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I think we might be committing some logical errors in our assumptions for how and why things are going on in the world today. But the world is tricky and I don't want to use any real examples, because they come with so much baggage. So instead I have a hypothetical (which I admit will come with a lot of baggage on it's own, and I intend to break it into 2 parts)

the hypothetical situation: The year is 2020, just after the presidential election which Trump has just lost. Trump says that Muller's team tampered in the election, and he has proof because he got access to the voter ballot information and watched it happen.

The Democrats point out that it's wildly illegal for him to hack into the voter ballots like that because who people vote for is supposed to be secret. Among other reasons why it's illegal.

The Republicans point out that sure, it's illegal, but he did a lesser crime (watching how people voted) in service of preventing a greater crime (changing votes).

Trump hasn't actually shown any proof that Muller's team did anything of the sort, but the proof that his staff was able to tap into the ballot info is pretty plain. It's as if a suspected burglar, Ted, tells the cops 'I didn't rob the house, Greg did! I know because I broke into the house half an hour before he did, and I sat quietly in the dark and watched him as he broke in and stole everything.'

If you're inclined to believe Trump, you would point out that the only reason he would confess to that crime is to validate his claim against a larger crime. The sort of situation where Ted tells the police that 'I can't have committed the murder, I was across town kidnapping and raping Greg's wife at the time!' (I was going to go with the classic affair situation, but lets be honest, election tampering, even without changing anything, is super serious).

If you're not inclined to believe Trump... well the logic train doesn't need to go any further does it?

This rich tapestry of deceit and crime with vague and debatable legal and ethical who done it's is all just prelude to what happens next.

Everyone who voted for Trump gets a letter in the mail. Some get plane tickets, some train tickets, some just a 200 dollar voucher for gas, and an explanation: The Dems are trying to steal our Election. Worse than Watergate. But our brave military stands ready to defend the country and arrest the crooked Traitors who organized this coo. Because of the possible fighting from Dems and because I want to keep america SAFE, I am sending you to [Mexico] for a week. Then safety and Freedom will return to America. and maybe it will take longer than a Week, but believe me, there will be so much Winning.

So Millions of people leave America on what they expect will be a short vacation while Trump and the military clean up America. Mostly Mexico and Canada, where Trump buses ferry people to hastily constructed and overcrowded camp sites and told to enjoy the natural beauty of Canada (or Mexico).

In the US things don't go as planned for Trump and his cohort. Somehow the electionists got wind of Trump's plans ahead of time were prepared. His attempted coup d'etat/counter coup is roundly thwarted as most of the military decide that the election is sacrosanct and/or it's for the courts to decide if his challenge to it's legitimacy has merit. There's still a number of loyalist generals who go along with it, and there are attempts at arresting electionist generals, so there are days of fighting, especially in deeply Republican states where the Governors and Mayors mobilize militia against the electionist forces of the American Armed Forces.

So after a defeat that was as quick as Trump expected his victory to be he is apprehended and... you know what? Who even cares? I'm not interested in his fate. Nor whether he was right or wrong. I'm more concerned about bulk of people who put their trust in Trump.

The question is what to do about the rebel populace.

In the Civil War the rebel states were re-integrated into America, and the populace were American citizens again. With consequences still felt to this day, people bandy about the flag of traitors and claim 'the south will rise again' and long for the good ol days of the Antebellum South. The scars linger.

Now however there's an entirely different situation: Those of rebel intent have self segregated themselves off of American soil. Should they be let back into the country and resume their lives as citizens as if nothing had happened?

I would argue that yes, we need to forgive, and the wounds caused by excluding them would be deeper than the scars that their presence will leave on society. ... but I'm not actually here to argue one way or the other. I want both sides to be given the weight and consideration they deserve. No, more than that I want us to be able to empathize and consider a position from ether side.

Imagine that you aren't just a citizen who's been perplexed and alarmed at the ongoing events, but you've actively took a side (or at least rooted for one side).

Imagine that you're a Democrat, and most of the countries registered Republicans had just up and moved out of the country on their own. In the end the proved to be traitors to America and (as the conservative writer David Frum put it) when democracy abandoned the Conservatives, they didn't abandon their Conservative values, they abandoned democracy. I mean sure they didn't take up arms against America, but they (mostly) didn't warn any authorities when they got wind of a conspiracy to commit treason, so they are all complicit collaborators. I mean sure, 40 million + republican voters leaving America would put your political values front and center for a generation, perhaps longer, but that's not the reason you would want to keep the Republican base supporters out, right? It's the principle of the thing, they are traitors and we can't trust them. Keeping them out is only patriotic.

Would you let them go back to their homes and lives or keep them out? I mean if it were up to you.

Now, instead, imagine that you are a Republican. You voted for Trump and because he had access to that information (again, highly illegal) he sent you a train ticket and you've been roughing it in a makeshift camp for the last week. Sure that's a rather wide section of population. There are people who say 'grr, them Dems won by trickery. Our country was stolen' and people who feel like they were conned and tricked and would argue that they just followed the direction given by their lawfully elected (still had a few months in his term) leader. Regardless, as long as you're not actively seeking to overthrow the government (however much you dislike it) you deserve to go back to your home right? I mean you left your property and all your stuff, and your job, your entire life is back in ... wherever you came from, Wisconsin lets say. As unlawful as Trump's actions may have been, it's also unlawful for your stuff to be taken away (and by not returning home that's basically what happens) just because of your political preference. That's Un-Amarican that is.

Meanwhile the Canadian government (and citizens) have gone from perplexed to alarmed at the unusually high quantity of tourists who've now turned into refugees.

I hope you can see the situation from both sides well enough to seamlessly swap between calling the Republican Refugees traitors and rightfully not wanting to let them back in, and seeing the now flagrantly partisan and fully Democrat United States as thieves who stole your homes and forced you into refugee camps.

I want that understanding because neither side is entirely wrong, and that's important to realize, and because, remember as I said at the start that I didn't want to bring up real world examples? I lied. Because this exact situation has happened in Israel.

Alright, maybe not 'exact'. The differences weren't between political parties and leaders, but between religions, and that actually just makes things worse because while the Republican Refugees of hypothetical 2020 might eventually admit Trump may have made some mistakes, nobody in Israel or Palestine is going to suggest that God isn't perfect.

Still, the comparison is fair and I believe we are unfair in discounting the viewpoints of people on the other side. If we can't recognize a common set of facts or empathize with other's views then we aren't able to have an honest, let alone civilized, discussion. Did you empathize with and relate to the Democrats and are Pro-Israel? Or are you Pro-Palestinian and consider first the plight of the Republican Refugees? In ether case, please consider the position of the other side: the fears and struggles of the Israeli against the hostile Arabs all around them, and the innocent refugees who've had their land and homes stolen from them. Neither is without blame...

Except actually... everyone is, kinda. Because the six day war happened 50 years ago, most of the people who had any say in the matter are dead. People are being punished for and punishing others because of things their parents and grandparents did. This not fair is it!? Like so many ongoing conflicts, this is just stupid. At least by simple metrics.

It would, however, be intellectually dishonest to simplify things in that way. It sounds good to say 'well us smacking eachother back and forth just leads to us both being slapped silly, we gotta stop now', but no, you can't just slap somebody and say 'ok NOW we ignore the past'. Where is the justice in that? And to confuse matters more, both sides are feeling that they have had the worse slapping and they need a few more slaps for justice. "'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.' will leave the whole world blind and toothless".

What would stop the cycle? To have an entire group of people accept that to suffer unfairly and be degraded is their lot in life and that there shall be no justice for it. who is going to accept that?

The thing about history is that there is always more of it, always something that came before that caused the things that caused what's happening now. While nobody is blameless for their roll, maybe history is the villain of the present. It's just too bad we can't punish the past.