01-31-2018, 05:30 PM
(01-31-2018, 05:25 PM)StLucieBengal Wrote: You have actually helped me understand quite a few things on here and helped me suss out where I may have taken things too far for some on here. You were the lone person willing to at least let me know so I could change some behavior. I appreciate and respect that you did those things. It would certainly have been easier to just not say anything.
I won't say empathy will solve all of the world's problems, but it can certainly help a lot. One of the things we don't do enough of in the world is listen to the perspective of others with the intention of understanding. Why do you think I read some of the conservative media sources I do? I want to understand their views. I may not agree with them on most things, but understanding the viewpoint of someone else helps you see them more as a person and means you end up interacting with them in that way.
There has been a movement in politics to weaponize language. Look up Newt Gingrich's 1996 GOPAC memo about language and you will see what it is I mean. The words used in the political discourse are chosen for maximum effect to otherize the opposing side. This does nothing but make it easier to see the person you disagree with as less than you. That memo kicked off an arms race between the two parties that has divided this nation in, I fear, irreparable ways.
"A great democracy has got to be progressive, or it will soon cease to be either great or a democracy..." - TR
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." - FDR
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." - FDR
