381–390 of 734 posts
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Laws that affect right to protest such as the one that's currently proceeding through parliament. Anti-immigrant, anti-gay, anti-trans columns in papers like Telegraph, Mail etc.
Could you be more specific, maybe link to some examples?
Go read the stories about JKRowling and others view on trans people, and the editorials about it
I might be one of these progressive activists, and this is interesting to read and reflect on. I am quite vocal about culture, hiring, compensation etc, though I would definitely not say that I feel "confident being vocal" - it actually feels very exposed and quite vulnerable (in part because others don't necessarily share their own views). The reason I'm still vocal about it is that I care, I would feel much more sa…
I consider myself a very politically informed person. I'm not a politically active person however, largely for the reasons mentioned in the article. I considered myself a liberal by the standards of the time I grew up in. My views on some social issues, particularly 'free speech', are considered a conservative now. I am one of the people the article is concerning who will not publicly voice their political opinions i…
The result is that world becomes more and more boring. No interesting discussion can take place. Environment becomes more toxic and it's mainly due to radicals who perceive everything as offensive and everybody who disagrees as "nazi" or "racist" or "-phobic".
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I agree, and this is kinda new but to be expected. For a long time some minorities were particularly silenced by our societal systems. If you were a foss advocate, vegan, ecologist, feminist, LGBT aware, what have you, in the 90', you were ridiculed and you didn't have a voice. Now the table have turned, and the pendulum is balancing to the other extreme: those who were frustrated 20 years ago now created an anger cu…
Are you sure that the ones who were particularly silenced are now particularly angry? I would say that a lot of unscrupulous individuals just used the momentum to give free rein to their toxicity or bad ideas. A lot of the young activists even do not personally remember the old bad times, so they are getting angry on behalf of historical events. (The same development was typical for 19th and 20th century nationalisms…
But I do see some of my idealists friends that ended match up this pattern, and I find that there are regularly people in the angry mob that seem to have a similar profile.
I don't hold that theory as gospel, but it helps me develop compassion toward those who are angry.
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> It looks like people are discoursing, but they are really just signalling. I was looking to put words on my feeling about this, and you did it perfectly. I was wondering why suddenly so many people voiced the same engaged opinion, while I know for having discussed with them in private settings that they don't think deeply about society. Now I realize that's because they want to look like they belong to a certain ki…
My brother is an artist and the stories he tells about the art world are hilarious. He's gay with brown skin and votes left so I consider him reasonably unbiased. Hardly a reactionary. Radicalisation on the left spectrum of the horseshoe.
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"However, I fear the repercussions of offending others who do not have an open mind." You're dead right and it's damned terrible. I long for both formal and informal debates on many topics but without my opponents becoming annoyed or offended (as so often they do nowadays). These days it seems almost impossible to debate any subject without upsetting someone. I now long for the type of television programs that I reme…
About TV debates — A lot of these have moved to podcasts and YouTube these days. Eg the Oxford Union debates on YouTube, some of which are quite popular. I suspect some talk radio, eg PBS and BBC Radio 4, will also have interesting debates. Radio 4’s magazine programmes like The Life Scientific , In Our Time , The Public Philosopher , Reith Lectures etc certainly make for extremely interesting listening.
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People with, shall we say, radically progressive views, are more than comfortable to share them openly in the staff rooms, kitchens, before and after meetings, etc. without anybody contending with them. Anybody with more centrist, or God forbid conservative views, saves them for the pub afterwards or for their private gatherings. The Overton window seems to shift weekly.
I remember working at a company that had a library room which was sometimes booked for meetings. Every single time I was in a meeting there, without fail, at least one progressive person in the room had to loudly make some negative remark about Ayn Rand and scoff, sigh loudly, or roll their eyes to express their disapproval. Maybe they'd do all three at once. It was a real meme. I think this was because the room had…
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Were your TV shows, video games, etc really lacking in politics before? Or was it just a different kind of politics? (Honest question.)
Many modern US "conservatives" complain that Star Trek is political, and when it was Kirk and Picard it wasn't. It's hilarious.
If you said that you didn't like Kirk, he's an unbelievable badly-written over-the-top Mary Sue character, noone would call you an anti-Semite because Shatner happens to be Jewish.
Now do Michael Burnham.
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Were your TV shows, video games, etc really lacking in politics before? Or was it just a different kind of politics? (Honest question.)
Many modern US "conservatives" complain that Star Trek is political, and when it was Kirk and Picard it wasn't. It's hilarious.