Yeah, you’re right. We are all victims, the people in power too. And most of us involved in politics are aggressors, and are to blame for it. I try my best not to be, because I’m a disciple of love, and my real enemy is hatred, of which political hatred seems to be the most prevalent these days. I still push back against other forms of hatred when I run into them, to be clear.
It’s not a game of survival against aggressors, or at least not nearly as much as it seems to be. The propaganda tells you conservatives want to kill minorities, but most of them (discounting the leaders and the crazies) wouldn’t dream of it. A lot of them are conservatives mostly because the propaganda tells them that liberals want to kill babies.
The actual minority-haters do fall into the conservative bucket, yes, but that’s because it’s the closest bucket to their position. The leaders take advantage of it to boost their numbers, but I don’t think it’s exactly fair to blame the rest of them for it when there are only two buckets.
Most conservatives are people with souls and morals if you’ll get to know them. You don’t have to cave to their position, I’m just asking you to put aside your differences and try to understand them. If you try to understand one and learn that they’re a disciple of hatred trying to slowly drag the world back to the 1700s so they can own slaves, that’s a yike, but don’t paint the rest of them with that same brush until you’ve taken a fair sampling.
At a certain point, a useful idiot still becomes an enemy combatant.
Perhaps, but since this is a war of manipulation, you always have to consider: are you fighting those responsible for turning us against each other, or are you fighting who they want you to fight?
I’m not saying to let the cops off the hook. That depends on the answer to the question. I’m speaking more generally here.