One of my best friends became a neonazi years ago. I don't live in that village anymore, but every 3 years I manage to meet him at some party or so. He has a extremely clear (and sadly utterly fantasized) image of my political goals and ideas. One of my goals is apparently to introduce muslim Sharia law nationwide, although I never ever mentioned anything about Sharia law to him.
It isreally hard to speak with him about anything at all, because he always seems to "know" what my opinion is, to the point of misrepresentation, while I am more or less just curious what he wants. What he says is usally a progression of: "I just want the foreigners to respect the rules!", "Deport the foreigners!" or "Shoot the foreigners!", depending on how many beers we are in. The whole thing is spiked with unsolicited explainations why liberal ideas "like mine" (although I am usually more on the realistic side) will never work and it sometimes feels he is telling this more to himself than to me.
This is rightwing Austria, his grandfather was a Nazi and this is where the discourse in the US is moving as well.
Are we really so polarized? Are hundreds of millions so gung-ho to flock away from the center? Can the whole American situation be approximately summed up, statistically, by these two exaggerated caricatures?
It seems that’s the tone of the article. Maybe it’s right, maybe it’s wrong, but either way I would hope that the real situation is more nuanced than that.
Maybe the situation on the ground really is that bad in some places. I don’t leave my house in the US much other than to fly out of the country, and only know what I read online about it. Can someone with direct experiences in these places shed some more light?