> you alienate a lot of people who might otherwise sympathize with you shading the truth might win people over but only those who are willing to turn their min

> you alienate a lot of people who might otherwise sympathize with you shading the truth might win people over but only those who are willing to turn their minds off because they were offended, only those more interested in changes that will let them go back to sitting right in their feelings. you'll see this most evidently on the web where a person feels there's work to be done only so long as they feel they need to correct someone, as soon as everyone feels the record has been set straight it goes right back to the kind of complacency that generates the kinds of statements you dislike so much. the same people who talk about "bleeding heart" "libtards" hung up on their feelings are the same emotionally inept lot that don't see how their own feelings for a flag gets in the way of truth; that a nation is not a monolith, that we are both wonderful and terrible, and that no change can come from a state of denial. "We're broken" is the same as "We're not perfect" but denial clings to the phrasing that lets us believe perfection is within reach.