Talk to Your Opponents. Now. Or Else.
The Left and Right are heading for a climactic, end-of-the-movie confrontation, some time before January 20th.
The nature and character of that confrontation depends on us. Where it falls on the spectrum of violence to peacefulness is up to us to decide.
And the way to make it peaceful is communication. We must reach out to the "other side" - whoever they may be - and talk to them.
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This sounds like "not a big deal", at first glance. But for some people, it is a big deal. Some people don't want to talk with those who have views that differ from theirs. And those people are ones keeping us stuck in this mess.
It doesn't matter if you're a Leftie or a Rightie. The line between Good and Evil does not run through a spot on the political spectrum. It simply runs between Those Who Are Willing to Discuss Other Viewpoints... vs. Those Who Aren't Willing to Talk.
If you're willing to talk, then you're on the Good Team - regardless of where you are on the spectrum between Left and Right.
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Considering all of this, the act of reaching out and talking to your political opponents is a radical act. You want to be a radical, eh? Well there's your radical. You want to be a brave warrior? Well there's your bravery. You want to protect your country? Your planet? Well that's how you do it.
If we don't do it, then the Left and the Right will destroy each other - and probably the world, too - in a mutual exchange of scapegoats. And we're getting really close to the point where that could happen.
In order to prevent that, we have to find a detente. Now. We've gotta start understanding where the other side is coming from.
And that requires communication.
If you're a Rightie, reach out to a Leftie.
If you're a Leftie, reach out to a Rightie.
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I know, it can be difficult to expose yourself to ideas that call into question your own. There's a physical feeling that comes with it. An uncomfortable feeling. You want to avoid it.
But the very fact that you don't want to be in contact with such a person, and such thoughts, is precisely the reason why you need to be. That feeling - that unwillingness to consider the other person's viewpoint - is the signal that something is not quite correct about your own.
Again, this applies to people on all parts of the spectrum. Left and Right, near and far, and everything in between. This isn't about who you are - this is about what you do. And how you communicate. Whether you communicate.
***
The primary cause of everything that's wrong with the world can be traced back to the simple cognitive distortion that "the proper response to people saying things I don't like is to cease communicating with them."
If we were to envision it as a mathematical equation, it would look something like:
(People saying things I don't like) = (I should stop communicating)
That belief is only a belief, and it's possible to not think like that. Many people don't think like that.
Anyone who studied psychology knows that:
Not wanting to talk about something
is the clearest form of indication
that that specific topic
is the topic
that you most need to talk about.
The aversion to discussing a topic should be the motivation to discuss that topic. It should be reason enough, in itself, to make you want to discuss whatever the topic is that you're averse to discussing.
It should be:
"Oh look at that. There's a topic I'm not comfortable talking about. Gosh, I'm glad I found it, cause that means now I can talk about it! I'm so excited to finally get a chance to talk about something that makes me uncomfortable to talk about, because I know that that very discomfort is the barrier that I constructed around what I deep down know to be the truth, but was brainwashed by the mind-control matrix to instead fear and suppress.
Either that, or it's a philosophical or political belief that I'm protecting, and I'm insecure that it might not be correct anymore, but I thus far haven't had the intellectual courage to admit error, so I constructed this emotional discomfort around it to stop myself from thinking about it and to reflexively stop others from talkjng to me about it, in order to avoid having it brought up, and avoid having to face the possibility of one or more of my current beliefs being incorrect, and having to admit intellectual error, but I'M SO GLAD I FINALLY NOTICED ALL THIS because NOW I CAN FINALLY TALK ABOUT IT, and actually get everything out on the table to examine with dispassionate Reason the arguments that it consists of, and evaluate it in the light of rational scrutiny, to determine the actual truth, whatever it may be!
YAAAAYYYY!!!"
That's how smart people think. Remember?
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