Your Political Addiction Has Changed You: You Need An Intervention
It's time to get clean.
Politics is often the thief of joy and makes people paranoid. Suddenly, it's raining outside because of Trump, and believe your wife is cheating on you because the Democrats made every woman a feminist.
You isolate & propagandize yourself. You're stuck yet think you're free.
Your irritability makes you unpleasant to hang around and over time you notice that people are walking on eggshells when they're in your presence. You're no longer the jovial character people couldn't wait to spend time with.
You're now a miserable curmudgeon who festers in their own putrid filth. You're a creature that your friends and family no longer recognize, not because of your political beliefs but your shift in character.
You're unrecognizable and unremarkable. The person you are today is a counterfeit imitation of the person we used to know. You claim you've been freed by the truth but you perpetuate exaggerative falsehoods that affirm your internal narrative.
You don't question your bias because the new you is beyond prideful. The old version of yourself would acknowledge when they made a mistake but it's like you're allergic to humility now.
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Politics not only robbed you of your happiness but it took away the person we used to love. The person who were faithfully optimistic about life only interprets the worst of the world as the expectation.
You believe human nature is just a collection of negative outcomes that you're able to Google but of course, you're the exception and not the rule. The dichotomy between left vs. right has you believing that choosing one side over another makes you better than the counter.
But are you a better person when you become the monster you criticize? You've stared into the abyss for far too long and now your monstrous attitude dominates your worldview. You're erratic and unappealing to be around, which is why you need a new friendship circle.
Miserable people congregate with each other because no one else will deal with them. You collectively bemoan your political foes and look to hold them responsible for every issue imaginable. The individual has been erased when transferring the blame onto the opposition party.
The reason you wouldn't vote for their party is not the reason they are choosing to vote for them. You're the void of good faith and you engage in a bad faith campaign, with the presumption that anyone with the party's letter next to their name is always malicious.
Or could it be that your adventure to uncover political sins has made you just as sinful? You started as someone who wanted to make the world a better place but now you only shop at stores that mimic your belief system and cut off former loved ones for challenging your ideology.
You claim to understand humanity while translating every encounter in the most superficial way possible. What they wear, where they live, and how they speak signifies their affiliation and your choice of treatment. There is no more depth, only surface-level judgments.
You were once someone who decried bigotry but now you are exactly what you used to hate. You're a political bigot who doesn't mind using someone's identity against them for a political jab. Your need to be on the right side of history put you down the wrong path; now you're lost.
You have a problem but like any other addiction, you can't be compelled to sobriety. You're addicted to being a political snob and bigot because you're trying to fill a void and drown out what truly ails you. Your addiction has changed you and made you into an impulsive beast.
I cannot compel you to re-evaluate your behavior but I hold up a mirror to your irreverent conduct. You've overdosed on rhetoric and have killed relationships all for the allegiance of people or a party who don't even know you exist.
Time to get clean: This is an intervention.
Wow. A stellar piece describing the dynamic of political addiction so pervasive today amongst those of either or any political affiliation.
Agree with all the laudatory comments. I'm sure your description is what Thanksgiving looked like for many people on all sides. Its too bad. I grew up and remember a different America. I watched the movie "Reagan" this past weekend and noticed the great camaraderie and respect depicted between Tip O'Neal and President Reagan. During the work day the were adversaries and sometimes adversarial but after 6pm they were, as Reagan described in the movie, "just two Irishmen having a beer." I don't know how true that is, but the sentiment described is the America I grew up in. Families and friends should remember that when they get together...blood and friendship are thicker than politics.
One of my daughters leans towards another political side than either me or my wife and yet we share far more than that which divides us. We mostly agree to just "not go there" on issues where we likely have disagreements. And if we stumble into something and it gets heated we almost always decide to stop and just move on to one of the many things that we share. Its not difficult but it requires one to be an adult and place family and friends above political posturing. We choose love and shared things over political differences. After all the guy you described is arguing on behalf of a political party that doesn't even know he exists. Why on earth would one ruin family relationships and friendships over that? You likely won't convince someone who has made a decision so why not just live and let live and focus on things in common?
Great column and very timely. Thanks Adam.