Time, change and progress are relentless, inevitable and undefeated. They will occur. How quickly they arrive, and in what form they take, is a matter of constant conflict. We’re all in this together. I don’t always have to like it, and neither do you. But there’s no viable alternative. And that’s not only as it should be, but perfectly so. The conservatives can no more forever hold back the liberals, than liberals can forever demand that conservatives be dragged unwillingly along. Along the way, I should hate your ideas, and you should hate mine - as we each believe the other and opposing opinions to be despicable, offensive, reprehensible and at times unconscionable. It’s that hatred of the other idea that stirs us to speak up and speak out. But it’s also how a majority arrives at reasonable truths, and which not only ultimately wins the day, but arrives at precisely the right time. And it is the majority which ultimately protects each side from the other, and at times, even from themselves. If you can convince a majority to go along with you, you’ll eliminate and marginalize the extremes, by defintion. If you can’t convince a majority, you won’t get it. Re-examine why - is it your position that’s weak, is it the wrong timing, do you need to work on educating others, or of exposing their bias and fears, understanding that these are important elements in their decision-making process? You’re not going to shout and shame them down, and neither will they to you. Gay marriage. Abortion. Trump. Religion. Marijuana. Free markets. Socialism. Privacy. Guns. We’ll sort them all out, together. However fitful that process, or however much hatred that it requires. That’s the beauty of it.
I would say it’s an incredibly small number of issues that I view conflicting opinions to mine as: Do you really think that’s a popular characterization on either side? Am I in a minority or am I kidding myself?
I think that it’s a loud opinion, but I’m not sure it’s a popular one. For me it’s rarely the idea that’s offensive (despicable, etc) - though I’m sure if we started naming off issues there would be some and maybe more than I think. But I say it’s more common that the I find the way the idea is sold to be offensive (the words or tactics used). I would also guess that is a much more common occurrence among others.
However joking or unintentionally, and as offensive as this will be to the sensibilities of some, it is precisely this incessant grouping and battering of all straight white men which is a big part of the problem with the whole SJW movement, and which has caused more harm than good. More directly, I’d say that this is almost certainly the single greatest and most important factor in how Trump built his base and got elected. That this country has been almost exclusively lead by straight white men, and who have committed any number of inexcusable wrong and indefensible atrocities, is so far beyond debate as to be self-evident. But that it’s only acceptable to group all straight white men together, be it to judge them all based on the actions of some, in seeking to marginalize and subdue their equal participation by a gigantic hypocrisy of whataboutism, is just as wrong as some of the shit they did, and which you now judge them for having done to others. It’s good, reasonable and necessary to be honest about the role of straight, white men in countless wrong-doings - just as it is with any person or person(s) - that it’s only straight white males who it seems acceptable to deride, decry and blame, is not simply wrong, but indefensibly so. You are more likely to spend your way out of debt, or to eat your way thin, as you are to attain true justice by even more, but different, injustices. We’re all in this together - including straight white males (And Christians. And Buddhists. And atheists. And black people. Jews. The Gays, women, the poor, the wealthy, etc., et al.), and acting as if we aren’t, or that they are somehow uniquely excepted from this reality, is just as wrong as it is foolish.
I don’t know how to quantify it, but there are a pretty good number of people that think the opposition is despicable. Politicians of late are pretty good at stoking that sentiment.
For where we are right now? Yeah, I think that’s where we are - a bunch of people on both sides who are not only absolutely convinced that they are ultimately and completely correct, but find any other notion or opinion to be utterly reprehensible, and completely lacking any merit, whatsoever, much less any which warrants sincere and legitimate consideration. And that’s where we’re stuck - certain that we’re not only right, but righteous, and in every regard - and that anyone who doesn’t agree is not only wrong, but who are correctly demonized as essentially being stupid, “-ist” (racist, sexist, etc.) and actually evil, in an increasingly larger and more frequent number of cases. The only way through this, is through it. That means that we continue to engage in meaningful discussion and debate - even when it sucks, it’s heated, it’s silly, everyone is stupid, everyone hates it, many are tired of hearing it, it gives rise to accusations that you’ve somehow turned into someone else / have sacrificed friendships, etc. - until we return to our senses, admit and renew our commitment to the reality that we are, in every true sense of the word, in this together. As we are.
What are the key three arguments, insults, attacks, etc. that make you feel hated as a white straight male?
The problem with using 'hatred' of an idea is that all too often, we then shift that hate onto the person that has the idea. And passions (hate and zealotry alike, for they are ultimately the same thing) lead to nothing but suffering. But, because I don't want to be seen as a pedantic moron, I agree with the sentiment of your overall belief, Tenny. But we have to be very, very, VERY careful with how we use this kind of 'hatred', because it wrecks friendships, loves, companions, etc. We have seen it on this board. I can count 4-5 people off the top of my head that have been driven away from this board over the last year or two because of politics, the hateful rhetoric from both sides, and the personal attacks that it ultimately leads to. I can be tireless in my fight against and idea, rejecting it utterly, without resorting to hate and all of the things that come along with it. I can also do the same for something I am fighting for, without falling into zealotry.
Here’s a vomitously despicable truth for both sides to consider: Our national parties and political leaders - who have only recently been found to have lower approval ratings than cockroaches, IIRC - are no more responsible for the current climate than they are leading it. Instead, they are a perfect reflection, and the convenient embodiment, of us, and are just a convenient scape goat to blame what we - The People - have created and perpetuate. Parties and politicians aren’t the problem, WE are. US. All of us. I get that it’d be nice to believe that there is someone else to blame, but that’s just simply and patently false.
Personally, I’ve not only become calloused and numb to it, but it’s not any one specific thing, really. It’s that it’s not even just a thing, but sort of systemically applied and accepted, is the problem. I’ll say this, few things have given me a better reason to re-examine and more greatly empathize with those who have also and continue to suffer from the same. So, something worthwhile can come from it, however unintentionally, but it shouldn’t require it, and I’d hope that we’d avoid and call it all, in any direction, whenever it’s evidenced.
Absolutely. Trump and the SJWs are just the cankers of a deeper infection. I have my own pet hypothesis as to what is wrong with our country, and have shared them before, but I believe it ultimately comes down to this: we are bored. There are no mountains left to climb, there are not rivers to cross, there are no places left to go and get away from shit we don't like. We are stuck here. And much like when water can no longer flow, it stagnates. How we can fix this, I don't know. It will take a monumental change in how we view the world, and that kind of change scares the ever loving shit out of people, especially when they are so tied to the past.
Minus the word reprehensible in the post above I think that this is actually different from the section I quoted from your original post. I do think I, at least at times, do some or most of this, and I do think this is more common.
I think white straight males are very sensitive, perhaps because we aren't used to being an "other." We gotta toughen up.
