I never said this information justified any bigotry. Just saying that your average American isn’t as hateful as some people on this site would have you believe.
I mean, very extreme bigots have been elected for very high positions, so even if the averge conservative isn't a bigot, they are very willing to put bigots in power positions, and that is very concerning.
It might be a "vocal minority", but if that numerical minority has institutional power, they are power majority.
That’s true, and I don’t think they should be supported. But I feel like things are shifting more and more progressively even in red circles overall. I wish acceptance would move much faster considering it’s people’s livelihoods on the table.
That’s cool you are on the side of seeing this kind of hatred be eradicated from society but surely you understand it is a demonstrably true problem, and criticisms aimed at a general camp that support the problem are justified, right?
Most people on the left understand conservatives could be perfectly normal and reasonable people who harbor no hatred and merely lean right because they like some economic measures or something. Unfortunately we are forced to soil our view of your political zeitgeist when we see people on your side committing extreme violence time and time again while the rest of you remain curiously silent about it, promising to “erase [insert lgbt identity-ism] from the country”, complaining about our mere presence in public areas or media, and fearmongering about us doing heinous acts like grooming and touching kids merely because we dared talk to them.
Like, if you know these things are happening, and it’s only one particular flavor of political ideology doing them, what do you expect people to think?
I’m not conservative, but I personally try to judge people as individuals rather than as whole groups. I consider myself left leaning but not a leftist if that makes sense. I voted blue and independent in the midterms and during the general if that counts for anything. But I am friends with both diehard liberals and conservatives who both resent the other, which is frustrating when you want compromise between them.
I don’t really have an answer for you, but I do try to not “cast out hate with more hate”. The powers that be in this country want us divided by ideology, politics, and religion. So I try my best to see the good in my fellow countrymen, especially when I’m at odds with them. “United We Stand, Divided We Fall.” and all that good stuff.
I also try to do the same, yeah. I think there’s virtue in understanding and empathy. If I didn’t I wouldn’t be a leftist in the first place, it’s kind of a core tennet of the ideology after all.
I also genuinely believe individual conservatives when they tell me they don’t share that visceral hatred others in their camp do. Of course you are not responsible for everything everyone in your side does… but that understanding has its reasonable limits. When your political leaders are making speeches where they literally say “we have to eliminate transgender issues”, there’s no longer any room for interpretation. That’s a direct call to heinous villainy, and you either support it or you are against it. Can’t be wishy washy about something like that.
People would not be so quick to generalize conservatives as holders of thoughts like that if they didn’t show either clear active support for things like these, or passive and indirect combativeness against anyone who calls it out for what it is.
Like imagine just being a moderate conservative in 1930s Germany. If you understand what the nazis mean when they say the Jews are a problem that needs to be dealt with, you can’t have a moderate opinion about it. Either you agree with them or you don’t. And if you don’t understand what they mean and you genuinely believe their friendly euphemisms, then you are an idiot unwittingly working for them… which is not really much better.
I understand people want to be reasonable and not jump to conclusions but… man, their leaders are literally saying they want to eliminate transgender Ian from the country. What else do you think they mean?
-1
u/[deleted] Jun 01 '23
I never said this information justified any bigotry. Just saying that your average American isn’t as hateful as some people on this site would have you believe.