Like the majority of people, I’m astounded as I watch the public discourse fill with talking points. Being used as weapons to attempt silencing those of opposite belief. You see it commonly in the dialogue between the falsehood of left/right.
“Oh, did you hear that on Faux news?”
“Is that what the Clinton News Network is saying now?”
The level of vitriol often included is offensive as it not only seeks to shut down the other persons view, but to do so in a way that belittles them in an often insulting fashion.
Once these talking points start being introduced, it often achieves its purpose of ensuring no one involved is capable of seeing the other person, that there will be no meeting of the minds. It is distressing to watch so many take up these talking points being handed to them as the answers to their problems that they enslave themselves to it. Shackle themselves to these ideas, investing in them to the point they ignore simple truths rather than abandon them where they don’t fit.
This post was prompted through watching someone who believes that an actual free market could exist, slandering another that they must be a left wing communist. I see that a lot from my brothers/sisters on the right. Everything is a plot by Alinsky/Soros that if it could just be put down, things would for once operate as they should. The so called free markets would usher in the utopia that has never existed before. Just got to get all these lazy people to stop being lazy too. Get those welfare kings and queens off the public dole. Meanwhile, their leaders hand out more welfare to the elite of the world than the lowest levels of society will ever see. You just cant make this shit up.
Or the most disturbing one I’ve seen lately. The old trope that black people can’t help be so violent because of their IQ level being so low. I first saw this despicable idea introduced by Stefan Molyneux, although I imagine he borrowed it from someone else. This absolutely ludicrous idea that violence is somehow attached to an IQ makes me sick. I stop and pause how many that subscribe to this idea that a whole group of people are violent because they are supposedly “to stupid” not to be, own a dog. Dogs have the IQ at best of a little more than a toddler.
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=do+dogs+have+an+iq&ia=web
It’s like people are so desperate to explain things that they have no desire to examine deeply and latch onto these stupid talking point notions that they can just blanket whole groups with.
And that's the problem. Talking points are so easy to use, those who would have us tear at one another hand them out like candy. The left does it too. Some of the assertions I see coming from that side leaves me shaking my head. Some points so drastic that I’m sure I will trigger some to the far extreme of that side so badly my very existence makes them sick.
I found out a long time ago that people are prone to listening to you, seeing you as a person if you put down your talking points. If you present yourself as a real person of compassion and acceptance. I’ve had many discussions with people who subscribe to far left positions that frighten me and/or have harmed me, and because I talked from myself and not a talking point they usually listened. Same with some of those I know in the far right.
I see so many starting to understand the leaders on their side aren’t producing the results they talk of. That they say one thing, and do another. Yet despite this, you see the same old divisive talking points brandished as a weapon so quick it leaves no time for us to find our commonality.
I urge all of you who have read this to stop saying it was:
The Jews
White People
Black People
Chinese
etc.
Whatever race you may identify with, chances are those in power making decisions that hurt others aren’t consulting you. Odds are in fact if you try saying something against them that you will find yourself bearing the full brunt of their fury as much as anyone on that list above not of that group.
The boiling water is being turned up on the majority of us by a select few on that list above. The same select few who come up with these talking points designed to make us not see one another, designed to make us blame one another. Taking back our power from this powerful elect who is the real minority begins with seeing one another. The fears, the hungers, the aspirations. The love. We all desire those things in some form. They use these talking points to fog our perception. To make us forget the true salve is love and understanding. Not in some pacifistic way that makes us victims. In a real way that demands that we group together when we see one of our brothers/sisters being preyed upon.
These talking points have made most people cold to one another, and that’s the door they use to get away with their crimes. The door they use to keep us from being healthy.
The talking points might be different, but the goal is the same. And it hurts all of us as it emboldens/empowers them. I read the other day that approximately 8500 people rule the world. Not sure how that figure was arrived at, but given how few the ultra rich are it sounds feasible. If true, that really brings home how effective their propaganda machines are at keeping us at odds with one another while they offer us portions of their field to occupy with their talking points. If we ever stop grazing on their pre-selected areas and begin cutting them out through cooperation and seeing one another, their days of power and pain will surely end.
At times I find it hard to talk to some of you hard liners pitching for "your" side. Your demand to not see people is repulsive and automatically demands one question your credibility. Especially when you defend it to the point you refuse to see me or the things I see.
Racism quite frankly is something I still don't get. While I've never experienced it personally, it surprises me that people still think this way today. To be fair though am sure we'll find other reasons to be divisive if race didn't exist - almost like we need to compete with each other and feel superior.
I don't pay attention to those who think their opinions are golden and refuse to see the other persons perspective. Just ignore them, not because we fear confrontations but because they're simply not worth it
I think it's because outliers are so obvious it's easy to succumb to fear (or any other emotion tied to the outlier) and believe its true of all of similar background. The segregation that seems to naturally occur in most people aids in magnifying the perception which is then seized upon by those who profit from these schisms. There is sadly some truth to the idea that stereotypes exist for a reason.
Whats missing from such a blanket generalization however are the reasons behind it, coupled with the real life observations that when you delve deeper into an individual examination, people are so much more than any generalization they may fit partially or more.
Between the scarcity mindset that has been foisted upon most of us, this will enhance the fear/anger among many. I suspect that if we are ever able to stop the forced scarcity that many of these fears would fall away, allowing people to stop being so cautious and see others more clearly.
I've lived long enough to be humbled at the amount of ignorance I've carried with me through life. As I get older, I align more strongly with the Christian idea of falling short. As my time here enters the winter of my life, I think each evening on the many ways I could have done or been better. On how many times through the day I've allowed the sharpness of moments to fog my mindfulness, fog the larger picture.
I'm rambling now though. Thanks for reading and weighing in.
Corporate welfare is treated as sacrosanct by BOTH the left and the right.
You can't expect regular people to stay at home and starve to death when they all lose their jobs at the same time.
Turning the workers against each other is the oldest trick in the book.
And speaking of "talking points",