When I was a young adult & even lower middle aged, conservatives were just as capable as liberals of having a conversation that took into account different points of view than theirs. Over the past twenty years, that essential capacity for balanced discussion has whittled away. What little ability was left ten years ago, disappeared over the past eight. Today's typical Republican seems to see issues as black & white, without nuance or subtle shading.
They are not trying to bait Democrats when they accuse liberals - especially Hillary & President Obama - as directly responsible for the deaths in Dallas. Over & over, it seems that today's conservatives see people as being totally for police or totally against. T
hey are sincere in processing statements that state some police have made questionable judgements as staying that ALL police have.
A liberal & a conservative can read the same statement, word for word, and come away with completely different understandings. In my experience, it is commonplace for a shocking number of conservatives to read inflammatory sentiments or belies into what the president or Hillary or other liberals said that simply aren't there. Maybe they are so used to their own political leaders & thought leaders making blatant use of dog whistle wording, they suspect liberals of doing the same, leaving them free to reinterpret everything that's said, rather than taking it at face value
It's my sad experience that I cannot have a lucid conversation with my conservative friends. What they believe is true is true, no matter what is or isn't said, was or wasn't done.
I don't know why they are so black & white in their thinking. It seems not that long ago that Bill Buckley & Gore Vidal were locking horns as commentators at the 1968 conventions. Both were solid in their beliefs, but neither was straightjacketed into ideologies so tightly that they couldn't acknowledge & listen to a different point of view.
On Thursday, a black man shot almost a dozen Dallas police officers, killing five, at a Black Lives Matter protest march. My conservative friends insist the march turned violent, as they expected it to do. They will not, cannot see that violence erupted AT the march; the march became tragically chaotic, but never violent. To them, the shooter was a black man out to kill white police officers. Will it matter to them that he was also a vet who served in Afghanistan, possibly suffering from PTSD? I haven't a doubt that's what they'd focus on if he was white. If ever there was a situation where we should hold off making assumptions about motive until we get a better ide of the shooter's mental state, this is it. But my friends lump the shooter in with Black Lives Matter & believe the movement is as much to blame as the man, both egged on by Obama & Clinton. Nothing will shake them.
We live in fragile times. Now, more than ever, we need people who can see things as more than simply black & white, dangerous days that require more than seeing issues in a full spectrum of color hues shades. We need empathy, compassion, caring - levels of vulnerability that most of my conservative friends find dangerous, unacceptable.
Today, we need all Americans to be able to communicate, to be open in our feelings, holding true to our beliefs while respectfully hearing out those who disagree, knowing where we stand but willing to change our mind if a more convincing argument can be made.
Hillary Clinton did not call out police as racists. Neither did President Obama. But I can't convince my conservative friends of that. They believe that only they truly love America, that the president has been trying to bring our nation to its knees & that Hillary is literally in cahoots with the devil.
It feels less like they will not see different views, but that they cannot. We live in a world filled with issues that cover a broad spectrum of opinion, where those who see only in black & white will feel increasingly isolated, vulnerable, in danger.
Where will it end? We will see
No comments:
Post a Comment