Admittedly, I don’t think I’m handling the current political climate (impending dictatorship) well. The people I follow on social media are urging us to peacefully protest in D.C- you know, go to the heart of it all. Because I can’t/won’t, I choose to feed information into the Facebook echo chamber that is (In my opinion) true, but also divisive. I don’t like how it feels.
If people troll me on my page, I unfriend them; thus protecting the echo chamber. Should I try and reason with them? I’ve had lackluster and even scary results attempting this in the past.
One such person had previously posted about preserving Charlie Kirk’s legacy. It concerned me, but he’s entitled to his beliefs. I could’ve commented about all the harmful ideologies his legacy entails, but I chose not to because again, he’s entitled to his beliefs whether I agree or not.
Also, I believe that the pictures circulating of Kirk and his wife and kids are really tugging at peoples’ heart strings. I get that- it humanizes him as a dad and a husband- a family man, if you will. Therefore, people are very emotionally charged- so much so, that his passing eclipsed the anniversary of 9/11 in terms of media coverage. It eclipsed the school shooting that happened that same day. Still, I’m forever amazed at societies’ inability to hold two notions at once: that C.K. did not deserve what happened to him, and also, his impact has and will continue to harm many others who are also someone’s dad, son, sister, brother, mom, etc.
That said, prior to C.K’s death, this person struck me as well educated, well-informed, and reasonable, so I assume (perhaps incorrectly) that he knows full well what C.K stands for. It wasn’t until I posted something he didn’t like and he trolled me on my page, that I decided enough was enough and I unfriended him. I say trolling because there was no attempt to understand, it was simply chastising me for posting something he took offense to.
I think we both handled it wrong.
I always used to pride myself in my ability to agree to disagree. What more can you hope for if you’ve both heard each other out and have reached a stalemate; especially if aside from proving you’re right, the goal is to maintain a sense of peace and order? I think many of us are seeing that the price for maintaining the status quo is higher than we realized, as many of us are severing ties with others so that we can be true to ourselves and/or our Lord and Savior- depending on which side of the aisle you find yourself on. Agreeing to disagree no longer seems to be an option.
I liken the reason to the analogy of being bullied every single day where a group of kids kicks the crap out of you and steals your lunch. You can know in your heart that you have more in common with the bully than what separates you, but they’re not going to listen to logic and reason. Odds are, they’re not emotionally mature enough to understand anyway. So, your only option is to fight back, despite the notion that two wrongs do not make a right.
Right now we have a bully in the White House, with an administration full of bullies, and they have zero interest in bringing us all together. C.K’s death was a prime example- they were declaring war on the radical left before even knowing who the shooter was. Once it was proven to be a white man from a conservative family, not a transvestite liberal seeking revenge, they merely doubled down on their own hateful and dangerous rhetoric. At this point, the GOP is literally the party of let me piss on your leg and tell you it’s raining.
So here I sit, at a standstill. My own words are divisive, and yet I don’t know a better way. What I do know is that my goal is not to convince anyone that I’m right. My goal is not to win. My goal is to figure out what the hell “handling this right” looks and feels like.
Something tells me I have a lot to learn.