas, a Chinese kung fu student, a couple of stoners, and a first generation American via Haiti. The list is far longer, but I learned and grew much from knowing each.

Why does this matter? Everyone sees the world through the lens of their experiences. Living with folks who see the world differently than you and are willing to intelligently discuss their point of view forces growth. Early on in the internet I remember folks being excited about the international, border-less, censor-less exchange of ideas. Instead we got Facebook and the cacophony of like minded echo chambers or the vitriolic name calling found in the internet comment section. (In the interest of full disclosure, I would at some point like to be crowned King of the Internet Comments...)

We have 150 channels available, yet so rare is the good show we settle for background noise rather than interacting with friends, family, or literature. My friends on the Right are so up in arms over the Wildlife Refuge building takeover that many actually support this knuckle heads regardless of the facts. Any attempt at engagement or conversation with either my friends on the Right about this topic, or my friends on the Left about the #BLM movement immediately escalates to either Government Oppression or Governmental Oppression because race... Yet they'd never see anything in common with the other side.

As a geobachelor chilling on a farm I'm detached, and as such I see so much similarities from both sides. Poor people in America feel disenfranchised. Whether intuitively or consciously the middle class and poor in America know they game is rigged against them. The folks acting the fool in Harney County are outsiders, just like the folks in Ferguson and Baltimore. The anger of being dependent on Federal largess, and the shame that comes with subsidies, be they food stamps or grazing is real. Knowing that you could be on the street based on nothing more than the dictates of a faceless bureaucrat who doesn't answer to you or your community makes folks feel powerless.

Lawlessness is lawlessness. The gentlemen who took over the Refuge Center should be arrested and charged with criminal trespass, just as should the folks who took over public parks during the Occupy movement, just as students who take over college buildings, or loot CVS. I understand the frustration felt by each group, but to keep a Republic functioning it must be a nation of laws and not men. Right now we're headed towards a schism, best case the states just stop paying attention to federal laws they disagree with, worst case you get full blown civil war.

Interesting times.