I don't know how to explain to you to care about other people
There's a post going around Tumblr that's about politics, and my subject line is all it says. That's it. I think about it a lot. I'm not one of those touchy-feely bleeding hearts. I'm just excessively practical and I have a highly-developed sense of being able to imagine the worst happening (partly because I've had some of the worst happen, at various points in life; other "worsts" I do not want to experience). I'm also really uncomfortable with watching something or someone else suffer needlessly. I don't think you have to be a sweet or nice or huggy person to be a decent human being.
Regarding our current political climate, I don't think there's anything I can say that someone else hasn't already said too much, or phrased better. I am tired of hearing about how we lefties have to learn to empathize with the average Trump voter. I don't think that's true. Lots of us have come from backgrounds filled with Trump voters or at least non-voting Trump-backers. Some of us, including me, spent too many years trying to evolve past that limited isolationist mindset of fear and prejudice, to go back into it just to pacify some arrested-development mindset that allows a person to think Nuclear Cheeto is a GOOD choice to be in charge of anything but his own dinner plate.
Also, while I suppose there is a certain amount of people on the left being up their own asses about political correctness carried to an extreme or not seeing a particular forest for trees (i.e., being as close-minded about your own thing as any right-winger about their issues), the fact is that I think most of us have already made the effort to understand an "other." That's why we are what we are and not among those trying to limit personal freedoms and access to basic dignities and care. Just because a side wins doesn't make it the right one. The Nazis were doing pretty damn well kicking over countries until they hit a point where they couldn't any longer; being the winner doesn't always mean being the best in morality. The reason we're being told "try to understand the other side" is because Trump and the GOP won.
Big fucking deal. I can win a horror-storytelling contest, too, if I find the right crowd of people predisposed to be frightened of the thing I'm going to demonize in my tale. I don't think there's any mental gymnastics I should have to do to understand a mindset I grew up with; I already know it. Instead, I think people who haven't matured mentally beyond the fifth grade should try to understand US. Why did we leave their fold? Why didn't we stick with the easy path of blind hate and irrational xenophobia that would endear us to those who raised us and grew up around us? Why would we put ourselves in a position of being accused of being unpatriotic, immoral, wasteful, soft, weak, and whatever other invectives that particular vocal minority (majority?) wants to hurl at us, when they've appropriated Christ's bosom to lean back against in smug self-righteousness?
Indeed, what do we see in allowing women and girls to have a choice in their bodies and reproductive planning? What do we see in social welfare payments to people down on their luck or permanently disabled from work? Why don't we advocate to lock up people who aren't Christians just for not being Christians? Why do we think systemic equality hasn't been achieved for everyone yet - not just rural white males? I tell you, if I had a dollar for every liberal I've read or heard bending over backwards to tell others to try to understand red-state voters (and for the conservatives who gleefully get in on this), and subtracted from that total a dollar for every time I've seen a conservative making effort to do the same toward liberals, I'd still have enough to comfortably make my mortgage payment next month; I wouldn't lose a dollar.
Regarding our current political climate, I don't think there's anything I can say that someone else hasn't already said too much, or phrased better. I am tired of hearing about how we lefties have to learn to empathize with the average Trump voter. I don't think that's true. Lots of us have come from backgrounds filled with Trump voters or at least non-voting Trump-backers. Some of us, including me, spent too many years trying to evolve past that limited isolationist mindset of fear and prejudice, to go back into it just to pacify some arrested-development mindset that allows a person to think Nuclear Cheeto is a GOOD choice to be in charge of anything but his own dinner plate.
Also, while I suppose there is a certain amount of people on the left being up their own asses about political correctness carried to an extreme or not seeing a particular forest for trees (i.e., being as close-minded about your own thing as any right-winger about their issues), the fact is that I think most of us have already made the effort to understand an "other." That's why we are what we are and not among those trying to limit personal freedoms and access to basic dignities and care. Just because a side wins doesn't make it the right one. The Nazis were doing pretty damn well kicking over countries until they hit a point where they couldn't any longer; being the winner doesn't always mean being the best in morality. The reason we're being told "try to understand the other side" is because Trump and the GOP won.
Big fucking deal. I can win a horror-storytelling contest, too, if I find the right crowd of people predisposed to be frightened of the thing I'm going to demonize in my tale. I don't think there's any mental gymnastics I should have to do to understand a mindset I grew up with; I already know it. Instead, I think people who haven't matured mentally beyond the fifth grade should try to understand US. Why did we leave their fold? Why didn't we stick with the easy path of blind hate and irrational xenophobia that would endear us to those who raised us and grew up around us? Why would we put ourselves in a position of being accused of being unpatriotic, immoral, wasteful, soft, weak, and whatever other invectives that particular vocal minority (majority?) wants to hurl at us, when they've appropriated Christ's bosom to lean back against in smug self-righteousness?
Indeed, what do we see in allowing women and girls to have a choice in their bodies and reproductive planning? What do we see in social welfare payments to people down on their luck or permanently disabled from work? Why don't we advocate to lock up people who aren't Christians just for not being Christians? Why do we think systemic equality hasn't been achieved for everyone yet - not just rural white males? I tell you, if I had a dollar for every liberal I've read or heard bending over backwards to tell others to try to understand red-state voters (and for the conservatives who gleefully get in on this), and subtracted from that total a dollar for every time I've seen a conservative making effort to do the same toward liberals, I'd still have enough to comfortably make my mortgage payment next month; I wouldn't lose a dollar.