Nobody from ‘either side’ can claim anything resembling higher ground or standards, because even people being perfectly reasonable and polite are eventually clocked from behind. Whether it’s fiercely aggressive or immature taunting and name calling, nobody who behaves well can manage to do so without somebody eventually throwing an egg at them, which then makes them retaliate, and then off we go again. Eventually everybody is aggressive from the off, because if they’re going to get attacked anyway then why bother? And that applies to any and all ‘sides’. One of the few things that’s universal nowadays is divisiveness. Everybody is at it.
I’ve seen right nasty little fuckers from both sides of every debate, and every divide I’ve ever witnessed. It isn’t new or unusual; merely amplified in an age where everybody has a soapbox, and can in turn create a bubble where they only follow their own kind, and can block anybody they view as the ‘opposition’. You don’t have to get on with people or agree with them at all, but I think this world we’ve stumbled into where you can just switch off the people you don’t agree with is dangerous. I think it’s important that people are forced to engage with each other, and to be exposed to the existence of things that they don’t like or agree with. People should want their viewpoints and opinions challenged in order to ensure that they truly believe in them. Some of the things people say and do make me genuinely despair, but I wouldn’t ever want to just switch them off. I would hope most people are the same regardless of their beliefs. But the vitriol and aggression is far from one-sided. I just think that muppets are muppets and arseholes are arseholes, and that those people would find some sort of way to let that spill out regardless.
Personally, I favour the Winchester method to conflict resolution.
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