I have to do it all the time. I was born and raised in the south by (relatively) liberal parents. I recognize that some of my neighbors my not be up to the standards of the rest of the country, but (I can’t believe I have to say this out loud) we shouldn’t ostracize a geographic region of people because of social issues.
Social reform isn’t achieved by running up to someone and saying “You’re an uninformed idiot from a flyover state and what you believe is incorrect.” It’s achieved by saying, “I know you don’t really mean that” when someone says some weird shit and calling them out in a more neutral environment. Unfortunately you have to convince people to be better. It’s too easy to just close yourself off and decline into your own beliefs.
Ideally you’d know this person and interact with them somewhat regularly. If it’s online or this person believes they can ignore you without consequence then it won’t matter how you address them beyond that initial interaction.
Don’t use that as an excuse to feed into their believes though. There’s a chance someone they know is already trying to coax them back to reality. If anything in that interaction makes them feel justified, it’ll take 20x the effort to undo the mental hoops they’ll jump through to rationalize the rest of their feelings.
It sucks. It’s not fair to those impacted, but this is the only way to stop this radicalization and hardheadedness that plagues people nowadays.
I have to do it all the time. I was born and raised in the south by (relatively) liberal parents. I recognize that some of my neighbors my not be up to the standards of the rest of the country, but (I can’t believe I have to say this out loud) we shouldn’t ostracize a geographic region of people because of social issues.
Social reform isn’t achieved by running up to someone and saying “You’re an uninformed idiot from a flyover state and what you believe is incorrect.” It’s achieved by saying, “I know you don’t really mean that” when someone says some weird shit and calling them out in a more neutral environment. Unfortunately you have to convince people to be better. It’s too easy to just close yourself off and decline into your own beliefs.
And what if, as frequently happens, they do in fact mean it?
Well, I won’t lie. It’s difficult.
Ideally you’d know this person and interact with them somewhat regularly. If it’s online or this person believes they can ignore you without consequence then it won’t matter how you address them beyond that initial interaction.
Don’t use that as an excuse to feed into their believes though. There’s a chance someone they know is already trying to coax them back to reality. If anything in that interaction makes them feel justified, it’ll take 20x the effort to undo the mental hoops they’ll jump through to rationalize the rest of their feelings.
It sucks. It’s not fair to those impacted, but this is the only way to stop this radicalization and hardheadedness that plagues people nowadays.
Finally a voice of reason in a mob of tribalists.
Dude, that doesn’t help either
I wasn’t here to help. I was here to mock - Not you; but others. I’m not going to hold every persons hand and baby them into enlightenment.