It seems as if there's a much bigger over-arching problem at play here, one that greatly eclipses the little nuanced details like who put her hand on the white kid's chest and whether that constitutes a gentle shove or not, etc...and that is that, increasingly, it seems as if we are encamped into groups who no longer even share a common reality.
Two groups used to, not that long ago, perhaps argue about causes of [given, agreed-upon thing in reality that happened] but it was mutually agreed upon that, at least, the thing in question really happened. The model was more like:
Group A (having just watched footage of a group of black youths setting fire to a police car) might've said: "The reason that those black kids set fire to a police car is because, um, they're all rowdy, and they live like animals and there oughta be a law."
Group B (having just watched footage of a group of black youths setting fire to a police car) might've said: "The reason that those black kids set fire to a police car is because, um, they're oppressed, and they're bringing attention to systemic inequities at the hands of police, and if they were white, it'd have just been 'boys being boys'."
Both sides could have (and would have) had bones to pick over the other group's representation (especially in my overly stereotypical examples, chosen simply for contrast), but...they'd both have agreed that a group of black youths burned a police car.
They'd have argued endlessly over WHY it happened. Argued endlessly about WHAT the penalties should be. About WHO is culpable for the damages. But they'd have shared a reality over what did happen.
But today, one group sees a violent mob smashing their way into the Capitol looking to hang a sitting Vice President, and the other group sees a group of tourists. Sees "legitimate political discourse" happening. Sees patriots, eager to set things right.
One group sees a Minnesota cop kneeing a prone man in the back and neck over objections that he can't breathe until he finally dies, and the other group sees a fat loser dying of a Fentanyl overdose.
We've been told, for instance, that the Capitol rioters weren't even Trump supporters--they were really BLM agitators.
We've been told that they weren't armed. We've been told that it wasn't an insurrection; wasn't really a coup attempt.
Nearly half of the population of the U.S. is still incensed that an election was stolen, despite no election having been stolen.
I'd argue that our differences have eclipsed mere alternative viewpoints regarding the same, shared reality, and we now have (al least two) completely different realities, making reconciliation between them literally impossible.
