Guppy
I'll Lock Up
- Messages
- 4,327
- Location
- Cleveland, OH
It's pretty far off topic to be discussing these points.I both agree and disagree with this, and how I disagree seems worth mentioning. I don’t disagree that we have far more diverse voices today than in the past or that that’s a good thing. But that’s not the most significant change our society is undergoing.
The most significant change imo is a shift in focus from rational discourse and hard work to “feelings”. No society has ever been or will ever be on solid ground with “feelings.” And most of the more high-profile diversity agendas today are little more than propaganda for a “kinder” world under the smoke screen of diversity.
US society was not built on kindness and democracy has never been about respect for another person’s feelings. It is about hard-fought public discourse in the search for a truth we can all agree with or at least live with (or be forced to live with, in some cases), and it is also about having the gumption to follow our own personal truth to its conclusions - be those conclusions rewards or consequences.
And all this coddling crap about safe spaces and respect for feelings does not seem to me to serve that heritage one little bit.
But yeah, I agree that we have always favored the individual who is slow to speak, but only if what they say when they finally speak is worth listening to.
The way things were, and the way we got where we are, are not something we can control; they're in the past, and they're gone. They cannot be undone. We can remember them and learn from them, if anything.
The way forward, however, is our choice. We can choose to value kindness and respect, and we can aspire to live those values.
Whatever we choose, we should think about it, and be able to defend our choices.
When times have been tough, people have had to be tough and nasty to survive. And surviving is a value. But we can recognize when we don't need to be nasty to others in order to survive, to make our way, or to thrive. And the stronger and more secure we are, the less nasty we need to be. As a civilized society we ought to regard progress as moving the society in a direction where all are respected, all are treated with kindness, all are safe, and nastiness is needed less. Even if that's an impossible dream, it's a direction to aspire to move towards.