Your idea that the problem is painting with a broad brush is genius. — Athena

It really isn’t as I’m far from the first person to point this out. It’s kind of obvious. Why it is happening is likely due to multiple reasons including mass ‘communication’ (social media), general technological advancements (paired with dissipation of religious views) and the general upheaval of world views (the axis mundi) caused by such interactions leading to the projection of an existential threat anywhere and everywhere it can get a toe hold (manifesting in group mentality and focus of nationalistic/patriotic drivel).

There are enough positive signs though ( as usual mostly ignored) not to worry too much about all this.

As for a US civil war it could happen, but it is far more likely it will just be a civil split not a complete severing. Either way I’m more and more convinced by the end of this century the idea of nation will have lost its current, and fleeting, fashionable appeal.

Okay, you are saying our intellectual climate will change? I don't know if it would be a good thing to give up national identity? It seems national identity is a strong part of individual identity. Also, a lack of national identity plays into the problem of painting with the big brush?

If the US had gone to war with a nation instead of with terrorism. The enemy would have a better definition with limits. Now that you have made me aware of painting with the big brush, I can see the capitalist war with communism as painting with a very big brush. The concept of people on the right and people on the left, conservatives and liberals, are all painting with a very large brush that is divisive.

I never liked labeling. The imagined religious differences are divisive and lead to insane behavior such as war and in the US this is very much a part of the culture war.

Thomas Jefferson thought education was central to a strong republic. Education for citizenship is education for nationalism, as it defines a culture and prepares the young to be part of that culture. However, it was a culture of principles and virtues. The world can be united with principles and virtues when that is the focus and intent of education. Whoops, I feel like I just stepped off a cliff and what I said is unsupported. except for Cicero and the concept of right reasoning. Oh my, philosophy is so important! Without high-order thinking skills we have no way of judging if we have right reasoning or not.

How can a war on terrorism and hate speech be good reasoning? What are the desired virtues and principles? Can we better prepare our intellectual climate for better reasoning?