So many people are trapped in binary thinking. I'm not going to assume I'm immune.
I got into an ill-advised argument over abortion. But, because I didn't exactly agree with the mob that descended on me, they could only believe I was 100% on board with the opposite side's opinion. I gave evidence that this wasn't true, but they seemed literally unable to physically see it. All they could do was continue responding to the hallucination that they had formed and that the rest of the mob was helping to prop up.
It was educational.
If I think something is a bad idea, or even wrong, it doesn't mean I believe government should make up legislation prohibiting it.
I don't even think government should make murder illegal-- but I know murder is unethical. Most people can't reconcile those two opinions. If I'm against murder, I must be for laws prohibiting it. If I'm against those laws, obviously I must think anyone should be allowed to kill whoever they want without consequence. Neither is even remotely true,
I even said things unambiguously supporting the mob's side against others who chimed in with the other view. Those comments were ignored completely. They didn't fit in the round hole.
Pointing out this trap-- the binary "thinking"-- just triggers this kind of person even more. No, the problem must be with me, not with them. Some of them resorted to mocking my "centrist" position.
Will I ever learn?
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Spend more time tending to your garden and home and less time at the local university. Unless you go to the university to use its library, but even then, try to avoid interacting with the students.
ReplyDeleteNot a local university, but Twitter. Which is just as bad.
DeleteWhen I lived in a town with a college, I used its library sometimes, to get books on subjects the town library didn't cover. Very rarely did I even see another person there-- maybe it was my timing. I also worked as a volunteer in the college's paleontology lab, though, and I attended some archaeology lectures. That was fun.