> but individuals carry a burden to for not trying to remake their bed

In what way? I turn on Fox sometimes and it's not that it's slanted, but it's just a stream of lies and BS. I've watched a bunch of Trump's speeches and in addition to being incoherent, he says the same lies and BS all the way down. Yesterday's tariff speech was a great example.

I don't consider myself progressive (though the MAGA right would think me so), but where do I go to try and 'remake [my] bed'?

> Generally both sides, or all sides really, want the same things and disagree on how to get there.

No, that is just not true. For example, do you think Putin and his supporters wanted a functioning democracy in Russia and independent Ukraine? No, they wanted someone functioning as a dictator to restore Russia's cold war territory and influence, and they wanted to undermine western democracies that stood in their way.

History does not support your claim that everyone wants the same things. Some people want power and strong man to take over the government. We see that with the Trump administration. The religious conservatives want to use that to make America a Christian nation. The billionaire libertarians want to use it to deregulate their industries and run the government like a corporation. And Trump wants to act unilaterally to bring about his vision of being seen as some great figure. They have illiberal aims.

politics, especially international geopolitics is a zero-sum game. The game of competition for limited resources and markets. Because resources are limited, the pie is fixed, and this makes it zero sum game.

Although there is a way to frame political alliances as a win-win when two parties increase their share at a cost of some other third party losing theirs.

Because of that, the arguments will always be straw-man, because people want to win resources, not to argue in good faith.

Any political issue can be framed in terms of zero sum game, if you look at the whole picture