Mateo D
Mateo D
Aug 28, 2017 · 2 min read

Thx, understood and you obviously hang with a much more literate bunch than I do (hey, I’m even kinda jealous)! ;-)

That said, unless someone’s literally trying to do me harm, my own philosophy is we’re all still human and it’s always better to have some continued communication even with our ‘enemies’, no matter how fleeting or ‘imperfect’, than none at all. Are there exceptions? Sure, but we’re not talking Jeffrey Dahmer or Hitler here. Instead these are everyday folks we already have at least some connection with (or they wouldn’t be FB ‘friends’ to begin with, right)?

For example I have a FB acquaintance from motorcycling, who also has a kid in the Army, and both are uber-patriotic Trumpsters. They frequently ‘inform’ me on FB of all sortsa typical RW “news”, like you’d find on Breitbart, but it’s also intended to ‘persuade’ other folks on the same feed. So once in awhile we’ll ‘engage’, others will chime in for or against, and I usually stay apolitical, respectful and un-accusatory, simply questioning the ‘facts’ presented. Naturally no one’s mind ends up being changed, but I believe what’s important is that it’s not totally ‘abstract’, and we still know the actual individuals and personalities behind those opinions.

And IMHO maintaining that ‘connection’, however ephemeral seems much more important, especially at a time when we all seem to have some sorta need these days to go ‘tribal’ and ‘demonize’ each other, albeit from our respective ‘bubbles’ (whether Breitbart and FOX, or Slate and the Atlantic)… which inevitably ends up nowhere but in an all-out War (aka, “clash of cultures”, unless that’s what we really want)?

People change, sometimes glacially slow, oftentimes not at all. And it’s a difficult “process”. But one thing I don’t wanna do is help “enable” their ignorance thru the equivalent of isolating ’em in a room with nuthin’ but more of that same ignorance.

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    Mateo D

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    Mateo D

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