An Interview with Matthew Scillitani on Left-Right Polarity and Extremity in the United States (Part Three)

Numbering: Issue 22.A, Idea: Outliers & Outsiders (Part Eighteen)

Place of Publication: Langley, British Columbia, Canada

Title: In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Web Domain: http://www.in-sightjournal.com

Individual Publication Date: March 22, 2020

Issue Publication Date: May 1, 2020

Name of Publisher: In-Sight Publishing

Frequency: Three Times Per Year

Words: 1,940

ISSN 2369-6885

Abstract

Matthew Scillitani, member of The Glia Society and The Giga Society, is a web developer and SEO specialist living in North Carolina. He is of Italian and British lineage, and is predominantly English-speaking. He earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology at East Carolina University, with a focus on neurobiology and a minor in business marketing. He’s previously worked as a research psychologist, data analyst, and writer, publishing over three hundred papers on topics such as nutrition, fitness, psychology, neuroscience, free will, and Greek history. You may contact him via e-mail at mattscil@gmail.com. He discusses: the American Left; status of the Right in America; status of the Left in America; 2020 fault lines between the Left and the Right; strengths and weaknesses of the Trump Administration and President Trump; social media and American values; social media and negative American stereotypes; dirty tactics used by the Left; dirty tactics used by the Right; strengths and weaknesses of the Left and the Right in America; and bridging the gulf between the American Left and Right.

Keywords: America, Giga Society, Glia Society, Left, Matthew Scillitani, politics, Right, Trump.

An Interview with Matthew Scillitani on Left-Right Polarity and Extremity in the United States: Member, Giga Society; Member, Glia Society (Part Three)[1]^,[2]*

*Please see the footnotes, bibliography, and citation style listing after the interview.*

1. Scott Douglas Jacobsen: There exists a left-right polarity in the United States. Its ideals becoming split by demographics, by states, by age, even by sex and gender. When the polarity, like a rubber band, stretches beyond a particular capacity of the public’s tolerance, there can be flare-ups. Let’s talk about politics, you hold no particular bias in political affiliation or too much emotional attachment to political philosophies. This can give a basis for reasoned considerations on the political dynamics of the United States. “Left” and “Right” used as simplifiers for the purposes of Part Three’s interview. What is the status of the Left in America? 

Matthew Scillitani: The Left is not doing too well in the United States right now. This is mostly because of a growing number of extremists in addition to a divide between the media and ordinary party members. These extremists, which are largely made up of young adults, make the most noise and have greater media coverage from both the Right and Left news outlets. Because of their actions much damage is being done to the Left’s public image. This problem is made even worse from the media blurring the line between the beliefs of a few extremists and the moderate Left.

The pendulum will swing back in the Left’s favour soon though. I think Trump will probably win the 2020 election and then we’ll see a Democrat take office in 2024.

2. Jacobsen: What is the status of the Right in America?  

Scillitani: The Right is doing better than the Left in terms of governmental control but ordinary party members aren’t doing too well. This is because the media has convinced leftists that the Right is comprised of racist, sexist, xenophobic bigots. This is largely untrue, and there is probably no more of those people in either party, but the harm this causes the Right is enormous. Many rightists are afraid of revealing their party affiliation out of fear of being called a Nazi or some other such term that would get them fired from their jobs and ostracized from their social groups.

This treatment by the media has made some rightists so resentful that they’ve adopted the same beliefs that the media said they had from the offset.

3. Jacobsen: What are the main fault lines between the Left and the Right in 2020 America?

Scillitani: There are many fault lines between the Left and Right in America today. The main ones being related to immigration, economics, governmental involvement, social order, morality, healthcare, and general human rights. The Right mostly advocates for individualism, nationalism, and capitalism with the Left mostly advocating for collectivism, egalitarianism, and socialism.

4. Jacobsen: With President Trump and the Trump Administration as a whole, what seems like the strengths and weaknesses of the leadership of the former, in particular, and the latter, in general?

Scillitani: Trump’s strengths lie in his assertiveness and business acumen while his weaknesses are social immaturity and inclination for bullying. The former two qualities are good for rightists since Trump and his administration have gotten quite a lot done this current presidential term. The latter two qualities are not so good since it harms America’s image to much of the Western world. Some of the Eastern world seems to view Trump as a cultural icon in spite of those qualities though.

5. Jacobsen: How are social media helping to promote positive American values?

Scillitani: That’s a tricky question to answer because I’m not sure if social media does that. Social media lowers social accountability, which leads to bullying, and lets people with rare and extreme beliefs find others with shared interests and live in a ‘bubble’ with them. I’m convinced that if there were no social media then the divide between the Left and Right would be much narrower and we’d be better off for it.

6. Jacobsen: How are social media promoting negative American stereotypes? 

Scillitani: That it’s so easy to find uneducated, unintelligent, ignorant people with strong opinions and thousands of likes on their posts is not very good. This leads to a lot of young people thinking that these very poor opinions are factual. Many social media outlets are now censoring racist, sexist, or mean-spirited comments, which helps prevent some negative American stereotypes somewhat. However, it’s debatable whether or not it’s a good idea to remove those comments, and it may end up being a bad thing in the end. We will have to wait and see what happens.

7. Jacobsen: What are the dirty tactics used by the Left in political rhetoric and in political campaigns?

Scillitani: Bullying, fear mongering, suppressing certain groups while claiming that voting leftists into office will help the same groups they’re suppressing, and creating imaginary problems that voting leftist politicians into office would solve. Left-wing media and politicians make leftists afraid of rightists and their beliefs, even if it means inventing imaginary problems. One such example being blaming the Right for misogyny, something so incredibly rare in the Western world that all of the protests and riots being done by modern feminists ends up being both unnecessary and harmful.

The Left also convinces minorities that they need the government to take care of them and that the Right couldn’t care less about their welfare. This is untrue and, ironically, betrays that the leftist politicians and media are the abusers to these groups.

8. Jacobsen: What are the dirty tactics used by the Right in political rhetoric and in political campaigns? 

Scillitani: Also bullying, fear mongering, and creating imaginary problems that voting rightist politicians into office would solve. The bullying is of the same variety that the Left uses, which is mostly name-calling and shaming opposing party members. The Right’s flavor of fear mongering isn’t from fear of progression but from fear of cultural collapse. Rightists think that mass immigration, socialism, and egalitarianism in general would cause America’s culture to change for the worse. It’s unfortunate that those things would, in fact, cause major changes to American culture, and not in the direction they would prefer.

Some imaginary problems that right-wing politicians use to scare the Right into voting for them are usually related to socialism. Things like, ‘if we adopt a socialist economic system then nobody will want to work demanding jobs’ or ‘everybody is poor under socialism’. These claims aren’t true, and it seems that rightist politicians purposefully confound socialism with communism in order to demonize that economic system.

9. Jacobsen: What are the strengths and weaknesses and the Left and the Right, respectively, in America?

Scillitani: The Left’s biggest strengths lie in their collectivism and desire to help others. The latter strength also doubles as a weakness since having too much empathy makes it easy for the media and politicians to convince them to do unethical things under the guise that to do otherwise would cause harm to some other group. The Right’s biggest strengths lie in their assertiveness and desire for self-improvement. Their biggest weakness is being too individualistic and therefore losing any sense of community and ‘strength in numbers’ that the Left has.

10. Jacobsen: What may bridge some of the political divides in the United States for a healthier public discourse?

Scillitani: Probably staying off of social media and turning the news off from time to time, chatting with people who have different opinions, and reading some history books.

[1] Member, Giga Society; Member, Glia Society. Bachelor’s Degree, Psychology, East Carolina University.

[2] Individual Publication Date: March 22, 2020: http://www.in-sightjournal.com/scillitani-three; Full Issue Publication Date: May 1, 2020: https://in-sightjournal.com/insight-issues/. Image Credit: Matthew Scillitani.

*High range testing (HRT) should be taken with honest skepticism grounded in the limited empirical development of the field at present, even in spite of honest and sincere efforts. If a higher general intelligence score, then the greater the variability in, and margin of error in, the general intelligence scores because of the greater rarity in the population.

Appendix II: Citation Style Listing

American Medical Association (AMA): Jacobsen S. An Interview with Matthew Scillitani on Left-Right Polarity and Extremity in the United States (Part Three) [Online].March 2020; 22(A). Available from: http://www.in-sightjournal.com/scillitani-three.

American Psychological Association (APA, 6^th Edition, 2010): Jacobsen, S.D. (2020, March 22). An Interview with Matthew Scillitani on Left-Right Polarity and Extremity in the United States (Part Three). Retrieved from http://www.in-sightjournal.com/scillitani-three.

Brazilian National Standards (ABNT): JACOBSEN, S. An Interview with Matthew Scillitani on Left-Right Polarity and Extremity in the United States (Part Three). In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal. 22.A, March. 2020. <http://www.in-sightjournal.com/scillitani-three>.

Chicago/Turabian, Author-Date (16^th Edition): Jacobsen, Scott. 2020. “An Interview with Matthew Scillitani on Left-Right Polarity and Extremity in the United States (Part Three).” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal. 22.A. http://www.in-sightjournal.com/scillitani-three.

Chicago/Turabian, Humanities (16^th Edition): Jacobsen, Scott “An Interview with Matthew Scillitani on Left-Right Polarity and Extremity in the United States (Part Three).” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal. 22.A (March 2020). http://www.in-sightjournal.com/scillitani-three.

Harvard: Jacobsen, S. 2020, ‘An Interview with Matthew Scillitani on Left-Right Polarity and Extremity in the United States (Part Three)‘, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vol. 22.A. Available from: <http://www.in-sightjournal.com/scillitani-three>.

Harvard, Australian: Jacobsen, S. 2020, ‘An Interview with Matthew Scillitani on Left-Right Polarity and Extremity in the United States (Part Three)‘, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vol. 22.A., http://www.in-sightjournal.com/scillitani-three.

Modern Language Association (MLA, 7^th Edition, 2009): Scott D. Jacobsen. “An Interview with Matthew Scillitani on Left-Right Polarity and Extremity in the United States (Part Three).” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 22.A (2020):March. 2020. Web. <http://www.in-sightjournal.com/scillitani-three>.

Vancouver/ICMJE: Jacobsen S. An Interview with Matthew Scillitani on Left-Right Polarity and Extremity in the United States (Part Three) [Internet]. (2020, March 22(A). Available from: http://www.in-sightjournal.com/scillitani-three.

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