Loving the conversation here. The OP’s post was very reminiscent of a blog I found and liked (which sadly now seems to be defunct) called The Exit Network and one of the things they talked about repeatedly was the Conflict Machine. Like the War Machine that gave rise to the Military-Industrial Complex that before the success of economic sanctions threatened to throw the world in to constant conflict even more than it has (which, let’s be real, is A LOT), the Conflict Machine gave rise to the Political-Industrial Complex of buying opinion. People are made to feel like winners and losers for the domination and profit of a few people who put on a face of opposition. I do believe that many of these people believe what they say, so I don’t mean this in the conspiratorial way that everyone is lying all of the time, but that the incentives give rise to the behaviors.
A lot of important policy points have been brought up here. One thing that I would underline from what OP is saying is that not only does it not matter that we have ideological differences but for the vision we’re fighting for, as the ideal of democracy seemed in the minds of its forefamilies at the time, it’s actually good. A diversity of opinions exposes you to all of the possibilities of what you can accomplish. However, unlike the state apparatus which requires you to be on that cycle’s winning side of the Conflict Machine, there would be nothing in our society stopping you from enacting what you believe is right. Do you believe that public transit is important and that people should pay for it? Great, pay for it. Do you believe that the contribution of oil to climate change is overblown and meeting immediate energy needs is more important? Good, do that. Do you think that these oil companies need economic incentives to find alternative energy sources? Good, do that. We may have different ideologies like we all today have different products, but when I see your computer is different than mine, I’m going to ask you why you like it so much, and what it does that mine doesn’t and vice versa and that sharing of information helps to create better products. Obviously I bring a certain viewpoint to that but I think any viewpoint, both capitalists and communists value innovation and “domestic tranquility” (albeit our definition of domestic is different) but they have diverse views on how to achieve it. The Conflict Machine wants us to believe that we should fight in this case but the truth is that we don’t need to. As Epictetus, who I think knew a great deal about true freedom, once said, “Freedom is the only worthy goal in life and the goal is won by disregarding the things which lie beyond our control.” We can’t control the state or the conflict machine or the opinions of others, but we can control ourselves, and build societies that work in the ways we see as valuable. To that end, I will now shamelessly promote the post I made on building a social experiment to get started, haha.