Moderation is dead - may it rest in peace.
Reflection is - in my opinion - exactly what generates these responses, on both sides of the aisle.
I reflect. And I get angry. And I decide where I spend my money.
Which is, at the end of the day, exactly what the LGBTQIA community asked of Disney: that they not give their money (in the form of political contributions) to politicians who work against that community.
Money talks - on both sides of the aisle.
And I'd always prefer that we all use money and our voices (rather than violence) to express our opinions, however strongly we hold them.
From my perspective, the issue that's developing is that people are trying as hard as they can to bridge talk into types of violence. What you are describing it what we always did, support people we liked and withdraw support from people or organizations that we didn't. That's not good enough for today's modern extremist. We need to see anyone who disagrees with us in the slightest bit fired and unable to support their family or pay for health insurance. One sentence that someone feels offended by is good enough to launch a hyperbolic attack, complete with threats and ultimatums.
I agree with pretty much all of the comments here, and personally I think I've discovered a new political side, sanity. I don't agree with any of the extreme behavior from either side, and just wish for a return to more moderate and civil behavior. Regardless of who's wrong and right about issue x, we shouldn't feel obligated to start foaming at the mouth every time someone disagrees with us. I feel like that's what this has become.
Don't like democrats? it's because they are satanic pedophiles that hate freedom, and we've got to run into a pizza hut with a machine gun and cancel lunch for school kids because they are all probably communist spies. Don't like republicans? it's because every one of them is trying to bring back slavery, they all hate gay people and want to burn down the government and take your grandma off of life support so they can have lower taxes. - Here's the thing, almost none of the people on either side are like that, it's just the worst, loudest 2% of people at opposite extremes that seem to become the public face of each side. I have a lot of friends of both types, and while I don't agree with everything they say, I find that many people are quite decent at heart, and are simply trying to execute a vision for a better world according to what they've been taught. I really just wish that people could turn down the anger and hyperbole, and bring up the levels of reason and civility. You know what good people have always done? When they see a misguided person, they try to teach, inform, shepherd. We've replaced that with threats and tribalism and hate. Telling everyone to pick a side and fight is probably not moving society towards a better place. I choose to see people with bad opinions as fellow victims of societal brainwashing campaigns, rather than as "evil" My dad doesn't hate people, he's just had a steady diet of Rupert Murdock brand groupthink for 40 years. Left to his own devices, I have no doubt he would share a hamburger with a hungry person, or give chemo medicine to a sick friend that couldn't afford it.
Perhaps left wing extremists should learn to show tolerance to others, instead of just angrily demanding it for themselves, and perhaps right wing extremists should learn to turn the other cheek and treat all people with kindness, like it says in the book they carry around. I mainly stopped listening to both because they don't even believe their own ideologies, so why should I?
This is why I don't talk about politics in film posts, because you can't really talk about politics without..... talking about politics.
Here's a historically accurate video about what happens when ideologists become militant about their own hyperbole.