So looong
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General good life advice for people in the internet era where opinions and emotions are everywhere and very loud: check out "the backfire effect".
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Update from 2020 from an English keyboard in the Netherlands.
I re-read some of my old posts today. It was deeply uncomfortable.
I keep my posts for myself rather than removing the blog. As a reminder to stay critical, to embrace doubt and to always long to understand rather than to conform.
As a reminder that I in fact know very little.
Most of my previous political stances are ones I strongly and wholeheartedly disagree with now. I was uninformed, prejudiced and naïve. I thought I understood a multitude of things, and reading my posts now make me cringe. They are filled with straight up lies, incorrect facts and misunderstood terminology. I was filled with opinions taken without reflection from the mouths of others. I thought that words spoken with authority and confidence should instill trust and so I trusted. I didn't think I was uncritical. Because, you see, I was critical of "the others". But I was never critical of my own authorities.
It took far into adulthood to learn that words spoken with confidence and authority aren't magically true or correct or worthy of my respect.
There are many skeletons born out of ignorance in my closet. It wouldn't serve a purpose to disclose them -so I wont - but I will take them with me and hopefully turn them into opportunities to grow and learn.
I want to learn, I have to learn more. Learning and knowledge is my armor against becoming like my past. I fear my past, because I understand it. It was such a comfortable place to be. Black and white, polarized and easy.
If we want to discuss complex issues - especially if we feel a strong resistance to them* - it's our damn obligation to learn about them, regardless if it makes us uncomfortable or not. Because when fighting against something we may very well inadvertently be fighting for keeping others in misery and oppression.
My lukewarm hot take is this:
- I do not get to put up resistance against change if my arguments against change are only prejudice and misrepresentation of facts.
- I do not get to put up resistance against change while simultaneously refusing to listen to the people who are asking for it and try to understand their perspective.
- I do not get to put up resistance against change and then lie to myself about why I do it.
- I do not get to put up resistance against change while actively choosing to stay ignorant of the subject.
I am privileged. And to tell others who are not that they should be complacent, grateful for the little they do have and not ask so much because it makes me uncomfortable is selfish.
So I will ask one thing - can you at least be honest about being selfish? Admit you are afraid of change?
Change is painful. Change is unpredictable. Change is scary.
Understand that authorities are not absolute, everyone is biased, and we all subconsciously cherry pick whatever aspects fit our worldview. Understand where your vloggers, bloggers, video essayists, journalists and streamers are coming from. WHY they depict the things they do. What information is it that seems important to them and why. That people are biased doesn't mean that they are wrong, but it means there is more information out there that is relevant.
I understand no one has the energy to source check everything. But occasionally - do it anyway.
If anything seems dodgy - do it.
If you're hearing incredibly polarized reactions to something - do it.
If the information is provided mockingly or for a punchline - do it.
If the terminology seems vague or inconsistent - do it.
If the headline is clickbait - do it.
If anything seems dodgy - do it.
If you're hearing incredibly polarized reactions to something - do it.
If the information is provided mockingly or for a punchline - do it.
If the terminology seems vague or inconsistent - do it.
If the headline is clickbait - do it.
If the comment section or content itself is filled with slurs - do it.
The world is a greyscale, not a simple black and white.
Everything is complicated.
Yay.
Empathy and humility is everything.
* If you feel resistance to an idea, ask yourself why. It might be completely justified. It might not be. Either how, you'd like to know you are actually right, right? So what's the danger of reading up?
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