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From my vantage point here in Australia, it’s interesting (albeit disturbing) to watch the rhetoric around the recent riots and violence at Capitol Hill.

This, it has been said, is the obvious and predictable culmination of a president like Donald Trump who is divisive and hate-filled, and of the political right’s narrative around the election results which has stoked the fires of insurrection.

While it’s possible – likely even – that those things added fuel to the fire I struggle to land on the conclusion that they were the primary cause.

In truth I think the recent (and, let’s be honest, ongoing) dissent is the by-product of a larger problem: people have no trust.

Specifically, people have no implicit trust in the institutions that used to command it. I use “institutions” deliberately broadly, to canvas both sides of the political spectrum and basically all organised media.

Most likely, of course, those institutions will continue their skewed approach to labelling and blaming others rather than introspectively pausing to consider whether their own behaviour, character and methods have played an important role along the way towards the recent chaos. No doubt they will consider themselves to be whiter than the driven snow, in pursuit of their virtuous objectives.

But why should I trust you, institutions?

Are the words from our politicians words that I can assume to be accurate, forthright, honest? Do we have candour? Do our politicians admit their mistakes? Can we really believe anything people in powerful positions say now? Perhaps more importantly: do we?

Does media boldly present the truth? Or does the media now devote its efforts towards willfully ignoring facts that don’t align with their narrative, and spinning the rest so that it does.

Why should I trust people who discarded a desire for the truth some time ago, and now seek only to promote a message? Why should I trust you when your approach to the people you agree with is so materially different from your approach to the people you don’t? Why should I trust you when your agenda takes priority over your humanity?

Generally what happens is fairly simple psychology: we believe that people who say things we already agree with are telling the truth. Whereas, things we don’t like or that we disagree with must be lies.

This is just another way of saying: we don’t trust anything.

Until trust exists, dissent will probably continue. It might not look like people climbing government walls, but it’ll be there.

Personally though, I have hope. Over time the problems will become apparent, things will shift, people will reflect, and change will occur. That is generally how it happens, after all.

I cannot recall a time in my life when people hated each other as much as they do now. Or, at least if they did, I didn’t have to hear about it quite as much.

Of course, to hear some talk about it they will blame the current state of things on Donald Trump – because they hate him.

Indeed, the Hate Trump Party has been in fine voice this week. Trump is, after all, the cause of all evil in the world and therefore it’s OK to hate him.

But just as important as hating Trump is ensuring that if others don’t hate Trump as much as they should, then those people should be hated too.

After all, if you don’t hate Trump then you’re a fascist. And because you’re a fascist, we can simultaneously ignore your opinions and feel vindicated about hating you all the more.

But it’s alright, because we can combat your evil fascim and create unity by implementing a system of laws and norms that require you to speak in a certain way, redirect your money in a certain way, tell you to act in a certain way, and we will silence you if you express different opinions than those which we deem to be OK.

Now some in the Trump Can Do No Wrong party will react badly to this. Trump is, after all, the President (for the moment) and TCDNWers should support him at every available opportunity. His words are taken out of context, and you virtue-signaling child murderers in the NewSpeak department haven’t a clue what you are talking about. You regularly lie and mislead the public, and with the helpful interference by their big tech and media puppeteers you get away with it.

You Trump Hater socialist psychopaths want to destroy freedom of speech and literally build monuments to a movement which rampaged through and set large parts of the USA on fire for 7 months under the guise of “peaceful protest”. Your goal is to systematically dismantle the foundation of the entire country with your crazy ideas and insane reinvention of obvious facts.

So you might hate us, but we gonna hate you right back.

And this is where we seem to find ourselves. The systems that exist for people now only exist for people we agree with – and everyone else can get stuffed. The politics and the politicians who are supposedly there to be a unifying force of checks and balances against each other, testing and weighing and presenting alternative views and solutions based on learned contemplation and wisdom – are now simply teaching us how to hate each other.

And, from the looks of it, we’re learning the lessons very well.