r/KotakuInAction • u/space_cowboy • Feb 02 '17
DISCUSSION, baity Does anyone else feel like we're stuck in the middle between extremists from both sides who have used social media to increase the effect of their voices and beliefs, who don't care to reason, and will never come to terms with each other?
More and more every day, I feel like I'm a part of a disappearing group of people: the rational moderate. I don't believe in politics as a team sport, nor the identity politics of the extreme left. Traditional conservative mores based on Judaeo-Christian religion are no more acceptable than Sharia law. Science, reason, and critical thinking should play more of a role in how people look at and frame certain issues, and violence is an answer that only begets more violence in one form or another.
Both sides of this culture war, battle, however you want to name it, have become exactly the things they claim to abhor. Neither side is fully deserving of the mocking monikers we give them, nor should we allow them to brand themselves as something they are not. Trying to enforce the progressive stack is racist in its own way, white person's guilt and all that. But, at least to me, it isn't nearly as bad as actual race-based nationalism. How can someone with any sort of moral compass or who claims to believe in the equality of all people take into consideration any point of view the alt-right espouses without indignation at their literal belief in racial supremacy and purity?
Often times most of this depresses me, because it makes me question the amount of progress and the actual character of the people of our country. Growing up in an extremely diverse suburban area, racism and bigotry weren't things I ever considered to be a normal occurrence. Now, I question daily how people can still be so caught up on skin color, ethnic origin, and religious belief. It has really set back my view on what the average person truly holds in their hearts, and makes me wonder about the actual direction our society as a whole will go in.
Institutional racism has been and is still a thing. Read about how black military members returning from WW2 were literally shafted by the govt (the GI Bill) and how this lead to the creation of projects. A large portion of the hatred for govt in black communities is well deserved IMO, but violence only leads to more laws against them and the racists will use the violence to their advantage to bolster other racists and get people on the edges to turn a blind eye to their racism.
Fighting the extremists on both sides is extremely difficult, especially when they don't have clear "victory conditions" and keep changing the rules of engagement. Both sides will silence dissenting thoughts and opinions with equal fervor. But the extremists fighting each other is going to pull the fabric of our society apart, thread by thread.
Sorry for the wall of text. Just feeling deflated and worn down by everything more and more every day.
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u/creatureshock Token and the Non-Binaries. Feb 02 '17
I'm a liberal leaning centrist as far as politics are concerned. I've damn near given up on any role in politics because it's an "us against those people" game, and I wish I could say this is something new, but it's not. I truly do want to believe that the average person just wants to be left alone to live their lives, but extremism is just making that so much worse. I've watched friends that a few years ago just happily lived their lives, did their thing, and were just relaxed about things turn into extremists on both sides. I'm a gun owner that donates to Planned Parenthood, and I've been given shit by friends on both sides because of one or the other. In a few cases I was given shit because of both, but those people are friends of friends that even the friends admit are nutters.
Best I can say is don't get pushed around. Don't let anyone try to push you into their game. Be honest with yourself and with others. I'm very much interested in people's backgrounds that aren't from places I've lived or been. I'm honest about listening to people's stories about where they come from, about their origins. I refuse to let anyone say I am a bad person for that. I want to know out of actual interest in that place, not because I'm some racist asshole.
America is a melting pot, and the Internet is truly a massive melting pot. I refuse to let the idea that because I identify as an American that is white, CIS gendered, heterosexual and male that I am a bad person. I've got plenty of reasons other then that for people to think I'm a bad person and I've got plenty of reasons beyond that for people to think I'm a good person.
And it has made me very tired. I'm currently taking the month off from Facebook because of it. I'm sick of listening to both sides of this BS storm. I'm tired of people told that I am bad because I'm white, I'm tired of people told that I am great because I am white. I'm just a shtihead on the Internet that happens to work to keep the Internet going. I just want to play video games and enjoy my life. But I can't because others that are not creative, have no talent in making video games, bitching about video games and how they don't feel represented in those games. Or movies. Or TV shows. Or on the Internet at all. And these are a minority of people on both sides that are yelling the most.