Monday, August 29, 2022

Pressing the "Do Not Press" button


I've discovered that many-- if not most-- people have one issue or topic that if you don't exactly match their views on that topic, you have crossed a line-- you're dead to them. You're blocked, hated, and shunned.

I'm not talking about anything like saying you believe it's OK to rape and murder children. Nothing of that magnitude where right and wrong are obvious to any who aren't trying to cover for something. Just things that seem to be differences of opinion where reasonable people could take either side.

I'm constantly crossing those lines. It's not intentional; it's a consequence of saying what I honestly think.

To me, that kind of standard seems odd. There's no topic or issue that will make me reject everything else a person says or does over disagreement on it. Opinions differ and people are even free to be wrong on a few issues. If they are right on everything else what value is there in rejecting the whole enchilada? Does every single topic or issue have to be potential poison?

Example: I hate cops. I don't hate or block people who don't hate cops-- not even people who believe there can be "good cops". I wouldn't block a cop I was connected with on social media, unless it was to protect myself (which I doubt would work if they were out to get me).

As I say, it just seems to be a very strange standard to have one issue that everyone in your circle is absolutely required to agree on 100% or else. Or am I missing out on something by not having such an issue?

-

Please support the Tobbles Memorial Cat & Kitten Rescue Project on Patreon

4 comments:

  1. Sounds like you are arguing in defense of ethical relativism.

    How much "bad" must you experience before you are motivated to shun the offender or take some form of corrective action ?

    Example:

    Liberty is good .... <---- spectrum of belief and action ----> .... Liberty is bad.

    Moral absolutism is a tool for defense of both mental and physical self.

    Hans ... in the NC woods

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm not saying you should agree with them, nor even that you should "agree to disagree". If someone is wrong on something, they are wrong. Reject that wrongness without compromise-- but without automatically throwing out everything else the person says or does. If you don't at least know (and understand) what "the other side" says on something, you're less likely to really understand your own position. Walling yourself off into an echo chamber isn't going to benefit you in the long run-- and ultimately it will end up with you being completely alone, since no one is ever going to agree with you 100% all the time on every issue..

      Delete
    2. I've investigated the intellectual, moral and political positions of people on "the other side" of me and used that knowledge to test and refine my belief structures. That is the intellectual duty of a curious mind.

      However, I've reached a time in my life where I am no longer disturbed by being alone. We are born alone, we die alone, so why should one be afraid to live alone?

      Being alone is not the same as being lonely. Loneliness derives from an unfulfilled longing for something that you do not and perhaps cannot possess.

      Companionship is pleasant and desirable, but not at the expense of principle.

      Hans ... in the NC woods

      Delete
    3. I agree with everything you said above.

      I suppose the difference is that I'm open to the possibility that I might be wrong on *almost* anything. (Not on the point that there's any such thing as "too much liberty" or something fundamental like that.) Maybe the other person knows something I don't. Maybe they have better information or have looked at it from an angle I haven't. It's possible, even if I feel like it's unlikely.

      If I shut out someone over an issue like this, and later discover they were right and I was wrong, I would be a fool. Not just that I would feel like one-- I would be one. I've been wrong before-- such as before I was a libertarian/anarchist/Voluntaryist/abolitionist. I don't brainwash myself into believing I've now achieved perfection, even if I'd like to think so.

      Delete