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I am lost at how we as a society are so quick to attack someone who has a difference in opinion. Just because someone doesn't agree with your solution, it doesn

I am lost at how we as a society are so quick to attack someone who has a difference in opinion. Just because someone doesn't agree with your solution, it doesn't mean they are opposed to resolving the problem. The OP, in my opinion, does have a lot of internal anger they need to resolve. e.g., how he expresses clenching his fist and not feeding into the rage. After reading the memo, it's my personal opinion the OP has a lot of unresolved issues and should consider speaking to a therapist. I feel like they are projecting their hate those nearby him. That's unhealthy and also very counterproductive. I genuinely worry that socially, people are overly sensitive, and it's hurting social progress. Instead of people learning to communicate with one another, they label the "opposition". Instead of understanding someone's perspective, they project onto them what they want to "fight against." Now is this a direct result of social behaviors bleeding into "real-world" interactions? I don't blame Google at all. I blame the behavior of the OP and his lack of effort to communicate with his peers in a mature, healthy, and positive way. It just feels like he doesn't care to understand the position of those around him. Instead, he wants everyone just to accept his perspective. All this being said, it's time for people to cut back on social media. I had to do that because it's too easy to get sucked into arguments with angry people. It's also easy and honestly fun to insult and trigger pointless arguments to entertain yourself. Regardless, it's unhealthy.

linuxftw 7y ago
> I don't blame Google at all. I blame the behavior of the OP and his lack of effort to communicate with his peers in a mature, healthy, and positive way. What's mature, healthy, and positive? Maybe it's society that is the failure? Maybe the unending docility of modern life is creating emotional volcanoes. Maybe some people like hostility, and maybe some people like confrontation. Not everyone and everything needs to be 'nice'; this is an ideal that needs to die.
- mrburton 7y ago
  > Maybe it's society that is the failure? That implies you have no self-control and require the government to tell you how to think/behave. > Not everyone and everything needs to be 'nice'; this is an ideal that needs to die. Who said people need to be nice? I recall me saying: > communicate with his peers in a mature, healthy, and positive way.
  - linuxftw 7y ago
    > That implies you have no self-control and require the government to tell you how to think/behave. I don't see how that implies a lack of self control, and I'm not sure what the government has to do with it. > Who said people need to be nice? I recall me saying: I guess I read 'positive' as 'be nice.' What's a positive way to deal with a world that you hate (hypothetically)? Why should anyone do anything positive, why can't they lash out as they see fit? Why should someone live by rules that others created without their consent, and then be 'positive' about it? Maybe society has failed. Maybe we're not living how we're supposed to be living.
    - mrburton 7y ago
      What does 'failure' mean then? ;)
olalonde 7y ago
The root cause is the slow death of individualism and rise of group identity. I read the whole memo and couldn't see how race was relevant in any of this (apart perhaps for the short "but as my time at Google continued" paragraph towards the end). Had Eric Garner been of a different skin color, the coworker likely would have made similar remarks regarding the protests annoying her. People tend to be less concerned with issues that don't affect them directly and my guess is that few Google employees have ever directly witnessed or experienced police brutality. If anyone in this story is racist, I'd argue it's the author of the memo. He identifies with Eric Garner simply because they look physically similar. He distrusts and lies to his colleagues because they don't share his skin color. He is concerned for his "black students" rather than his "students". I truly believe we would all be better off if individualism and color blindness made a come back.

linuxftw 7y ago

> I don't blame Google at all. I blame the behavior of the OP and his lack of effort to communicate with his peers in a mature, healthy, and positive way. What's mature, healthy, and positive? Maybe it's society that is the failure? Maybe the unending docility of modern life is creating emotional volcanoes. Maybe some people like hostility, and maybe some people like confrontation. Not everyone and everything needs to be 'nice'; this is an ideal that needs to die.

mrburton 7y ago
> Maybe it's society that is the failure? That implies you have no self-control and require the government to tell you how to think/behave. > Not everyone and everything needs to be 'nice'; this is an ideal that needs to die. Who said people need to be nice? I recall me saying: > communicate with his peers in a mature, healthy, and positive way.
- linuxftw 7y ago
  > That implies you have no self-control and require the government to tell you how to think/behave. I don't see how that implies a lack of self control, and I'm not sure what the government has to do with it. > Who said people need to be nice? I recall me saying: I guess I read 'positive' as 'be nice.' What's a positive way to deal with a world that you hate (hypothetically)? Why should anyone do anything positive, why can't they lash out as they see fit? Why should someone live by rules that others created without their consent, and then be 'positive' about it? Maybe society has failed. Maybe we're not living how we're supposed to be living.
  - mrburton 7y ago
    What does 'failure' mean then? ;)

olalonde 7y ago

The root cause is the slow death of individualism and rise of group identity. I read the whole memo and couldn't see how race was relevant in any of this (apart perhaps for the short "but as my time at Google continued" paragraph towards the end). Had Eric Garner been of a different skin color, the coworker likely would have made similar remarks regarding the protests annoying her. People tend to be less concerned with issues that don't affect them directly and my guess is that few Google employees have ever directly witnessed or experienced police brutality. If anyone in this story is racist, I'd argue it's the author of the memo. He identifies with Eric Garner simply because they look physically similar. He distrusts and lies to his colleagues because they don't share his skin color. He is concerned for his "black students" rather than his "students". I truly believe we would all be better off if individualism and color blindness made a come back.