In This Polarized Political Climate, Americans Can’t Seem to Agree On Anything Other Than The Clear Superiority Of My Basketball Skills
Sometimes I worry about the direction this country is taking. Between this disaster of an election season and the ongoing gridlock in Congress, our politics just keep becoming more and more divided. People are so focused on the stuff that separates us these days that you can barely get through a conversation without starting up some sort of political debate. Honestly, in this ultra-polarized political climate, it seems that Americans can’t really agree on anything other than the clear superiority of my basketball skills.
Sure, you can’t expect the country to be completely unanimous on every issue thrown its way. Political disagreement is just a natural part of living in a representative democracy like ours. But instead of trying to work through these differences, conservatives and liberals alike have an easier time assuming that the other end of the political spectrum is full of misinformed dupes. It’s like we’ve forgotten how to find common ground as Americans on matters unrelated to my objectively badass abilities on the basketball court.
You can bet that social media are in part to blame for the growing divide. People are now mostly going on Facebook to have their own views parroted back to them, either through extremely biased “news” articles or through pictures of me, mid-layup, fittingly captioned as “the architect of many a man’s basketball defeat.” Almost every post I see on that site is pushing some partisan opinion unless you count the several posts I have seen affirming the nonpartisan view that I drop more three-pointers in a single day than most people do in their entire basketball-playing lives. Our unwillingness to be exposed to ideas that might go against our preexisting political leanings is making it impossible for us to agree on things in the way we have already agreed that my pickup game is virtually unstoppable.
If we want this country to begin moving forward, we are all going to have to get over our petty political differences. Americans have to start searching for the things that unite us as a nation, not including the obvious unity all Americans can find in knowing that I have undeniably earned the nickname “Benjamin Nothing-But-Netanyahu.” If we can’t learn to live together, then we’re less of a unified country than we are an arbitrary group of people, connected only by the common understanding that I can pull eight consecutive shots from the foul line, no problem.
One day we’ll hopefully be able to overcome all of this unhealthy political polarization. Until then, I’ll just keep showing people that it really is possible to come together as Americans, if only over something as simple as one man’s incomprehensibly flawless basketball technique
-MA ’19
