I'm not saying that politics don't have real consequences. But by pointing everyone who even slightly disagrees with you as literally the incarnation of evil, you're only making things worse. Do you think Fundamentalist Christians are less likely to support anti-abortion laws if you keep being toxic to them?
I grew up in that kind of church and over 30 years watched the entire world around me change: I have zero connection or desire to be in that world, my family mellowed out, the tv preachers all died.
Recent social media trends lead to far left liberals are attacking conservative people on social media directly, and vice versa. There's no opportunity for de-escalation on either side. Every confrontation is personal.
Conservatives don't respond to the vitriol. They have the exact same response you do to their hate. They put up barriers and become protective of their beliefs rather than engage in direct, vulnerable dialogue. They tune you out entirely and focus simply on defending and attacking. That's the only discourse left.
Do you realize the rich spectrum of conservative beliefs? Or do you see it all as a single position? There's so much opportunity to change hearts and minds, but it's all being squandered (and perhaps permanently so) on these petty fights and turf wars.
The other side is human, just as you. If they'd had a different life journey, they might stand beside you now. If you'd had theirs, you might be in their shoes.
I assume you've experienced a lot of change in your personal life. Understand and appreciate that everyone can take new paths.
All I'm asking is that you don't engage in petty attacks, as it's pointless, embittering, and drags out the battle. You can fight for what you believe without belittling.
Attacking them for what? This isn't theoretical, I'm connected to giant global database where the public availability of this information is well known. Attacking them for what?
If your moral compass is "someone was mean to me on the internet, now I don't support abortion rights for rape victims" then there was no causative effect, you're just doing what you were going to do anyway.
Because it makes the priority pretty clear: these aren't hard to find stories[1]. The victims aren't "the far left" they're just people[2]. It isn't hard to empathize with them, but apparently the conclusion you reach is that they deserve what's happening to them, because an unrelated group of people might've been mean to you on the internet.
"People are mean to me on the internet" is a lie used to deflect from the data. Because someone is always saying something shitty on the internet. Because someone, somewhere on the far-left might tell someone they're an asshole. But then the far-right will rock up to what they think is Obama's house[3]. But then here you are, telling me the only reason conservatives don't support my issues is because someone is mean to them. I don't know who that person is, I don't know why they were mean, but because they were that's all the justification needed to support denying healthcare to women.
