The American Rivalry: Media's Golden Ticket to Sales and Deception

One of America's favorite past times of all time is American Football and sports in general. We love to attach ourselves to our Home Team and essentially become one. We love to have a rival whom we despise and we LOVE to win continuously against that rival. For me, Clemson is my team and my ride or die! I love that College and I love everything about it from the people, the values, and of course the sports teams. Our rival, is none other than the ugly kicking chickens (USC Gamecocks). Growing up a Clemson fan, I have developed a HATE for all things burgundy and black. Honestly it is appalling to see. I LOVE the color orange and purple though and when I see it, it just makes me feel at home. I will always say I was born a Clemson fan which is 100% true. However, the one thing I was not born as was a Democrat, Libertarian or Liberal. If anything I was raised as a Conservative. So why the long introduction about rivalries? Well to understand America's Rivalry teams, you have to find a rivalry you are truly engulfed in.

America's teams have become the Democrats vs. the Republicans and it is a BITTER rivalry. The rivalry may even be worse than your typical sports rivalry as the extreme fans on each side will NEVER succumb to the other side's perspectives. This is what we have created. We have created a democracy that is not a true democracy, it has become more of a rivalry where any other party is obsolete.

So I think I have explained my thought process and the main reason I wanted to write this article. I believe we are all being brainwashed. I have been guilty of reposting nonsense but I do try really hard to determine what is fact and what is not. The Media profits from hate and rivalry. Love and Teamwork does not sell anything at the end of the day. All major corporations have rivals and the media loves that. Therefore, America's biggest rivalry is Republicans vs Democrats. It has gotten so bad that when people debate, they honestly agree but have NO IDEA they agree. They resort to name calling as opposed to discussing the issues. I cannot post anything without someone saying that is a Libtard comment or that is a Conservative outlook.

A good example is the Second Amendment argument. While there are some extreme Liberals who want to ban guns; I do not believe that is the agenda. When the left says gun control the right says enforce our laws. Ummm... THAT IS THE EXACT SAME STATEMENT. Gun Control is it the enforcement of laws. The problem is we do a poor job of enforcement and we are also poor at articulating requirements. Instead of focusing on General Laws enforced throughout the entire United States. We focus on whether or not we are "banning" guns. The debate we should have is the utilization and law enforcement across state borders which should be universal to help inhibit "illegal" guns. I do not believe anyone Republican or Democrat disagrees for the utilization of background checks and mental health checks for legal gun ownership yet here we are still arguing about agreeing. How does that happen? Media verbiage; the way we word phrases can change anything from conservative to liberal and/or promote fear.

So this is obviously one of many topics in which play on words affects our brains and how we react. Media uses this and pits Republicans against Democrats. It is a win-win for them as negative media is more profitable. That is a fact. The reason a TV Show personality won the Presidential Election has absolutely nothing to do with qualifications or advancing America but more so with America's understanding of politics and love for competition. Donald Trump trash talked opponents and yes all of them have some trash talking but Donald is definitely the best at trash talking whether what he says is true or not. Trump is not different than any other rich politician. He is just as greedy as any of them. However, he does understand how to work the media outlets and he does understand that a majority of Americans are uneducated and do not truly understand how politics work. So when you have a politician promoting solutions using "big words" versus a guy who repeats phrases or catch lines; well you lose because advertising teaches you to utilize catch phrases and slogans.

People have become illiterate Media drones. The internet and social media has made us a bunch of Meme regurgitating zombies with a general lack of education. Higher education has become so expensive that most people opt out of going. We are not learning anymore. We invest more money into negative programs then we do positive programs. The amount of money we invest in public education is minimal to what we invest in prisoner education. WHY?

If we really look into politics, the politicians are all corrupt and all of them are rich. When we have someone who is trying to help the economy or the people, there is always push back from those in Congress, The House, and the Senate. If we help the middle class, we hurt the upper class. The people who make all the decisions about America are the "Upper Class." That is our problem and the media deflects from it by making it a rivalry between Democrats and Republicans instead of putting the ideas out there with no bias.

As a South Carolinian, a majority of the population is Republican. Therefore, that is what I grew up on. There were many things that I truly believed in at the time because that is what I grew up knowing. One example would be racism; the outside world sees the South as racist. Well I grew up with racism and had NO IDEA. My mom was born and raised in Brazil but she is Japanese and has a Portuguese accent. My dad is Caucasian but is fluent in Portuguese. If you look at me and my sisters, no one can ever guess our ethnicity. Growing up I was called the N Word, Wetback, Mexican, White Girl, pretty much every word and derogatory word known to describe different races. At the time it was frustrating but I always just brushed it off and then it became a game for people to guess my ethnicity (not my race). Growing up it was frowned upon for interracial dating. YES, it was! Crazy, right? My own grandma didn't accept me. With that being said, as kids we were taught that this is normal and that also as women, we just have to conform to what society wants. Do I think people are racist on purpose? No not necessarily but I also think they are ignorant and have no idea what they are saying sometimes. I have been guilty of that as well. It took me moving away from home and living in other states and countries to realize that these perceptions are not real. When you move away it is amazing what you can clearly see happening and what is not normal.

Another topic is of course "GUNS" which I plan to go more in depth with this later because it is one of the best examples to explain how the Media works against us. I grew up shooting guns. My dad has a safe full of them. Are they fun to shoot, heck yea! Do I need it for protection, eh maybe in the woods against a bear. Otherwise, I am not sure how safe it is unless I sleep with it under my pillow (and for me, that is not happening). Growing up in the South, you really think nothing of it when someone goes to the hospital because they accidently shot themselves or someone else. It is literally something that is "normal." It can be deemed as kids being dumb. I had a high school friend that had a BB permanently lodged in her brain (what she told me) because her brothers thought it would be funny to shoot BB guns at her. Again, my thought then was; Wow they are idiots. Nothing out of the ordinary. A few years back, one of our high school teachers was murdered by his neighbor. If I go to the flea market, I can purchase a rifle without registering it. In fact I did not even know there were laws for guns until I moved away. When I left SC though, I saw the need for the enforcement of gun laws and background checks. It makes sense but if you did a background check on some people in my hometown, they are definitely not passing.

Ultimately, I joined the Navy and moved out. Joining the military in the South is the most American thing you can do. That I still believe. However, it opened my eyes. I started to look at the "other side's" views and honestly it made more sense. I will not say I started to shift to Democrat/Libertarian when I joined the Navy but more so before when I started College. As a science major, I love being able to research concepts and trying to understand the inner workings of things. That is where I really started to dissect American Politics.

We have been so consumed by "our" party's agenda that we often forget what is the people's agenda? I have been blasted for my Liberal views and my Conservative views but to solve our Nation's problems, it takes a healthy mixture of both. As of right now, that does not exist. The Republicans own the majority vote for everything and therefore should control the agenda, yet we still cannot "get anything done." How does that make any sense? The reason is money and always will be money.

If we follow where the money is, politicians' agendas are always aligned with their pockets regardless of party. While the Democratic Party is wildly ostracized by the Republican Party, there are many ideas and policies that are for the people, HOWEVER there are also loop holes in the policies that fill pockets as well. This is where our party system should work together to help guard against this. My personal opinion is that the Republican Party has completely come out of its shell as a supporter of the elite but we just assume that if the elite are making more money then the middle class should. In the words of Donald Trump, WRONG. If there is anything I have learned, it is that instant gratification normally does not help you in the long run. Democrats do this as well with benefits. ACA was a good example of this. While ACA was and is NEEDED; it could have been written better if both parties worked together as opposed to against. ACA had flaws because the parties refused to work together on it.

There was a study done that showed Republican and Democratic brains are completely different. They light up differently when activated on political topics. This is amazing to think about and just proves that we are raised to think a specific way. It takes practice and exercise of the brain to shift to understanding other ideas.

So in conclusion, I just want to ask all of my friends and family to take a step back and truly look at your values. Go back to your roots, education. Just because it is a liberal or conservative idea, does not always mean it is wrong. Conservative values can be beneficial in law enforcement and foreign policy. Liberal values always hold benefits for what should be our social norms and finance. BUT, the best is when both parties play and that there is a middle ground from both. We can not be a Country of extremists, which is what we are becoming. Extreme Liberal or Extreme Conservative. Stop reposting memes and post your opinions and how you came to that conclusion. Have a conversation on topic, not what ifs and well this is what happened in the past. We all need to come together and work toward the future.

Get involved with your community! Get involved with politics! Go and VOTE! and make sure that actual people are voted into these positions of power as opposed to political party puppets. Always remember that the Republican and Democratic Party are so powerful they own networks and that even the average joe has to play politics to survive BUT what is the long game? Does it benefit our Society (Not just you) and what happens in the long run, not now? What have they accomplished for society in their careers (THIS IS KEY!)? That is how you get past the media nonsense.

These are the questions I ask myself when looking at candidates. Take their names off and look at their policies and agendas. GO VOTE!

Keep your rivalry mentality anchored in sports not politics. We should all be a part of one team and that team is AMERICA!