Kiana Taylor - 10th Grade History Presentation

America's Great Divide by Kiana Taylor

The two parties involved are Democrats and Republicans. Here are the definitions of each

The History of Arguing Arguing started at the beginning of time. Warfare has been caused by arguments about who owns land and who believes in what gods

Religious texts tend to be exclusionary and have specific values and beliefs

In the modern age, technology and social media has created a wider platform for people to argue

In the beginning of time, arguments were most likely about who got the best meat from the kiln

who slept in the warmest spot in the cave, who got the best mates

who decided where they would go next, and who got the biggest club

Religion can fuel division between people. The Bible represented a time when one group was trying to establish a more humane way to treat others

with the saying, Love thy neighbor. All religious books are also interpreted by followers to reinforce their own beliefs as well

For example, conservative Christianity vs. liberal, orthodox Judaism vs. reform, and Shia vs. Sunni Islam

A historical divide, the Crusades. The Crusades were a series of religious wars between Christians and Muslims

started primarily to secure control of holy sites, considered sacred by both groups

It spanned from 1096 to 1291. Because of a disagreement of land, an estimated 1.7 million people died

Here's a graph of the rise of population in the last 12,000 years

Increasing population. With the increase of population, gives us more political viewpoints

more proponents of each viewpoint, an increase in refugees, which created more diversity in viewpoints

Ten years ago, demographics was hardly on the radar screen. Today, it dominates almost any discussion of America's long-term fiscal

economic, or foreign policy direction. More people equals more viewpoints. Historically, people weren't exposed to many different viewpoints

People were commonly solely influenced by a small number of people, i.e. your family and friends, or local newspaper

Consequently, people in a certain geographic area all believed the same things

Americans are increasingly sorted into think-alike communities that reflect not only their politics, but their demographics

Are newspapers trustworthy? In the early 1900s, first newspaper was known for writing fake content

in hopes to create conflict and sell more papers. Newspaper editors often have their own agendas

and write about their personal opinions. Today, CNN vs. Fox News continue to demonstrate

the polarity of political coverage. Social media gives people a voice. It used to be difficult and expensive to start a newspaper company

so people couldn't publish their opinions. Nowadays, with the help of social media

anyone can publish news stories online for free. Fake news, a form of news that consists of deliberately skewed

or false information spread via traditional news media or online social media

When I searched up fake news on Google, there were about 547 million results in 0.32 seconds

proving how prominent of an issue this is today. A common asked question is

will technology solve the problem? Some people think, no. Advancements in AI and machine learning

are rapidly paving the way for deep fake videos, content that falsely shows people saying and doing things

that they never said or did. Others think that, yes, artificial intelligence and big data have emerged

as potential tools to track news stories and identify fake news items

Things are getting better. In recent times, people have become more tolerant

with things like women's rights, LGBT rights, acceptance of interracial couples, and alternate lifestyles

Although we are still arguing about politics, but are getting better at talking about it

with people who have different viewpoints and agreeing to disagree. Much of the current political divide in the United States

derives from the left and right uncharitably misunderstanding each other. Thank you for listening to my presentation