To the Editor:
Can there be peaceful and respectful conversations between people who support Trump and those who don’t? Can woke and MAGA coexist?
These are important questions. Everyone knows and feels the stress of living where cultural wars are the case –– where it appears that there is no common ground, no common understanding of reality.
These were the questions raised at Stillpoint earlier this month.
On a cold and rainy night, about 50 people gathered to answer those questions. The audience was primarily made up of people 60 and above, but there were also many younger citizens, including a group of 18- to 20-year-olds. So what happened?
People got along. For the most part, no one tried to convince anyone of anything. People expressed natural desires for community, equality, and fairness.
People spoke about their histories of feeling left out, by race or money or sexual preference. People spoke about the hate and anger they were subjected to within their intimate circles for expressing opinions. This was especially true for COVID and vaccine policies, and then later for support of Donald Trump.
People were mostly polite, and sometimes very emotional.
Personally, I was heartened that the people who showed up to this gathering, even though they didn’t use these words, spoke as if they felt what some call “prior unity.”
What is prior unity? It is unity that is inherent. It is not manufactured by exploring differences and arriving at conclusions that people agreed to.
No, it was deeper than that. It is an expression of the whole. It is always senior to the expression of the parts.
Steven Shapiro
Tisbury
MAGAs with idiotic ideas about vaccinations and masking deserve the shunning they get. Also, referring to progressive ideals facetiously as “woke” is so insanely corny. Can we not?
I’m sorry, Ada . . . I don’t know you at all but your reply is highlighting the problem, not the solution. I don’t agree with much of the MAGA viewpoint, but it is not helpful to call their ideas “idiotic” or to suggest they “deserve shunning”. It’s just not kind or neighborly.
It’s my belief that many on the MAGA spectrum feel that their way of looking at issues has been disregarded and demeaned. They are not wrong about that. Perhaps we all need to work a little harder to allow disparate viewpoints to be aired without taking the disagreement personally.
Frankly, I believe that many progressive “ideals” are better dealt with through education, the arts, & church groups rather than via the political arena — and certainly not hidden into the government budget for grant funding. It is impossible to legislate “good behavior”. It’s long past time to quit trying. I think Moses found that out with the Ten Commandments.
How is one supposed to engage with people who inhabit a constructed reality with minimal relationship to actual facts? Or the large subset of that group who seem addicted to anger and cruelty? Scorn is the appropriate response; this is what scorn is for. For example, I have scorn for your fatuous presumption that a meaningful portion of our government’s budget is used for idealistic grants. Compared to, say, the Pentagon’s budget. Your hostility to the notion and attacking it as though it is some weighty factor reminds me of people who still complain about “welfare queens”. It’s in your head.
MAGA and woke are least common denominator labels designed to allow people to dismiss a person’s total ideology on a superficial level.
Oldest political trick in the book
No.
Luxury beliefs
A luxury belief is an idea or opinion that confers status on the upper class with little personal cost, while potentially causing harm to the lower classes. The decriminalization of drugs, rejecting marriage, or reducing educational standards are some examples of beliefs that may disproportionately benefit the privileged.
These beliefs can have negative consequences for marginalized communities, particularly when they are presented as universal truths. For instance, the belief that marriage is irrelevant may not reflect the reality of families in poverty who rely on two-parent households for stability. Luxury beliefs can lead to policies that worsen social inequalities and that those who hold them often lack a firsthand understanding of the struggles faced by those they affect.
This concept is often discussed in the context of elite institutions and the impact of cultural narratives on society.
Some islanders are so isolated and insulated from what goes on elsewhere they have no one to temper their ideology. No clue of the real world and will close their eyes on riots in LA for example and blame it on Trump. Faith leaders who mindlessly co authored a letter showing disregard for ICE is a prime example.
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