Bigotry thrives, frankly, when good people are afraid of getting their hands dirty and calling the bigots out on their nonsense. It thrives on those uncomfortable silences and averted eyes of ordinary people who just try to avoid confrontation. Believe me, I get it. I don't like confrontations any more than you do, and the idea of calling someone out on what they're saying is enough to make my stomach twist in knots most of the time. I can say, however, from experience as a non-heterosexual individual, that while getting harassed by bullies is certainly not pleasant, it is infinitely worse when your friends and family are too afraid to get involved. It is awful being the casualty of that uncomfortable silence. That is why I try my best to confront ignorance and hatred where I find it, because I know how it feels to be on the receiving end of it. I suppose it depends on the situation, of course. If you're passing by some psychotic bum who is screaming about Jews being behind all the world's wars, there is no real reason to stop and confront him. As they say, however, this is 'just my opinion.'
Well, yeah, you certainly want to call people out on their bullcrap in some cases. Especially for a selfless cause. I applaud anyone who stands up for another. Puts that person before themselves. Puts everyone before themselves. Mighty Jedi if I do say so myself.
But not Anikan. You gotta be more subtle like Obi wan. A point I try to make to people is if you love too much, then you start hating stuff even more. Ugh, I worded that better somewhere else before. When you learn to love, you learn to hate. It takes a lot of self control if you want to do real good, or maybe that's just me. Geez I'm a terrible writer. This is what happens to you when something jeapardizes your love: And if it happens a lot, before you realize it, you'll start to hate more than you love. I'm going off of what I've seen for myself in life, and on more than 1 occasion. An example would be my mother. To say you love everything and can never have hate is denial. I'm no saint, and am definitely not that smart. I feel like I have less than the average knowledge that others have. I'm content with that, and I love being happy, but at times it can be very hard when you live in a house full of negativity. A lot of that negativity is because my mom cares too much about how I think. We are very poor and will barely eat the next week until we get food stamps again, but I'm perfectly fine with that. She cares about me too much and is getting the wrong idea. I'm not upset with her at all and I fully understand our situation, but she thinks I'm lying.
Excellent. I generally agree with you, though, that needless confrontations are best avoided, if at all possible. I don't want to add any more anger to this already very angry world. If I am planning on confronting someone, I have to ask myself: is this motivated by anger and the desire to lash out and injure, or is it motivated by love and the desire to protect? Only the second option is fully legitimate.
Like I have always said, discussion of any subject is healthy for the mind, regardless of the subject being taboo, and regardless how sure you are in your beliefs, it is always a good thing to consider other possibillities.
This has been a pretty neat thread to read And has also made me stay up later than I wanted too Religion I'm just gonna be blunt and say that I don't believe any religion at all. The way I see it, religion is basically two things, a way to live by and 'The Truth' if you will. So going by that logic I guess my religion would be, "Live your life however you want given you don't infringe on the rights of others." and science. I think there will always be an element of the unknown in the truth that science has not yet and/or cannot prove which can be filled with opinion and belief. Rights I've pretty much covered this already but I will add that I think rights should be under constant review and be based on our current knowledge at the time. Politics Put simply I reckon we've got a long way to go in this department, how should it be improved? I'll admit I'm not sure, as smart as I like to think I am, I am only 19 and know that I don't know everything. I just don't believe that our current state of politics is the best that we have to offer, and that's quite sad if it is. Patriotism I guess I like my country but really only in comparison to others, I'm not trying to be mean to other countries as there are pros and cons with all, but it's ignorant to think that they're all just as nice of a place to live in as each other. Meanwhile, I think the invisible borders of 'countries' are an outdated idea anyway. So that's it in a nutshell. I was tempted to go into more detail but it would have taken too long to write and too long to read :derpe:
Okey Dokey, might as well put in my thoughts, allow me to borrow your structure SR20DETDOG: Religion Oh boy, yeah this is the one I have the most trouble with. I was raised Christian by my parents and it seemed to work out fine, until I got older and began to really think about it. I have no problem with those who use a religion for fulfillment, inner peace, guidance and what have you, but I cannot abide those who impose their views on others and consistently cry out how others are doing it wrong and that their way is the right way. I extremely dislike the "One True Path" way that people always seem to cry out. There are as many ways to live a life as there are people in the world, and the only wrong way to go about life is if you're actively hurting another person's life. That, and the way people interpret their holy doctrine as literal instead of metaphorical. I tend to be scientific about things, so I don't believe in the walking on water, lotus blooms springing at his feet, elephant for a head attributes that are passed off as strict fact instead of allegory. Rights Everyone deserves to be just as happy as the person next to them. LGBT rights are the most important to me right now. Gay marriage will not destroy your marriage, people. It's just going to increase the percentage of happy people in the world. Politics I don't pay too much attention to politics, but I find that my views are pretty liberal, I suppose. I hate capital punishment, I am pro-choice to an extent, and there is such a thing as overly extreme interrogation techniques, although it depends on who is being interrogated. Patriotism The US is a pretty nice place to be overall, but I'm not one of those who yells out "America! F*** YEAH!" I'm more of a "America. A nice place, but there are other countries that are just as nice to be in. Yay~"
I think I'm a bit weird in my beliefs/ideals, but you've asked and I suppose I can bore both you and myself for a few minutes as I take the time to rack my brain for the appropriate responses. I think I'll copy Poetic's style on this and just go down a list and explain who, what, why, yada yada. Politics- I think it's a little silly to forever place your allegiance on a single side of the spectrum. The sides change and in doing so, the nominees will as well. I instead look towards the personality of candidates primarily and use their policies as a necessary backup. This is a silly thing to explain, but just about every politician will promise one thing and almost always go ahead and do another, so I see no point in looking towards what they'll promise. Instead however, I look towards their personality in regards to normal situations to see how they deal with small things naturally as a way to predict how they'll deal with related issues in the upcoming future. I can't vote yet, but I like to know my candidates nonetheless. Religion- I've been all over the place in regards to this to be honest. When I was very young, I used to be a Christian. It's very vague, but I can remember going to Church every Sunday as a two year old. Again, it's incredibly vague so it may have just been some sort of service such as a funeral, wedding, or a baptism and I probably wasn't able to comprehend it at the time, but whatever. Directly after that, my parent's decided to take up becoming Wiccan, which honestly were some of the best days of my life. Every week on Saturday my parents would drive all the way out to the country to a farm of their friend's and as they did their weekly whatever (I say because I still don't know to this day), the kids would get bored and almost immediately wander off into the forest and have wooden sword fights on giant boulders, play manhunt in the pitch black forest of the New England mountains, or just climb trees and converse. However, without a doubt the best memories I have of it all were the holidays, the holidays were an absolute blast to celebrate. It wasn't like normal holidays where people get around and give gifts based on want, but rather people would get around and give gifts based on need (sort of). The winter-time holiday that's celebrated on the Winter Solstice was called Yule if I remember, and the gifts that were exchanged were always these intricately made blankets that were always beyond soft. I don't remember the name of the Holiday in all honesty, but there was another one that took place during the Fall Equinox. This one was absolutely amazing, everyone would get together and head for a clearing in the woods, it sounds like a cult sort of thing for a while but please bear with me. Then we would spend the next few hours as a gargantuan group building this giant wooden structure known as "The Wicker Man" (I'm sure you've seen the movie.) We'd set this thing up, surround it in the clearing in a big circle of people, set it completely ablaze as we all shouted in unison "Burn Wicker man, burn!". As soon as the flames went out, we'd roast up a few pigs, break out the food, and just dance, eat, and drink all night long as one giant party. To clarify, the drinks were almost never alcoholic. The parties were meant for kids as much as they meant for the adults. There's not much else that I remember of those days, but even now I hold the two basic rules of the teachings close to my heart and live by them today: -Live your live as you will and be good of heart. -Whatever you do will come back to you three-fold. The last one is a little silly, I know, but I've seen it occur countless times throughout my life and I am a firm believer in it. Anyway, nowadays, I'm just agnostic. I would love to say there's no god, or to be completely faithful in the idea of one, but in all honesty, I just want to know which one is the correct one with a little bit a proof. Seuxality- I'll make this next one short to make up for that last monster subsection. I believe that you love a person, not a gender. I am not afraid to say that I love other men, there's nothing wrong with it, in my opinion. However, I am sexually attracted to women, and women only despite being rather eccentric. To each their own. Tlr (Thank you god): Politics- Personality > Policy Religion- Christian -> Wiccan -> Agnostic Seuxality- Just read it you lazy bum.
I'd type my own thing, but that'd take a long time on my phone. Basically, everything the Zephyrs said. Agnostic, independent, rights for all and such.
