It's difficult to say, in simple terms, what has been troubling me. A part of the difficulty is that what I observe is a continuation of how things have been. Based on nothing more than one or a few aspects of who people are, they see others who don't share these properties as being the enemy, or at least "other".
The battles we're currently fighting have been fought many times throughout history, and nothing has been resolved. It's common for one group to shame another for perceived complicity in the oppression and resultant suffering of the former group. Employing "othering" like this reaches its peak in seeing one group as having an inherently greater capacity to commit evil acts. Ironically, this is often done in the pursuit of a reduction in the prevalence of intolerance and bigotry.
If all we manage is to replace one form of bigotry and intolerance with another, then we should acknowledge that the problem may not be with what is happening in the outer world, but within us.
Certain movements treat us not as humans, but as sub-categorisations of humanity. This is deeply upsetting to me, and I have to acknowledge that this upset has the potential to express itself in emotional reasoning. Nevertheless, the trend seems to be toward division, blame, shame and "othering". There are those who benefit from this division, but I'd suggest that it is certainly not in the interests of humanity more generally.
The language being used right now, across the political spectrum, troubles me. I've tried to use language that is non-divisive in this piece, but apologise if some has slipped through. It's probable that I am as unaware of my bias as anyone. My bias, in my view, is towards acceptance and compassion. Our task is to help the disadvantaged and downtrodden. I truly believe we can only achieve this through cooperation, not attacking those we perceive as "other". Let us try to understand, not condemn, and we might discover that we are stood firmly on common ground.
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