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The meaning of ‘we the people’

What does “we the people” mean?

This is ambiguous because of the undefined meaning of people. I have had it said to me after an election.

To me, we the people means all the people in a country if referring to a country or in a state when referring to a state. In this incident the person was referring to a selected group and implied that others were wrong or their ideas were irrelevant. The value of hearing all the people, vetting ideas against hard provable truths by using hard evidence supported by recognized expertise from several relevant sources results in ideas free of most distortions, and bias.

It is my belief that the fracture in the country involving the Trumpsters, QAnon, and the radicalization of the Republican fringe was the result of not seeking truth, as noted above, or listening to all the people and vetting ideas or beliefs for truth. Examples of these false and dangerous false beliefs are birtherism, racial stereotyping, economic status prejudice, gender labeling, religious bias, right and left extremism, etc.

From this comes groups such as various white supremacist group, religious hate group and left-wing anarchist who will destroy institutions and governments such as ours that seek justice, equal rights and opportunity for all, we the people.

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