Sword Swinging
I respect the fact that you are entitled to your own opinion. It doesn’t make what you believe factually correct, but it is yours. What I’ve struggled with over these last months are the broad-brush comments of condemnation because of your espoused opinion.
My issue with your sword of condemnation is when it swings beyond support of a position or person and slashes people you consider friends. Why can’t you just state your position and why it is that you’ve made that stand? It’s your right and I respect that, but must you also condemn everyone who’s indifferent to your opinion?
Banana Island
For example, I like banana and mayonnaise sandwiches. I enjoy them still today because as a child who grew up in a big family with nothing, it kept me fed and even now reminds me of my mom at the table scrounging for that last banana and the sound of a metal knife scraping the jar of mayo.
Why would I add that anyone who disagrees with my enjoyment of banana sandwiches is stupid, or if you refuse to slather mayo on bread and slice a banana across it, then you are stupid and don’t deserve to eat? Maybe you don’t even deserve to live.
How about the latest social control strategy suggesting that those who refuse to eat my banana sandwich should leave my country or be interned to an isolated section of America where you can callously eat everything else except for what I enjoy. Better yet, everyone who gets herded onto this reserved space can starve to death because of your ignorant refusal to eat my banana sandwich.
Newest Old Tactics
Do those population control tactics sound familiar? When unleashing your opinion of support or opposition and you slash beyond the intended subject, you wound actual people standing in the space between your selfishness and their right to also have an opinion. Just a few short months ago, these are the very same people you were asking to post pictures of their pets, to share the last picture they’d taken, or where they wanted to visit once the quarantine was lifted.
And now you’ve come to this superior position of intolerance over the fluidity of an opinion? You’re actually willing to wound people because they refuse to acquiesce to your feelings instead of respecting their right to feel as well. I used to think the statement, “We’ll have to agree to disagree,” was ridiculously weak because it gave credence to people’s inability to reach a common ground.
But, in today’s atmosphere of social slashing, it might be the most valuable statement we can make. At the very least, it includes an effort to agree if even over the fact that there is disagreement. I really don’t care if you want to eat a banana sandwich or not, and I’ll never try shoving one down your throat. I’ll sit at the same table with you no matter what you feel like eating, but once you begin criticizing me personally for my choice of a banana sandwich, you’re no longer welcome to sit here.
Do Good,
Categories: Dr. Scott Silverii
Scott, let us not forget, it is not about why they burn things down. They simply don’t care. America cannot be remade until it is burnt to a crisp, so they pull out the marshmallows and light a match. They don’t care who goes down in the process as long as it goes down. The end justifies the means, was ever thus.
Also, while I’m on that, think of the last six months alone. “Take away guns and the second amendment”. Let criminals out of prison, the so-called jailbreak legislation. And the latest, defund police.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see how that’ll end.
NO kidding. Time for eyes open. Always open.
Yes sir.
Very enlightening, and I agree. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, that’s what being an American is all about, being free to say what you want without fear of persecution, without fear that someone might attack you for having a different point of view from what they have. I may not agree with those who are protesting, but as long as it is peaceful, they can protest. One must make sure, though, that all who are needing protection from tyranny and injustice are truly receiving it.