But without understanding the context of an event, we can’t understand how it happened, or how to prevent similar events. if you genuinely oppose horrific things, it is your duty to understand why they happen so you can educate people on them, otherwise you’re just burying your head in the sand and refusing to address reality, letting the media talking heads do your thinking for you. And if that’s how someone ends up operating, they’ll be supporting a hell of a lot more atrocities that way, while thinking they are “fighting injustice” when all they are really doing is setting up for the next atrocity. And they’ll fall hook line and sinker for why that one is ok too, just like they did for the last one, and the one before that, and so on.
I agree with that and I will read and research things. I was speaking towards my willingness to socially engage with people that hold what I find to be abhorrent views. I’m not interested in retaining hateful people in my life and will turn and walk away from someone who is offensive rather than engage. All the power to folks that engage and potentially change minds.
This is why self-criticism is important. No one thinks they have abhorrent views, everyone thinks that their own viewpoint is the correct one, so we also need to question and challenge our own perspective to make sure we aren’t the one with the awful or ignorant views.
Though I know what you mean, sometimes it just isn’t worth a fight with some people and you’re better off not wasting time trying to convince someone the sky is blue when they insist it is green because they’re just a stubborn asshole. A part of being convincing is being willing to admit when you’re wrong, and finding a middle ground point to build off of, but if you can’t do that with some people, it isn’t worth wasting your time.
But without understanding the context of an event, we can’t understand how it happened, or how to prevent similar events. if you genuinely oppose horrific things, it is your duty to understand why they happen so you can educate people on them, otherwise you’re just burying your head in the sand and refusing to address reality, letting the media talking heads do your thinking for you. And if that’s how someone ends up operating, they’ll be supporting a hell of a lot more atrocities that way, while thinking they are “fighting injustice” when all they are really doing is setting up for the next atrocity. And they’ll fall hook line and sinker for why that one is ok too, just like they did for the last one, and the one before that, and so on.
I agree with that and I will read and research things. I was speaking towards my willingness to socially engage with people that hold what I find to be abhorrent views. I’m not interested in retaining hateful people in my life and will turn and walk away from someone who is offensive rather than engage. All the power to folks that engage and potentially change minds.
This is why self-criticism is important. No one thinks they have abhorrent views, everyone thinks that their own viewpoint is the correct one, so we also need to question and challenge our own perspective to make sure we aren’t the one with the awful or ignorant views.
Though I know what you mean, sometimes it just isn’t worth a fight with some people and you’re better off not wasting time trying to convince someone the sky is blue when they insist it is green because they’re just a stubborn asshole. A part of being convincing is being willing to admit when you’re wrong, and finding a middle ground point to build off of, but if you can’t do that with some people, it isn’t worth wasting your time.