Politics, politics, politics (so long and thanks for all the fish)

[thfcsteff]

Yeo, most normal people manage to navigate life saying what they want, you have to wonder what exactly it is people are desperate to say that they feel they cant

I think it is a case of context and circumstance.

I would suggest that in some countries (including a couple of more recent 'surprise' ones) the potential consequences of saying what you wish on social media can have enormously detrimental effects.

I think also social media -due to the very nature of it's non-face-to-face in-person action- leaves some people less able to articulate themselves and thus potentially ending up in situations where a mixture of assumption and conflation leave them being perceived and interpreted far, far beyond their initial attempted expression. In fact, I think it is this very area which has seen agitators, bots and malevolent schemers slip in and blow up communities and people against each other.

 

[thfcsteff]

I've asked people a few times who claimed they can't say things on here, what it is they are scared to say and never had an answer.

I think it's about expression versus interpretation. I really believe that. We are firmly in an era where the nuances of language are on life-support (thanks to the twittwer explosion a decade ago where everyone suddenly wanted their info in 144 characters or less)...

...I think the immigration conversation is one of them. I do believe there are people who cannot properly articulate their thoughts on immigration and so end up either coming across poorly or not even feeling comfortable enough to have a discussion. We can say that is on them I suppose, but I think it'sn actually on all of us to try and make the middle ground of conversation 'safer' and hopefully a place where people are then happy to accept 'new information' or outlooks without feeling they're being accused of this or that (this goes for all sides of the discussion BTW)...

I've also found that truthfully, age is the greatest teacher. Genuinely there are things I thought I knew a decade ago which I now realize I had no clue about.
Youth is all about the hubris of charging forward with vigour and confidence that you 'know'.
Age appears to be about the humility and wisdom to recognise that you didn't know nearly as much but if you wake up NOW the benefits of greater knowledge are sitting there for you to enjoy (and that usually requires both humility and acceptance of how little we really DO know)...sigh...OK, off my existential (organic hahaha) soap box I step...

 

[Glenda's Legs]

It’s not really difficult. Racists don’t like being called racist and want to say racist things without being called out for it. When they are called out for it, they complain it’s against free speech.