This is exceedingly relevant to my headspace right now, and that of large numbers of other people in the U.S.A. I'm not quite sure which label to assign to those opposed to my interests, and I bounce between labelling them by religion, by political affiliation, by location, and by gender, as well as by the specific policies they either favour or enable (enable = vote for someone for other reasons, even though they support policies that I consider harmful to me - and evil besides).
I feel your pain! Let me share some advice from Sun Tzu: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles." Notice that he didn't say you will WIN a hundred battles, only that you won't lose them. To what extent do you understand those who you perceive as your enemy? Do you regularly read news sources popular with the other side? (https://sharpenyouraxe.substack.com/p/read-several-news-sources) If not, go and spend some time on National Review (I'm assuming you are progressive and are worried about social conservatives). When you've done that, why not try an exercise? Write down the other side's arguments. Make the text as strong as possible - steel man it, in the jargon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man#:~:text=A%20steel%20man%20argument%20(or,strongest%20form%20of%20their%20argument.). Once you've done that, where are the weak points and the contradictions? Good luck!
I used to, though not the most extreme among them. At the moment though, I'm avoiding friends I know to have probably voted Republican, lest I say something that permanently ends the friendship. And reading as little as possible about the whole thing. Because I *might* eventually calm down about this.
What I do notice though, is that I'm now emotionally ripe for a movement that calls U.S. conservatives "cockroaches" or similar, and eventually encourages genocide. The only solution my gut is willing to accept is for one forced birther to die for every baby born to an unwilling mother. (Not merely for every mother who loses more than 9 months of her time, income etc. to being coopted by the state as a baby factory - i.e. dies or is permanently injured by the birth.) Obviously, my head knows better that that. But my gut says things like "require forced birthers to donate organs to save babies - preferably organs humans cannot survive without." All I can think about is how much pain I want them to suffer, and how much better the world would be without them in it.
I guess the next stage of hate would be wanting to see the wanted child of a forced birther killed for every forced birth. I have't reached that stage yet. But at some level, I don't care whether they nationalized people's uteruses because they truly regard a fertilized ovum as a baby, or because they get their jollies making other people miserable, or anything in between. It doesn't matter whether their deity commanded them to draft women as baby factories, or whether they want the babies as a slave army to take over the planet.
It doesn't even matter whether they actually have workable plans to care for the babies whose unwilling mothers discard them as soon after birth as the law permits. (They generally claim all will be adopted, even those born with serious disabilities, and of traditionally oppressed phenotypes [races]. I suspect they are wrong.) Or worse, the ones the mothers wind up keeping, once their pregnancy-and-birth biochemistry overrides their common sense - and then prove unable to properly care for, just as they'd predicted early in their pregnancies.
I have no clue how to get them to stop imposing their "community values", and I have no confidence that any amount of research would enable me to find a workable strategy. I'm 99% certain that finding all the contradictions in their beliefs won't convert anybody, any more than the contradictions in their opponents' beliefs are causing any of their opponents to change sides.
My gut is screaming "they are my enemy; my choices are kill, be killed, or be enslaved". And this even though I'm not in fact personally capable of conceiving a child, and farthermore live in a state that's not run by forced birthers.
I don't know how to deal with this, other than not letting my gut make any substantive decisions, and not burning bridges while I feel this way, in case I eventually calm down.
About the only good thing about this is that I'm developing some empathy for other people whose emotions are out of control, even those for whom this is habitual. "There but for the Grace of God go I", as they saying goes.
Reminds me of: "Only I can fix it." - Donald Trump, ex-President, failed business man, conspiracy theorist, traitor
This is exceedingly relevant to my headspace right now, and that of large numbers of other people in the U.S.A. I'm not quite sure which label to assign to those opposed to my interests, and I bounce between labelling them by religion, by political affiliation, by location, and by gender, as well as by the specific policies they either favour or enable (enable = vote for someone for other reasons, even though they support policies that I consider harmful to me - and evil besides).
I feel your pain! Let me share some advice from Sun Tzu: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles." Notice that he didn't say you will WIN a hundred battles, only that you won't lose them. To what extent do you understand those who you perceive as your enemy? Do you regularly read news sources popular with the other side? (https://sharpenyouraxe.substack.com/p/read-several-news-sources) If not, go and spend some time on National Review (I'm assuming you are progressive and are worried about social conservatives). When you've done that, why not try an exercise? Write down the other side's arguments. Make the text as strong as possible - steel man it, in the jargon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man#:~:text=A%20steel%20man%20argument%20(or,strongest%20form%20of%20their%20argument.). Once you've done that, where are the weak points and the contradictions? Good luck!
I used to, though not the most extreme among them. At the moment though, I'm avoiding friends I know to have probably voted Republican, lest I say something that permanently ends the friendship. And reading as little as possible about the whole thing. Because I *might* eventually calm down about this.
What I do notice though, is that I'm now emotionally ripe for a movement that calls U.S. conservatives "cockroaches" or similar, and eventually encourages genocide. The only solution my gut is willing to accept is for one forced birther to die for every baby born to an unwilling mother. (Not merely for every mother who loses more than 9 months of her time, income etc. to being coopted by the state as a baby factory - i.e. dies or is permanently injured by the birth.) Obviously, my head knows better that that. But my gut says things like "require forced birthers to donate organs to save babies - preferably organs humans cannot survive without." All I can think about is how much pain I want them to suffer, and how much better the world would be without them in it.
I guess the next stage of hate would be wanting to see the wanted child of a forced birther killed for every forced birth. I have't reached that stage yet. But at some level, I don't care whether they nationalized people's uteruses because they truly regard a fertilized ovum as a baby, or because they get their jollies making other people miserable, or anything in between. It doesn't matter whether their deity commanded them to draft women as baby factories, or whether they want the babies as a slave army to take over the planet.
It doesn't even matter whether they actually have workable plans to care for the babies whose unwilling mothers discard them as soon after birth as the law permits. (They generally claim all will be adopted, even those born with serious disabilities, and of traditionally oppressed phenotypes [races]. I suspect they are wrong.) Or worse, the ones the mothers wind up keeping, once their pregnancy-and-birth biochemistry overrides their common sense - and then prove unable to properly care for, just as they'd predicted early in their pregnancies.
I have no clue how to get them to stop imposing their "community values", and I have no confidence that any amount of research would enable me to find a workable strategy. I'm 99% certain that finding all the contradictions in their beliefs won't convert anybody, any more than the contradictions in their opponents' beliefs are causing any of their opponents to change sides.
My gut is screaming "they are my enemy; my choices are kill, be killed, or be enslaved". And this even though I'm not in fact personally capable of conceiving a child, and farthermore live in a state that's not run by forced birthers.
I don't know how to deal with this, other than not letting my gut make any substantive decisions, and not burning bridges while I feel this way, in case I eventually calm down.
About the only good thing about this is that I'm developing some empathy for other people whose emotions are out of control, even those for whom this is habitual. "There but for the Grace of God go I", as they saying goes.