Are We The Worst Ever?
In the spirit of openness, I am a privileged (enough) white male. Make of that information what you will.
I know this is most probably not going to be the most popular of posts, but to hell with it. Sometimes you don’t need to be popular, you just need to be honest. It is something we seemed to have lost as a generation and it has been to our own detriment.
We only like those facts that reinforce perceptions of ourselves and our ideologies, and summarily disregard those that don’t. The left calls it political correctness and the right calls it alternative facts. Either way, you are both full of shit.
And I am talking specifically with my fellow millennials. The rise of the regressive left and alt-right came with the coming of age of millennial voters. We, as a generation, are to blame for both and, I have to say, what an achievement. We have taken the world back to the 1930s with our pettiness and holier-than-thou attitudes and it needs to stop.
Just as there is no sun shining out of your asshole, there is no world that revolves around it. You are not always right which, by the way, is not a bad thing. All that means is that you have been provided with an opportunity to learn and to expand your mind. Instead of being insulted, be humble and make use of the opportunity provided.
Accept that not all people will see things your way and that being flippant is not going to change that. Accept that diversity exists in opinions just as much as it exists in race, religion, culture, sexual orientation and my willingness to blog.
Once we can start accepting that, we might just learn to treat each other with respect and a little bit of dignity no matter who the other person is or what they think. It will also make them more open to what you have to say and think instead of building up defences.
As Evelyn Beatrice Hall once said, not Voltaire or Aristotle, “I don’t agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
So in closing, I dare you to go out today and find someone of opposite opinions to you. When you do, engage them in a friendly and respectful manner. You might just walk away having made a friend.
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Interesting post. It is an opinion I have heard a few times before, and while I view the overall idea as good natured, I also would disagree in a lot of ways.
Being a firm believer in the fact that everybody is entitled to their own opinion, I try my hardest to respect others' thoughts. However, I would say, there is a line. While hate is, yes, an opinion, I will not stand to respect it. Especially as a queer person, I will not stand to respect opinions which wish for my, or any other human being's death and deprivation of rights. Hatred on the basis of someone's identity (an identity which is hurting nobody, unlike the alt-right) is never acceptable, and reflects a vast amount about someone's character. I could never be friends or maintain a relationship with somebody who judges people based on their skin colour, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc. That disgusts me to my core, and of course, you have your right to disagree, but I have my right to be outraged at the discrimination and awful, awful treatment minorities have faced for so, so many years.
I thank you for sharing your thoughts. Let me put it to you this way then. Imagine a world where you do not engage with that person and they continue living their life furthering the cause you so despise. Now imagine a world where you do engage with this person and, just maybe, you manage to change their mind. Which one of those two worlds do you think are better of?
I understand there are some people out there who believe in vile doctrines, but the way to change a person is to continue treating them with respect, even in the face of their hatred. Eventually, they will begin to question their behaviour and feel guilt about the way they are treating you when you do not reciprocate.
I don't know. It's just the way I see it.