"I have never seen America so completely polarized"
Yeah, I don't deny this at all. The level of division in America at the moment is quite literally insane. The point I'm making is that the divisions are largely illusory. There are *disagreements*, but people have turned these into matters of identity instead of matter of opinion. I know…
"I have never seen America so completely polarized"
Yeah, I don't deny this at all. The level of division in America at the moment is quite literally insane. The point I'm making is that the divisions are largely illusory. There are *disagreements*, but people have turned these into matters of identity instead of matter of opinion. I know you're occasionally prone to talking about Republicans as if they're a different species of human being. Some on the right say the same about "lefties". These are the kinds of differences I'm talking about.
As I repeatedly point out, most people are perfectly sane, and if you talk to them in a polite, reasonable way, they'll talk back to you in the same way. The problem is that the internet has gotten us out of the habit of speaking to each other politely. I can say with great confidence, having spoken to more people than most, that the right isn't all racists and supporters of the Big Lie and the left isn't all postmodernists and snowflakes.
As for cancel culture, I think even your example of a racist tweet is a bad one. The fact that somebody has a bad idea doesn't render all of their opinions null and void. Nor is the best strategy to ostracise that person instead of educating them. But hey, if racist tweets were the standard, I don't think anybody would be talking about cancel culture (unless we included the puritanical penchant for cancelling people over racist tweets sent ten years ago when they were teenagers).
The problem is that people are disinvited from speaking gigs or fired from their jobs or subjected to torrents of abuse for things that most sane people would consider perfectly reasonable. The case that springs to mind right now (because I'm writing about her) is JK Rowling. Some will argue that she hasn't been "cancelled" because she's still wealthy and successful. As if the only true standard for cancelling somebody is that their life is completely and irrevocably ruined. But she's been subjected to over a year of death threats and abuse, just a few days ago Trans Twitter doxxed her online, she was disinvited from the 20th anniversary celebration of the universe she singlehandedly created, and why? Because she believes the women should continue to have single sex spaces. Numerous women less powerful than her have lost their livelihoods over the same opinion.
This is just one example of cancel culture. And is completely incomparable to a flame war on some forum because you criticised Trump.
"I have never seen America so completely polarized"
Yeah, I don't deny this at all. The level of division in America at the moment is quite literally insane. The point I'm making is that the divisions are largely illusory. There are *disagreements*, but people have turned these into matters of identity instead of matter of opinion. I know you're occasionally prone to talking about Republicans as if they're a different species of human being. Some on the right say the same about "lefties". These are the kinds of differences I'm talking about.
As I repeatedly point out, most people are perfectly sane, and if you talk to them in a polite, reasonable way, they'll talk back to you in the same way. The problem is that the internet has gotten us out of the habit of speaking to each other politely. I can say with great confidence, having spoken to more people than most, that the right isn't all racists and supporters of the Big Lie and the left isn't all postmodernists and snowflakes.
As for cancel culture, I think even your example of a racist tweet is a bad one. The fact that somebody has a bad idea doesn't render all of their opinions null and void. Nor is the best strategy to ostracise that person instead of educating them. But hey, if racist tweets were the standard, I don't think anybody would be talking about cancel culture (unless we included the puritanical penchant for cancelling people over racist tweets sent ten years ago when they were teenagers).
The problem is that people are disinvited from speaking gigs or fired from their jobs or subjected to torrents of abuse for things that most sane people would consider perfectly reasonable. The case that springs to mind right now (because I'm writing about her) is JK Rowling. Some will argue that she hasn't been "cancelled" because she's still wealthy and successful. As if the only true standard for cancelling somebody is that their life is completely and irrevocably ruined. But she's been subjected to over a year of death threats and abuse, just a few days ago Trans Twitter doxxed her online, she was disinvited from the 20th anniversary celebration of the universe she singlehandedly created, and why? Because she believes the women should continue to have single sex spaces. Numerous women less powerful than her have lost their livelihoods over the same opinion.
This is just one example of cancel culture. And is completely incomparable to a flame war on some forum because you criticised Trump.