I realized something when I spent a few posts involving reddit leftists: They don't seem to be able to comprehend anyone who disagrees with them, and so they assume everyone who disagrees with them is a troll or a liar.
Ironically, it's a complete lack of empathy, being incapable of putting yourself in someone else's shoes. "Obviously I'm just right, I have all the correct opinions, all the authoritative sources agree. Therefore someone who disagrees with me must be disingenuous because otherwise they'd just agree with me!"
It's not every leftist, but there's definitely a bunch of people being pied pipered into their positions who seem to think anyone who disagrees is just trolling.
Ironically, it's a complete lack of empathy, being incapable of putting yourself in someone else's shoes. "Obviously I'm just right, I have all the correct opinions, all the authoritative sources agree. Therefore someone who disagrees with me must be disingenuous because otherwise they'd just agree with me!"
It's not every leftist, but there's definitely a bunch of people being pied pipered into their positions who seem to think anyone who disagrees is just trolling.
That's a damn good point. I hadn't thought about that part.
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Yeah, and that all or nothing attitude is a big part of it.
I've said to people before, I don't even know if I completely agree with everything I myself say, so I don't expect anyone else to agree with me on everything I say!
I'm trying to find the truth as best as I can understand it and that often means I'm outside of my comfort zone. It means I spent a lot of time looking up facts I say to make sure I remember right (and sometimes I can't find anything to back something up or I just straight-up got it wrong and have to drop that part of any argument I make). It means I spent a lot of time looking through everything to make sure I'm not saying something stupid (which doesn't mean I don't), and often in the process of writing a post I end up deleting the post entirely and starting over when I realize I've proven my original take wrong.
All this process might have criticisms that could be leveled against it, but the one thing you can't say is it's inauthentic. I like that phrase you used, "invalid person". Instead of just calling someone wrong and engaging with ideas, you just invalidate someone as a human being and then you don't have to...
I've said to people before, I don't even know if I completely agree with everything I myself say, so I don't expect anyone else to agree with me on everything I say!
I'm trying to find the truth as best as I can understand it and that often means I'm outside of my comfort zone. It means I spent a lot of time looking up facts I say to make sure I remember right (and sometimes I can't find anything to back something up or I just straight-up got it wrong and have to drop that part of any argument I make). It means I spent a lot of time looking through everything to make sure I'm not saying something stupid (which doesn't mean I don't), and often in the process of writing a post I end up deleting the post entirely and starting over when I realize I've proven my original take wrong.
All this process might have criticisms that could be leveled against it, but the one thing you can't say is it's inauthentic. I like that phrase you used, "invalid person". Instead of just calling someone wrong and engaging with ideas, you just invalidate someone as a human being and then you don't have to...