They Have Worked on Conflicts Overseas. Now These Americans See 'Red Flags' at Home.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

LEVERETT, Mass. — Paula Green has spent much of her life working on conflicts abroad. In places like Bosnia, Rwanda and Myanmar, Dr. Green, an American psychologist, brings together survivors of war, helping them see past their differences so they can live with one another again.

But recently, she began seeing some warning signs in the United States, flashes of social distress that she recognized from her work abroad, and after 29 years of peacemaking in other places, she decided to turn her lens on her own society.

“People are making up stories about ‘the other’ — Muslims, Trump voters, whoever ‘the other’ is,” she said. “‘They don’t have the values that we have. They don’t behave like we do. They are not nice. They are evil.’”

She added: “That’s dehumanization. And when it spreads, it can be very hard to correct.”

Dr. Green is now among a growing group of conflict resolution experts who are turning their focus on the United States, a country that some have never worked on. They are gathering groups in schools and community centers to apply their skills to help a country — this time their own — where they see troubling trends.

They point to dehumanizing political rhetoric — for example President Trump referring to the media as “enemies of the people,” or to a caravan of migrants in Mexico as riddled with criminals and “unknown Middle Easterners.”

Political violence has flared: A gunman killed worshipers in a Pittsburgh synagogue in October after ranting about a refugee agency. That same week, an outspoken supporter of Mr. Trump sent pipe bombs to a dozen of the president’s critics. In 2017, an Illinois man steeped in left-wing politics shot four people at a Congressional baseball practice.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/they-have-worked-on-conflicts-overseas-now-these-americans-see-red-flags-at-home/ar-BBT9lK4?li=BBnbcA1

Part of me agrees with her but some of her rhetoric seems like "both-siderism."

[Downtown Hound]

1. Not saying she doesn't have a good understanding of the nature of conflict

But, yes, there's a ton of both siderism bullshit in her analysis. The thing she doesn't get is that sometimes there actually is one side that is behaving totally irrationally, aggressively, inhumanely, and insanely, and in this case it is not the left. We're dealing with opponents that are hell bent on denying us good access to health care, livable wages, clean and fair elections, selling our country out the the Russians and God knows who else, and threatening our future by destroying our environment.

There is a tendency among liberals and those of the peace making disposition to downplay or even deny negative or oppressive actions committed by one side in favor of recognizing our "common humanity." So when one side responds to overt aggression with defensive aggression and characterizing of their own, suddenly it's "both sides" that are doing it.

But what I would say to her is that when you're faced with a movement that's hell bent on committing suicide and taking us all along on that ride whether we want to go or not, the problem isn't both sides. And if we want to attain lasing peace and stability, the other side needs to learn to grow up and act like responsible human beings.

[myohmy2]

2. well...

" “That’s dehumanization. And when it spreads, it can be very hard to correct.” "

...if MAGA evil is allowed to go unchecked, that too can be very hard to correct...

...most people understand true evil when they see it...so

...we must rally good people of good conscience everywhere, by any means necessary, before it's too late...

...when fighting true evil, we may have to break a few eggs to make an omelette…

...we ignore true evil at our own peril...

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. All sides engage in dehumanization.

[UniteFightBack]

4. That's true...kinda like what we say about Republiscums.