Reply to S/O You can be canceled even if you aren’t a bigot, it happened to me

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Reply to "S/O You can be canceled even if you aren’t a bigot, it happened to me"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Actually, I accepted people with different beliefs pre Jan 6th. Afterwards? Not so much, as it was obvious they don't believe in democracy. [/quote]

I'm not even sure we are talking about people with different beliefs in that way. OP says they are not a bigot, but the J6 people are.

I certainly would not be accepting of someone who participated in J6 or even supported it as a concept -- it was a criminal attempt to overthrow a free and fair election, and many/most of the organizers had racist and/or xenophobic reasons for doing so. I do agree that's beyond a point of acceptance.

But to say "I no longer accept people with different beliefs than me after J6" is VERY EXTREME. I still have a good friend who is a Republican (or, is conservative, they would not align themselves with todays' Republican Party). This is a very good person who I think is wrong headed on some political opinions. But we agree on the big points (they also think J6 was a coup and those people should go to prison, and also they are not bigoted towards POC, LGBTQ+, etc.). We mostly just disagree on economic policy and some foreign policy stuff. It honestly is not a big deal and I'm so glad our friendship has survived the last 10 years of political because it's a friendship I really value. Fortunately, this is someone who never was on board with Trump nor voted for him (they did vote for McCain and Romney).

I also have some family members who are Trump voters and while I cannot countenance their politics and choose to keep my distance for that reason, I also know them to be loving and good parents, kind-hearted community members, etc. None of them participated in the more extreme aspects of Trumpism, though they did vote for him and contributed to it. I refuse to write them off as people and continue to see them at family events and am kind and talk to them. I want to leave open the option for them to come to their senses on Trump and what he does because I know them to have other good qualities to indicate that they do possess empathy and humanity. I think they are misguided and also they have been somewhat brainwashed by where they live and the media they consume. I do worry that one day I will see them and that empathy and humanity will be gone. But I hold out hope.

When we simply shut people down or out for disagreeing with us, we ourselves are not acting in belief or defense of democracy. In a democracy, there will always be people on the right side of the political spectrum. I will always be on the left side. And I can't accept Nazis or similar into my life. But I will always try to make room for everyone else because I think that diversity of opinion is essential to a free society, and also helps to hold me accountable for my own beliefs and actions (it's so easy to develop huge blindspots when you never expose yourself to someone who disagrees with you -- I think my conservative friend and I keep each other honest in this way).

Unless your plan is to literally expel conservatives from the country (which I would not support, ever, because who knows, maybe one day you'll decide I'm not liberal enough, and hey, didn't I used to be friends and related to some of those conservatives? maybe I'm a collaborator), you need to find some way to tell the actual fringe, coup-causing crazies apart from the people with whom you simply disagree, and find a way to co-exist.[/quote]

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