I want other people to be my friend. I just don't want to have to earn friendship by being a phoney. I also don't want to have pretend friendships by nodding the head in agreement to everything said. I realize I'm not going to agree with everyone, and everyone isn't going to agree with me. I accept that I can not be a friend to everyone, but I can still treat them with respect as long as the respect is mutual.
That mutual respect seems to be missing in today's atmosphere of hyper-partisanship. You have to pick a side. There is no middle ground. You either think like me, walk like me, look like me, say the same things as me, or you are the enemy. That is not a very good way for humans to interact. It only leads to conflict.
I will not knowingly be manipulated by a person and call them my friend. That is no friend because they are trying to forcefully extract something from me through the manipulation. No one bothers to attempt to manipulate someone already in compliance. If something is good there is no need for manipulation, only presentation. Present to me a good argument and I'll in good faith, using logic and reason so much as I'm able, consider it. Attempt to manipulate me into compliance and I'll resist it.
I think some people were blinded by the noble goal. They wanted what they wanted at any cost. The ends justified the means. In the process honor and respect where abandoned. People started doing the same thing, employing the same methods, as the people they felt oppressed by. Supporting one person over the other was no longer something done out of agreement with policy to them. The support of the opposing candidate was now a hostile act done to keep someone else down, they thought, or were manipulated into thinking. Policy was not the major factor in a choice, but rather superficial characteristics became the major deciding factor. For some people, if a person supported someone without the superficial characteristics of the person they supported it wasn't out of a respect for policy. It was because they hated the superficial characteristics.
That caused another partisanship. A partisanship not of political origin, but rather of gender and race. Respect for our Constitutional rights to choose were thrown by the wayside as unimportant. Only the goal mattered. If a person wasn't on the right side of partisanship, they became the scapegoat of a failed cause. Two sides could be in agreement on everything, but for some people if the superficial characteristics were absent every agreement between them became the least important thing.
I think this is a giant problem. It is not how an enlightened people should go about business. What ever happened to the disdain of having to "choose between two evils"? Ever since I was old enough to understand speech I have heard people elude to that in disgust. Nowadays you have to choose an evil or else you're looked as the enemy. If you don't choose the same evil as me, then it is all your fault when our evil doesn't win, they say. In reality, it is because of the evil that evil wins.
I'll never support someone because of superficial characteristics. I'll never support a position just to get cozy with someone or a group. I'll not be a part of a cult of personality. I'll never knowingly be manipulated into supporting someone or some thing that I feel is wrong, or not honorable. If I did, I would would lose respect for myself. I would have to jump through mental hoops trying to justify a support of something I really didn't support. How could I expect anyone to respect me if I were to do that? How could I expect anyone to respect me if I don't even respect myself?
I've went through this entire exercise without the mention of any names. I haven't pointed a finger at a single person. I did that on purpose. My goal with writing this is not to blame a person, but to blame an idea. The idea of supporting people because of superficial characteristics, and nothing else matters.
You readers can make of this what you will. For some people, as they read, names will come to mind. Some people will read this and still be offended because of being blinded by the goal.
I'll mention one name now as an example. This is not to say that this writing is about that one person. It just illustrates an extreme example of the partisan manipulation.
Once I was watching on TV a Trump rally. A lady said "If you don't support Trump, I'll punch you in the face." That had nothing to do with respecting the rights our Founders pledged their "Sacred Honor" to obtain. That is the most extreme type of example, but it was there on many levels and among all sides.
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