Divided We Fall

by Thomas Smith | Posted on
Last week, I conducted a test on Facebook. I tried to roll the clock back a few years. Could I resume doing something I used to do love, then eventually despised, but now gain some sort of fulfillment from it all these years later?
 
For the most part, I stopped posting political stuff on Facebook on November 9, 2016—nine years ago. My posts back then weren’t all button-pushers. Many, I thought, would be wholesome—just general interest stuff. But I admittedly loved pushing buttons. I sat in a target-rich environment because I’d long since given up on both major political parties in this country.
 
Whacky stuff happening on the right?  Call it out.
Whacky stuff happening on the left? Call it out.
 
An equal opportunity agitator. I could freely offer my thoughts without worrying I’d be banished from the tribe. I left them before they could excommunicate me. I admit that I wasn’t balanced with my critiques. I was more critical of the party I’d forever belonged to than the one I’d never joined. Bill and Hillary Clinton were my favorite subjects. To this day, I keep seeing pictures of Billy in the news.  If he’s leading a party—or attending a “party,” I want no part of the party.
 
Eventually—just as writing the previous paragraph, it felt dirty.  Unproductive. Divisive. Useless. Soul-sucking.
 
I stopped. Stayed quiet.
 
Last week, I messed up. I started again. I was sharing my impactless, never to move the needle, thoughts. But it was intentional—not an unhinged flurry of vitriol.
 
In recent days, I posted about the failed, corrupt, incompetent state government of Minnesota, yet another terror event—the “religion of peace” sure does kill a lot of people. I lit the fuse leading to Donald Trump—his 3rd-grade playground-bully-caliber comments about Rob Reiner needed to be called out. Then there’s the abomination that is higher education in 2025. I didn’t write much about that—I let a  young man named Alex Shieh, a student attending the formerly prestigious Brown University speak for me. He nailed it—heck of a speech. 
 
One surprised person wrote: ’Tom, you never write about politics.”
 
This was all a test. A test for me—not for you.
 
I’ve recently been asked by multiple people from varying perspectives to write more about current events.  Last week, I dipped my toes back into that water. A snapping turtle was there to greet me.
 
The test was simple:
  1. Is it possible to have fun while posting on Facebook about “news” and current events?
  2. Can I derive any worthwhile pleasure from this?
  3. Is this the best way to spend my time?
  4. Could anything I write make people respond with things like:  “I’ve never thought of it that way,” or “maybe I’ve been too locked down on my support for my side,” or “hey, now that you mention it,” or “my” politician did the same miserable thing,” or, the one expression I most wanted to hear:  “wrong is wrong—even when my side is doing it.”
The answers were consistent:
  1. No.
  2. No.
  3. No.
  4. Heck no. 

You Can’t Go Back…or can you?

Nine years ago, I’d (mostly) stopped being divisive. I immediately learned the divisiveness wasn’t my fault.  It continued without me. Others enthusiastically filled the void. Sometimes I wondered whether Facebook instituted a rewards program for negative posts.
 

“Post five or more negative posts today and get a free hot dog at Sonic!”

They’d quickly run out of hot dogs if the former version of me were still in the game.
 
I thought, what the heck, I’ll post a few things and see how it goes. Predictably, the two Trump posts turned into a toxic pile of tension in the Comments section.
 
That wasn’t fun.
 
But I asked myself another question:  Is there merit to sharing stories that people might not be aware of?
 
Probably, I thought.  
 
Is Tom suggesting that he alone is aware of everything but nobody else is?  🙂
 
Due to the absolute lack of posts regarding the corruption and fraud that has overtaken my home state of Minnesota, I was wondering: “Do they even know what’s going on? If  they do, why are they so quiet out here where they are still posting other political stuff.”
 
But I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they didn’t know.
 
This morning, I did an AI search.  “Please show me all stories from the StarTribune in 2025 regarding fraud in Minnesota. As expected, the state’s once-dominant news source largely ignored the topic until December, when the work of other news organizations and whistleblowers embarrassed them into actually doing their job—you know—the “news” part of newspaper.  Up until this month, they’ve remained entrenched in their reprehensible path of advocacy for one political party over the other while protecting the disgraceful Tim Walz—and a few others named Ellison, Omar, Moriarity, etc.
 
Shockingly—or not really—the StarTribune also failed to comprehensively report on the crime and other problems under the jurisdiction of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. But hey, I have to be a better person now than I was back then. I have to offer something positive.  To their credit, this week the StarTrib actually reported the following:
 
“Public urination and defecation on the streets of downtown Minneapolis has gotten so bad, the Minneapolis Downtown Council has a public map tracking every instance where a member, business, calls and crews are deployed to wash or scoop it up.”
 
Hey, feeble Mayor Frey—are those acts included in the “vibrant” part of Minneapolis you’re always talking about?
 
As much as it pains me to give that newspaper credit for anything, I gotta’ give them immense credit for one of the best news story headlines of all time:

“Minneapolis City Council looks to solve No. 1 problem downtown: Where to go No. 2”

They should have consulted the America’s bathroom expert—Timmy Walz. Just spitballing here, but perhaps part of the problem is that so many businesses have locked their doors and departed downtown Minneapolis.
 
Meanwhile, in the ultimate “you’ve got to be kidding me” headline, the previous job of the StarTribune’s CEO, Steve Grove, was as a member of Tim Walz’s cabinet. That’s as conflicting of a conflict of interest as you can devise.
 
So, media organizations can, in fact, keep people in the dark.  Maybe a bunch of people weren’t aware of the multi-billion-dollar fraud story, even though other media outlets had been reporting it for several years.
 
The Denver Post recently offered a two-year subscription for two dollars. Two years. Two dollars. That’s how desperate they’ve become. Times are tough for newspapers. Perhaps times would be less tough if they actually did their jobs. I know — that’s a bit too simplistic—the internet changed everything, but the essence of the sentiment stands.
 
Calling out both sides—holding both sides accountable, formerly known as legitimate journalism, has “The Free Press” thriving.  The StarTribune and Denver Post could have taken that same tack, but waved goodbye as that ship sailed far beyond the horizon. Both publications deserve to disappear as soon as possible. Let legitimate journalists take their place.

Fair and Balanced

Before sharing stories last week, I thought the only way to get any traction—or happiness, was to avoid protecting either side.  Now, that I’ve condemned the left, how about the right?

Real news organizations should make you feel uncomfortable at times—maybe rattle your cage.  Obviously, I’m not referring to the aforementioned newspapers.  I’m talking about Bari Weiss, founder of The Free Press and now the head of CBS News. I knew the left had radically changed.  I was sitting there in the middle thinking the right hadn’t similarly devolved.  A few months ago, her team at TheFP reported on a rapidly growing, abhorent, disturbing movement now gaining significant traction on the right side of the divide.

They are called “Groypers.”

What?

Hey, Grok - tell me about the “groypers” - is this real?

Sure thing, Tom.

“The Groypers, also known as the Groyper Army, are a loosely organized far-right activist network primarily consisting of young online followers of American political commentator Nick Fuentes. They emerged prominently around 2019 as a splinter from the broader alt-right movement, positioning themselves as more extreme critics of mainstream conservatism.

Groypers promote white nationalism, Christian nationalism, antisemitism (including Holocaust denial), anti-immigration views, opposition to LGBTQ+ rights, and misogyny. They criticize establishment conservatives (dubbed “Conservative Inc.”) for being too moderate, especially on issues like U.S. support for Israel, demographics, and cultural changes. Fuentes, their central figure, hosts the “America First” livestream and organizes events like the America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC).

In 2019, they gained notoriety during the “Groyper War,” where followers disrupted events by figures like Charlie Kirk (Turning Point USA), Donald Trump Jr., and Ben Shapiro with provocative questions on race, Israel, and immigration. Some Groypers participated in the January 6, 2021, Capitol events and Stop the Steal rallies.”

 

** Grok is an artificial intelligence tool. **

Good grief. I’ve since listened to segments of speeches from Nick Fuentes. My thoughts?

He’s nuts.

I asked AI if he’s a holocaust denier. Here’s part of the response:

  • He has repeatedly questioned the scale and mechanisms of the Holocaust, including a notorious 2019 livestream where he used a crude analogy comparing the murder of 6 million Jews to “baking 6 million cookies” in ovens, concluding that “the math doesn’t add up” and suggesting only 200,000–300,000 victims (a common denial trope).
  • In other streams, he has stated things like “I think the Holocaust is exaggerated,” questioned the use of gas chambers (“I don’t buy that gas chambers were used”), and praised Adolf Hitler as “awesome” or “fucking cool.”

Nick Fuentes has more than a million social media followers. His comments about the holocaust are incomprehensible. How can this possibly gain traction?  And there’s the problem—it actually can gain traction. 

Fox News used to regularly have Charles Krauthammer on their programming so he could share his thoughts.  Krauthammer was wicked smart and definitely a conservative but he OFTEN called out the Republicans.  I respected his approach. Unfortunately, Charles died in 2018.  I’ve rarely watched Fox News since.

While watching him, I was seeing a lot of Tucker Carlson.  Back then, I thought he was pretty good—sharp, a good communicator—I trusted him. I figured he’d be around a long time.  In the years since Krauthammer died and I stopped watching Fox, Tucker has apparently drifted further right, giving Fuentes a stage for an interview with Carlson’s large audience—20 million views. I didn’t know that until this week.

Finding media outlets or individuals you can trust is becoming increasingly difficult.

So, there.  It’s actually humanly possible to illustrate problems on the left and the right—and my favorite target in recent years—the media.

How did we get here?  Easy.  First and foremost, the media’s intentional, relentless efforts to maintain ignorance about the side they represent while relentlessly demonizing the other side. Then give them all a User Name and Password and the URL for Facebook.

My Birth Defects

I was born with two incurable problems:
  1. I’m colorblind
  2. I’ve always had this unexplainable need to be heard. I’ve always believed everyone wants—maybe even needs—to know what I’m thinking.  And, obviously, I strut around town knowing that I’m the only one who is always right.
This morning, I told my ego that all of these traits are ridiculous and detrimental to my peaceful existence in modern society.
 
My ego hasn’t talked-back since I finished my toast.
 
In its silence, I’ve been asking myself what difference my thoughts make to anyone?  Mr. Beast has the power to influence. I don’t. Yes, to the unhip out there, there’s a social media guy known as Mr. Beast. He has over 100 million followers.  I have seven or eight. After this story, I’ll probably have four, maybe three. I can bark at the moon all night and awaken no one. My thoughts don’t matter.
 
(Yet, Tom keeps typing).
 
I knew the sharks would circle their prey when I threw a sentence full of Trump chum in the water. On the flipside, I was extremely disappointed when only six people engaged with my post condemning Hamas and the ice-age mentality of the Palestinians on display yet again on a beach in Australia, like for the zillionth time. 
 
The other posts resonated exactly as I expected.  The responses and the emotions I felt led me to conclude that this little experiment proved that not much has changed in the nine years since I went into political hibernation.

Where do I stand politically?  

I’m a 1994 Democrat.  In 2025, that makes me “far right,” a racist, extremist, climate denier, election denier, insurrectionist, white supremacist, Islamophobe, Nazi, fascist, misogynist, transphobe, Christian nationalist (even though I’m not religious), homophobe (even though I support gay marriage and adoption), or settler-colonialist (even though my grandfather’s grandfather was a full-blooded Ojibwe/Anishinaabe native American).

I plead guilty to being one of those things but I’d name it differently.

Modern leftists worshipping at the alter of Identity Politics insist I’m all of those things. Heck, they say that even Math is racist.  Yes, Mathematics.

MATH!

This is all so tiresome.

Ultimately, the label fitting me best is: “Frustrated and Concerned.”

United We Stand..err Stood

That whole “United We Stand” thing would be fun to try again, huh?
 
A lot of people say Facebook sucks. I disagree. The Facebook platform is better than ever.  It’s a wonder of technology with 3 billion active monthly users all capable of connecting people from anywhere on the planet. It’s a fantastic piece of software.
 
Facebook isn’t the problem. We, the people, are the problem. Facebook only exposed that reality. But we always have something or someone to blame.
 
Social media actually serves a useful purpose. I’m aware of things I’d never, ever been aware of if I relied solely on NBC or the World Book Encyclopedia. The information shared on social media isn’t all bad.  There’s inspirational, positive stuff out there.  But all-to-often, we demonize social media while using it to demonize our neighbors.
 
Not to let Facebook completely off the hook, they know how easily we can be manipulated. Their algorithms cleverly, or sinisterly, lure us into the mind numbing bottomless pits of groupthink. “X” does it too—don’t ever look at the “For You” category of that application (which I love) unless you want to spiral into the abyss where no oxygen remains..
 
“We the people” have taken me somewhere I never thought I’d go.
 
During my childhood, I learned about the “Civil War.” Who named that damn thing? There was nothing civil about it. But I digress. The Civil War was always presented as past tense.  Never did I imagine I’d hear those two words presented as a legitimate future possibility.
 
Now, I’m hearing those words; reading those words.
 
I’m old enough to remember when we looked outward—across the oceans, to identify our enemies. Now, we look across the street:
 
“Are they flying that darn American flag again today?!?!?”
 
Our real enemies love that we can’t tolerate each other. We do their divide-and-conquer work for them. 
 
United?
 
Once upon a time, we were. The last time was at 8:47 am on September 11, 2001.  A minute earlier a plane hijacked by those folks from the religion of peace slammed into the World Trade Center.
 
United, we stood.  All of us.
 
Twenty four years later, look at us. It only took 24 years to devolve to this place where we think our arch-enemy lives down the street wearing a red hat or rainbow tshirt. Neither are the greatest threat to our country, folks.
 
Divided, we will indeed fall.
 
What are we going to look like in 2049?  Barring an incomprehensible medical breakthrough, I won’t know. I’ll be dead.
 
Heaven help the rest of you.
 
My new acquaintances in Canadian, Texas exemplified that uniting—celebrating each other—is still possible. Some of the folks in that gymnasium vote for Republicans.  Some vote for Democrats. It was a room full of different ethnicities.  Yet, they set all that stuff aside and celebrated together. 
 
I’m desperate to see more unity like that. Therefore, I repeatedly shared the video of the pep fest in Canadian. I wish I had the power to force everyone in the country to watch it once or four times, from beginning to end. Then request that everyone in this country say something nice about someone who doesn’t look or think like them.
 
Unfortunately, I’m not Mr. Beast.
 
So, while it’s been interesting to select a few diverse topics to post about and see the reactions, I wouldn’t characterize it as “fun.”  It wasn’t rewarding. It wasn’t productive. I’ll never change anyone’s mind on anything.  So, why bother trying?
 
I’ll crawl back into the cave—aka Starbucks, and focus on positive stuff like football fields, hockey rinks, and high school students helping 95-year olds. That story is forthcoming.
 
I’ll leave the rest to you.

No Fun

I understand anger. I understand the need to vent. We all see things differently based on our life experiences and current realities. I’m no better than you. On Monday night into Tuesday morning, I was doom-scrolling for updates related to the latest religion-of-peace massacre. I closed the lid of my laptop after confirming I am indeed capable of hate. 

 
I wondered if our exchanges regarding current events could be civil and productive regardless of which side of the divide we’re on. It didn’t work.  We can’t seem to admit that “wrong is wrong” regardless whether the culprit on our side or theirs. On the flip side, why can’t we admit “she’s right” or “he’s right” if they are on the other side.
 
But maybe, just maybe, the problem was with the facilitator, right? Maybe it’s me. Maybe a different approach would work. I’ve thought of other approaches—maybe even building a different website.  But how far would that get?
 
Today is Festivus. I have as many grievances to settle as anyone but I’ll keep the rest of them private.  What purpose does it serve to constantly push buttons out here (he writes after he pushed numerous buttons out here)?
 
When I drift off to sleep at night and when I wake up each morning, I’ll try to start and end my days with positive recollections of the goodness I’ve witnessed. Eventually, each of those inspirational memories will fade. I’ll need more stories of positive unity. They are hard to find, but they are out there.
 
Meanwhile, on Facebook, I’ll return to just wishing everyone happy birthday, or happy anniversary, clicking “Like” on your travel pics, or clicking the heart icon if you share a picture of your dog.  Anything beyond that no longer seems to be productive. 
 
The video below provides some interesting perspective regarding the act of remaining silent.
 
 
That’s all folks.
 
Carry on.

About the author

Just a guy who loves sports, travel, food, and writing. I've lived in Two Harbors, MN, Minneapolis, Fort Worth, and my current location of Denver. Trying to visit every sports venue on the planet before I die.

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Comments

  1. Thanks for writing. I started following your posts way back there. I appreciate the challenge to learn more and act more.

    Reply

    1. Thank you Shari. Relatively speaking, I intentionally checked out of this stuff for quite a while—primarily to try to preserve whatever mental health I had left. The problem is that there’s some big stuff going on in our world. It’s not a great plan to ignore it, or stay quiet. But, how can any of us make a difference?

      Reply

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