Writing Project 2 First Draft

By: Cole Kotran

10/10/23

Introduction

Political Polarization in America

Throughout history, issues that arise in America have been known to create
disagreements between people that normally end with more issues. In today’s day and age,
with the media being our source to what is happening around the world, misinformation is
being spread everywhere and it is hard to distinguish what is true and false. With everyone
having their own mixed opinions on varieties of issues based on what they might have seen
online or personally experienced, it is much easier for people to feel resentment towards
others who disagree with what they believe in. This is directly impacting relationships with
people who might not agree politically. Nowadays, it seems like political parties want to
disagree with everything that opposing parties believe in, not because it makes sense, but
because it is coming from an opposing group. These disagreements can lead to large-scale
violence, such as organized crime and even wars. It is crucially important that Americans realize
the damage that is being done to the country by dividing each other. There isn’t an issue with
having different opinions, but when it turns into conflict between the two sides, that is where
the problem arises. America was built on several beliefs, one of them being that people can feel
however they want to feel and shouldn’t be criticized for it in anyway. Unfortunately, now
people are being criticized for even speaking against certain groups and are silenced with the
threat of being “cancelled” on social media. If this is happening to people, how can they even
associate themselves with people who side with the group that is actively fighting against them.
This goes to show why, as a country, we need to take a step back and realize that at the end of
the day, no one is correct, and there doesn’t need to be violence as a reaction to someone’s
opinion, because it really isn’t important.

Methods

I decided to base my research around the social media platforms, YouTube and Reddit.
On YouTube, I searched for videos pertaining to my topic, in order to analyze the discourse in
the comment section threads. I found my sources by using words such as “polarization”, and
“Democrat”, to find information on specific parts on my topic. I took notes on how people
responded to others’ controversial opinions while also trying to figure out where they stand
politically. His helps draw a line between the type of people that enact violence as a result of
political debate, and those who don’t. I also made it a point to determine how many people are
aware of the divide in America, what caused it, and what it is affecting. On Reddit, I got most of
my information from the subreddits r/politics, r/liberal, and r/conservative. I used these search
filters to find different types of group discussions to see if I could find the differences between
them, as well as the similarities. These subreddits all have hundreds of thousands of members,
so there is no shortage of discourse to analyze among them. I also applied my knowledge to
formulate opinions on some discourses as well. It was a goal to provide a wide variety of
viewpoints, so I could tie them all together to strengthen my argument.

Findings

I found plenty of discourse to work with across both YouTube and Reddit. I found people
from all sides of the political spectrum discussing issues and even criticizing people on the other
side of the spectrum, usually as a scapegoat. There was one quote I found quite interesting, it
was “Everything’s bigger in Texas, including a giant middle finger to the leftists who threw open
our borders.” This is a reaction to a statement saying that Texas sent fifty thousand immigrants
to Democrat run cities. The person that responded to this isn’t looking for a way to fix the issue,
but instead is attacking an entire group of people they feel is responsible for the immigration
problem. This is a prime example of a small act of violence towards the democrats because of
an issue. It can be assumed that bigger issues can create worse responses, meaning physical
violence. This has been a result of many political disputes over the years, and it is only getting
worse because of social media. Not including my online platform sources, my other findings
provide plenty of information to back up the behavior that I am analyzing. I was able to find
how political polarization has affected relationships between people and created a divide
between people that care about each other. I was able to find how politics has had an impact
on the health of some people and how it is getting worse as time goes on. I also found sources
on how we can limit the damages of this divide as a society which I view as very important. Not
to mention the information I found on the media’s part in all of this and how future generations
rely on the media because it is all they know. Most importantly I found a source on how most
people see political polarization as an issue, and it is just the extremists that ruin it for
everybody. If everyone knew this, we would have societal awareness of this issue and have a
much better chance of fixing it before it is too late.

Conclusion
 All in all, there is an expanding issue in America, and people are realizing it now. When
times get hard for our country, we need to operate as a single unit, or we will fall apart. With all
my findings, it is no surprise that we are making our situation worse by essentially accepting our
fate and living how we are told. Something needs to change, or the future generations of this
country are going to be born into an America that our ancestors would laugh at. There are steps
that can be taken to solve this issue, it is just a matter of initiative. A good start would be to
stop playing the blame game. It helps no one and never gets things in the right direction.
People need to start being more selfless and open-minded, in order to be able to critically think
for themselves, not just think what they are told. If enough people are willing to attempt to
take action, maybe our children won’t have to grow up in a third-world country.