I am naturally a reconciliatory person, but one thing I
think I will never forgive is the despicable way the remoaners treated Leave
voters like me after 2016; not least because said remoaners are totally unrepentant
and feel none of the shame that they should. My anger is summarized very well
by Sargon of Akkad here: https://youtu.be/rJau4S0zw98?t=2441
and by my own publications in the background portal link below. Unfortunately I
used to move in a few social circles which meant I ended up sitting at tables
in pubs and homes with some of the worst examples of Remoaner infamy...
something I soon corrected; but just before I did I had one last toxic
conversation. "What would you know, Ben!? You've never run a business!...
Everybody who voted Leave is stupid!" There are a dozen other ways I could
have responded, and maybe should have responded. After reflection, I think I
should have just walked out; but, as usual, I didn't realize that at the time.
However, I think my reply was pretty good considering. Standing firm in the
onslaught of this personal attack I responded calmly: "Alright, what if
somebody who had run a business made the same point I did then?" The woman,
I'll call her "Cathy", answered: "I doubt if that would
happen." For anybody playing Fallacy Bingo, get your cards out! So far I
have ad hominem, poisoning the well and unfalsifiable hypothesis; I'm sure you
can add to that. Cathy believes everybody who is qualified to disagree with her
never would disagree with her; that's
very convenient. I made her aware of these points, but by then the typical
shutters had come down and the conversation ended.
As is usually the case, I brooded over this exchange; the
injustice and sheer dishonesty took my breath away. One of my fatal flaws is
that I find people like that unbearable. Maybe it's part of being a Libra, as
some people tell me. However, a few weeks ago I had the opportunity for
revenge. I have wisely avoided those kinds of social circles lately, but my former
antagonist and I were thrown together by change at my brother's birthday party.
I made up an imaginary situation in which I disagreed with somebody and my
fantasy opponent replied exactly as Cathy did when we last spoke. "So, he
is basically admitting he has lost the debate." I said. "People only
go on personal attacks when they lose debates." Cathy smiled thinly and
looked down at the table... I feel guilty about how I can be so petty at times.
Since then I've stopped myself getting into situations like that in the first
place by avoiding people like that and not rising to the bait when they
inadvertently approach me. Society is experiencing a culture war right now and
so I've realized that careless talk costs lives.
See here for background: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2019/10/brexit-portal.html.
See here for background: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2019/10/brexit-portal.html.
What a strange story, holding such a grudge over a single comment in a single event for such a long time to then make up a lie of a fictional event to prove a point makes you come across much worse than 'Cathy' sadly.
ReplyDeleteWhat she said, may have been badly put and I would certainly say erroneous (assuming those that voted to leave believed what they were told), however replacing 'stupid' with 'gullible' would have been entirely correct based on the evidence subsequently showed the multitude of lies fed to the British public by many politicians and we have all subsequently seen from the result of Brexit both those living in the UK and those watching from outside the country.
Finishing with "Society is experiencing a culture war right now and so I've realized that careless talk costs lives" pretty much proves Cathy's point. There are some people (including yourself it appears) that don't realize they are being manipulated into division by the same artificial culture war stoked in the US by the Christian Conservative politicians to 'hate the libs' by keeping the 'Brexit divide' artificially alive in the UK to drive forward a hard right direction in politics away from the traditional center right conservatism.
I'm sure Cathy and yourself have much more in common politically than you might realize but Brexit has divided you both for no reason and no Benefit to anyone other than those that seek to cause social instability for their own ends.
I didn't write about my feels to "look good". I wrote about them to be honest.
ReplyDeleteI don't agree that Brexit caused those problems.
As for the last bit, I agree; and I am much more positive about Cathy now I've released this tension.
I hope you read the news article regarding the EU I sent you Ben. It will be of great interest to you!
ReplyDeleteI haven't had a chance, yet, Snarnok. Did you send it by email? I'm a bit behind on my correspondence because of my long times away.
ReplyDelete