4 ms·

> Many amongst the left obsesses over what the right is doing (and vice versa), which tells me people enjoy rubbernecking rather than tuning out. It's a game of

• xigoi 3y ago
  While I oppose these things, I think people who agree with them should be allowed to express their opinion. Maybe if we allow them to explain why they support these things, we can better understand how to come to a mutual agreement.
  • XorNot 3y ago
    The quote I was responding to in the top: > Many amongst the left obsesses over what the right is doing (and vice versa), which tells me people enjoy rubbernecking rather than tuning out. It's a game of "neener-neener" high school football rivalry. This is a complete failure to understand that politics is real and has real consequences for real people. If your think that "actually none of this matters, why can't we all just get along?" then your world view and privilege is simply such that you have the leisure of ignoring it.
    • echelon 3y ago
      My wife is trans. By turning this into a game of sports and one-upsmanship, you're hurting us. Listen to the left and to the right. Talk with them. Engage them. Humanize them. Do this the Dr. King way, not the Malcom X way. You won't win hearts and minds if you're bearing your teeth all the time. People in the middle don't want deal with that. People that could be convinced are instead turned away. Maybe you grew up in a completely liberal city and don't realize that the opposition have lives filled with joy, happiness, pain, trauma, and feelings too. Maybe you didn't go to school with them and don't work with them. Maybe you're not in a diverse, politically purple city where you can see that we're all in this together. By being so offended and not turning the other cheek, you're letting the bullies know that they hurt you. You're giving them all the more endurance to continue. When social media and the news media obsess over what Trump is doing, they give him power. It's the same thing. I'm not saying don't campaign, don't vote, and don't be strong. Those things are essential. Policies of tolerance and equity can win this faster than division and hate. But don't turn the other side into monsters so that you can feel good about yourself - you're just giving them fuel to keep fighting this decades-long guerilla war and making us all miserable for longer. You gain nothing in vilifying. Friendliness, strength, and pragmatism.
      • XorNot 3y ago
        > Do this the Dr. King way, Martin Luther King had this to say about "the white moderate" [1]: "First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action;" who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection." [1] http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/060.html http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/060.html