Since it is relevant to this post I'm black and 40 years old. The last few days I tried to give some pushback against my cousins (have an extremely large extended family) who are left wing. Outside my immediate family most of my cousins are left of center. One got mad at me for asking him to be consistent and saying that you can't condemn the storming of the capitol while also cheerleading the rioting and destruction this past summer. Of course he mentioned peaceful protests and I agreed that there were peaceful demonstrations (even though they peddled a fake racial and cop narrative) but the fact remains that not once did he ever show any empathy for business owners whose businesses were destroyed.
Also gave some pushback to the whole "this is white privilege" nonsense by pointing out all the cities who bent over backward to avoid holding any BLM/Antifa members accountable. So I'm not the most liked person right now in my group of cousins.
Last year one of my cousins got mad at me for posting a Larry Elder quote that vague concepts like micro-aggressions and systemic racism come about when there is a low supply of racism and a very high demand. I'm ashamed to admit that in my early teens I went through a brief "everything is racist" period, but at least that gave me a firsthand understanding of how poisonous victim culture and looking for racism around every corner is.
I've had white lefties call me a white supremacist and one got mad at me for saying that if he wanted to help black people then simply treat everyone equally and hold everyone accountable for bad behavior. One of the funniest things said to me was that since my ancestry DNA said I was about 20% European I was told that I didn't inherit a European appearance but I inherited their "white personality"
I have zero problem in condemning bad behavior regardless of who is doing it. I just find it astonishing how the media can condemn storming the capitol with a straight face and act like nobody remembers them cheerleading all the violence and destruction of the riots this past summer.
Thank you for your time.
I had a great talk last night with a leftist buddy of mine over a few beers. As it turns out, we both highlight to others our friendship as an example of two people who fervently disagree but can have rational conversations about our differences. I don't know anyone else like that, and he doesn't either.
If a fair exchange of ideas doesn't exist with someone, you're not going to force it to exist. I don't argue with people. It never goes well, no matter how perfect your argumentation is. You kinda just have to cherish your friends and family for different reasons than their ideologies. But if they can't respect that you think differently and award you the same space you give them, fuck em. They don't deserve you.
Yea I got some leftist friends that I get along great with. I guess with cousins it’s a bit different since I grew up with a lot of them.