Feel free to move this into the War Room if this is too politically charged to one side or the other, but I'm trying to be equal-opportunity in my venting here:
What is it with people over the past 5-10 years or so starting to deflect criticisms of their character as criticisms of a label?
It seems more popular for people on the left to be called out for doing it, but let's be honest here, it happens on both sides of the political spectrum, and it's annoying as shit when either side does it, because it deflects from real issues.
"You hate me because I'm transgender!" No, I dislike you because you're annoying as shit and claim that you don't need a diagnosis of gender dysphoric disorder to call yourself trans.
"You hate me because I'm Christian!" No, I dislike you because you can't seem to shut the fuck up about how gays are going to hell, your Facebook wall is filled with that shit.
"You hate me because I'm black!" No, I dislike you because you chained yourself to barrels of concrete and blocked freeway traffic for hours.
"You hate me because I'm conservative!" No, I dislike you because you were just telling me about how people should "just pull themselves up by their bootstraps" when you've never experienced a day of hardship in your life.
"You hate me because I'm gay!" No, I dislike you because literally half the conversations we have, you find a way to make it about how you're gay, and that's really annoying.
It seems to me that this sort of dishonest style of argumentation has only come up with the rise of the Internet, as it used to be that anyone getting in a political argument would be arguing with someone that they know personally, who is a member of their community. So, it follows that back then, people couldn't resort to the "you just hate me because I'm [label]" style of argument, as it's an argument that presumes the other person knows nothing about you other than that label. It's a facile argument that immediately falls apart when exposed to any sort of scrutiny.
On the flip side, it's a very powerful argument to make, because countering it is a lose-lose position for the accused. You wind up with one of two options, which is to either explain why you don't hate people with that label - with the admittedly flimsy "I have a bunch of friends who are [label]" - or you then have to explain exactly why it is that you dislike the person, thus making you look like an asshole anyway.
It's the Internet generation's race card, and it's the worst kind of dishonest argumentative bullshit.
In beginning to Love ALL, it's not enough to strip others of what you perceive their "Label" to be. One has to start with themself first. Labels only exist due to the concept of duality. If you're one-thing, somebody is some-thing else.
they've been trained in this mentality by the media, who has for the last 20 years used this sentiment to appeal to intrinsic prejudices to keep raking in ad money.
Seriously. The 80s started truly ripping away the 50s culture, because it was the first decade that catered to non-adults. It started in the 70s, but hit train speed and mass in the 80s, then exponentially since then.
Everyone is a child. Everyone wants to re-live their childhood, or live one they didn't have. Western, particularly Am, culture is coming to terms with itself, hence the age regression or stagnation.
Human nature is to fear. And the world is the scariest it's ever been, and everyone knows it.
> Human nature is to fear. And the world is the scariest it's ever been, and everyone > knows it.
The world is only the scariest it's ever been because of the billions of revenue dollars at stake for the news media (both left and right) in keeping everyone absolutely pants-shitting terrified that World War III will pop off at any moment.
The world is a safer, more peaceful, and less violent place than it has ever been by almost any metric, it's just that 50 years ago you'd have been lucky to hear about a murder from the next town over. Now you can have all of the world's ills from across the globe plumbed directly to your house through the magic of cable TV and the Internet. People only think the "old days" were so great because they were a more insular time where people didn't have any need or desire to know about the bullshit going on half a world away.
Hyperconsiousness, as my Humanity instructor in the mid-90s called it, and to which I alluded, is some of it.* The tendency to fear is what turns it, and females especially are fearful creatures.
Outside of terrorism, which is at an all-time high, the rest of the world is safer than it's ever been. The US was probably safest through the 40s and 50s, thanks mostly to Christianity and Capitalism.
*I happen to be the other way: the more I know, the less in peril I am. I'm never vulnerable, because I'm fearless. However, most of the things in the world are.....unnecessary.....the heart of dysfunxion, and dysfunxion perturbs me.
> The world is only the scariest it's ever been because of the billions of revenue dollars at stake for the news media (both left and right) in keeping everyone absolutely pants-shitting terrified that World War III will pop off at any moment.
> The world is a safer, more peaceful, and less violent place than it has ever been by almost any metric, it's just that 50 years ago you'd have been lucky to hear about a murder from the next town over. Now you can have all of the world's ills from across the globe plumbed directly to your house through the magic of cable TV and the Internet. People only think the "old days" were so great because they were a more insular time where people didn't have any need or desire to know about the bullshit going on half a world away.
> Outside of terrorism, which is at an all-time high
[citation needed]
Again, even as recently as the 90's, you wouldn't have had such a direct line to news of what sorts of horrible shit is going on in the world. If you actually look retrospectively at what was going on at the time, the world was no more violent than it is now, and in fact it is less violent now.
I hadn't thought of 'niche'/indigenous terrorism. When I say terrorism, I think of and mean stuff that's basically out to kill everyone else. I think that's at an all-time high.
From what I've seen, all crime is up in the US. Growing up, we heard sirens very rarely. I watched the news frequently enough as a kid, and I don't recall there being public shootings.
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