I come across a lot of memes about how "hateful" Democrats are, claiming that Republicans are much more loving. Some Republicans complain about how "the party of tolerance" is the one that's always cancelling people. Republicans complain about BLM protests that get out of hand, but when a clearly right-wing mob storms the Capitol, suddenly the Republicans are full of excuses.
When Republicans talk about the vindictiveness of Democrats, my jaw drops open. Are they watching the same news I'm watching? (The answer is no.) Are they visiting the same news sites? (Again, no.) There's a lot of finger pointing on both sides. But the truth is, whichever side you're on, the other side is going to be hostile to you.
Whether a person is "good" or "bad" has very little to do with their political party. If a group of Republicans beats up a gay person, or kills an abortion doctor, my Republican friends are quick to say "We're not all like that, don't judge all Republicans based on that one." Likewise, if a Democrat rally turns violent, other Democrats will handwave it as being provoked.
A few years ago, a friend of mine told me about a group of GLBT protestors he'd seen. He said that the protestors were very hateful and shouting obscene things, and it gave him a bad impression of GLBT people overall. Now, I don't know the full context of that particular protest, but I imagine they were unpleasant because they'd been driven to it. Years of bigotry lead to some very pissed off people.
Meanwhile, whenever I go to a Pride event, there's always a group of protestors nearby, shouting hateful things at the crowd. Some of them carry signs that express sentiments like "God Hates Gays" or "Fornicators Will Burn In Hell". Again, some of my friends tell me not to judge all religious people by these fringe idiots. Other people think the protestors are being totally reasonable, helpful even, by trying to save people's souls.
I was raised Republican but eventually turned Democrat. I've been on both sides of the fence. I've seen angry Democrats speak out against my beliefs, and I've seen angry Republicans spit on my opinions. Both sides look bad when you're on the opposite side, mainly because you're on the opposite side. I will say that - having experienced both sides - Republicans tend to be much worse. But your mileage may vary.
This is not an attempt to reach across the aisle. In general, I believe there are good and bad people on both sides. However, actual Republican policies are racist, classist, short-sighted, economically unsound, and often deadly. To clarify - I'm not saying you have to be racist (for example) to be Republican, I'm saying that Republican policies tend to be racist, and the average Republican just doesn't realize it.
The point of this rant is, you should learn the difference between what people do for their party, and what people do because they're angry. If someone yells at you for your beliefs, that's not because they're Republican, Democrat, Conservative, or Liberal. People on every side yell. If it seems like your opponents yell more often than your allies, well duh. Of course your opponents are going to yell at you more than your allies will, you dipshit.
No matter what your political bent, you are always going to see more unpleasant people on the opposite side. That is because they are on the opposite side. The fact that people are yelling at you doesn't mean that everyone in their party is bad.
So what does make people bad? Well, we all have our own opinions on that. Some people think I'm a bad person because I'm a Pro-Choice transgender atheist. I think you're bad if you promote bigotry and disregard science. Both sides think they're the party of love, and that the other side only promotes hate. The truth is that we all focus our love on different things.
But once you really start to research the sides, to see how certain policies affect certain people, and learn the basic human empathy it takes to see past your own nose, I think there's a clear winner. An individual Republican may or may not be a hateful person. But the policies they support are certainly hateful, whether they know it or not.
And maybe that's what bothers me most - that with a just a little bit of unbiased research, they would realize they're on the wrong side.
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