8 ms·
The people you were with probably were unused to outsiders and insecure how to deal with your "alien" (to them) views. They should have behaved welcoming and i
by jll29 4y ago
The people you were with probably were unused to outsiders and insecure how to deal with your "alien" (to them) views.
They should have behaved welcoming and inclusive. But as we all know, there's a lot between "should" and "is" in this world...
Because there are atheists, agnostics, Christians, Muslims and those of other religions, we need to find a way to be nice to each other, and perhaps a smallest common denominator of moral values (a sort of "moral POSIX standard").
Your three options are interesting. There was a linguistic study among Algerian immigrants to France, provided in Arabic and in French (same questions), so study the influence of language/culture on the answers. The same people were asked about love, for example, and as you would expect those answering in French would "channel" (to use your word) idioms and responses associated with love in a French context (language of love, Paris as the city of love, romantic love etc.). In contrast, responses in Arabic channeled concepts of moral chastity. Need to find that study (I believe it was a chapter in a book).
- dkarl 4y agoI was not an outsider. I was born and raised there. You're right that anything they weren't comfortable with was thought of as outside pollution, though.
- jll29 4y agoSorry, I meant "outlier" with respect to your views rather than "outsider". There are many "insiders" that intellectually belong "outside" but that shy away from the consequences of expressing one's views, and what would happen after such a disclosure. Even well-meaning groups like religious sects that want to "save" can have devastating effects on individuals. Recently, a shooter killed several members of the Jehovah's witnesses at a meeting, probably because he was an ex-member, and they are known to cut all social/communications ties with leavers. Needless to say, if people are not mentally stable, being isolated by force can lead to disaster. But usually, the most strongly worded views come from insecure people who are not that knowledgeable, whereas people who have deeply studied and compared are more gracious and see connections where others would like to create more divisions.