I may have to watch more John Schneider:
Choice quote:
If you are currently being accepted by people you disagree with, then you're obviously not speaking out.
This hits me personally because, however much I may blog a certain way, I do have friends who don't agree with my position, and I prize their friendship as I hope they prize mine. Schneider's point of view seems harsher: you ought to be actively pissing off the people whose principles you disagree with, to the point where they reject you. Flak means you're over the target, right? Superficially, I see what Schneider is saying, and I sort of agree. More deeply, though, I have to wonder how practical his point of view is. If I go out of my way, on a face-to-face level, to piss off people I disagree with, I wonder whether I'll have any friends left. That said, I also don't want to be the squishy peacemaker who's so in love with compromise that I end up with no principles of my own. Meanwhile, as I squish along, the people I disagree with freely pursue their agenda, and I do nothing to stop them. How is that right?
All of this is to say that, if nothing else, Schneider is forcing me to think about where I stand on certain issues, and how hard I ought to be fighting for my own position regarding those issues. Ultimately, it's something we all need to think about. And honestly, I'm still thinking.
Argue all you want, minds are rarely changed. But yeah, you do have to take a stand to defend your principles. I've been "unfriended" by many of the folks on the left I know, but I've only blocked the ones who attacked me in a personal offensive manner.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad that most of the time things never move past the exchange of talking points. On the rare occasions that I've had a meaningful dialog with a political opponent, it was surprising just how much middle ground existed.