As today happens to be the Independence Day here in Finland and we had a bloody civil war 100 years ago, let me share a thought:
The civil war was fought on the lines of "the right" and "the left" (the left started out controlling most of the Southern Finland and the right controlled northen parts), with the right winning with the help of Germany (the left was hoping for help from Russia, but due to the situation there, no help came). So far nothing unusual, and in retrospect the result was "the right one" (victory by the left might have resulted in Finland being taken over by the Soviet Union). What wasn't usual was that about 80,000 people from "the left" side were put into concentration camps, and at least 12,000 of those dying in the camps. These numbers were about 2.5% of the total population in the camps and 0.3% dying in the camps (if this would happen in modern day US, the numbers would be eight million and one million).
The interesting thing is that there was a nationwide municipal election in November. Both sides participated, there was no violence and no election fraud by either side, and the left managed to get a nationwide share of 36%, meaning that as most of the important decisions needed a 2/3 majority, the right had to negotiate with the left (and vice versa in some cities where the left managed to get the majority).
We nowadays often say that the Winter War in the beginning of the WWII was what brought the nation back together, but I think it really was the effort of the many municipal "politicians" from both sides putting aside their differences and working together in 1919 and onwards (there were lots of important political decisions made between 1919 and 1921, both on the national and the municipal level). The Winter War miracle against the Soviet Union was more of a result of that work, all Finns working towards a common cause to keep Finland free.
We may disagree (sometimes vehemently) on issues, but let's respect the fact that quite often people do have informed opinions even if we think those opinions are wrong, and we are all the same people.
