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Working Along With The Vulnerable [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-07-26  

My apologies in advance for not having a tight story. Yes, I wish I could write fluently and not leave loose ends…

As a prelude, when reading, please make the initial assumption that (at least in ) American society the vulnerable are treated poorly, and in general the more vulnerable a person or group is, the more poorly they are treated. For example, I consider sexism to be the worst of all the major “isms”. I could reasonably discuss how, over a long period of time, the comparatively minor and arguable (think a different world/society) physical vulnerability of women as a class have been exploited to make sexism such a horrific thing that the world would be unimaginably better in its absence.

Now, to my first point. Both conservatives and progressives are vulnerable. IMHO, when progressives and conservatives are discussed on this site, a portion of the discussion is based on American society’s IMHO unethical methods for treating the vulnerable poorly (on this site, the vulnerabilities of conservatives are more exploited. Exploited is not quite the right word here).

I am OK with that. That exploitative treatment is often pushed back on. That back and forth is very valuable as a means for maturation, and, for example, I have become more mature reading the social aspects of this site for the past 6 months.

Now, to my second point, then I will use a positive personal experience to give an example.

IMHO, it is OK to have comments/stories that IMHO “treat the vulnerable poorly”. That is part of the maturation process for all of us, me specifically. Comments more often frame progressivism as “vulnerable” to be treated gently, and conservativism as “vulnerable” to be treated in a way society treats other vulnerable “isms”. I’ve worked through this over the years, where a conservative engages in whataboutism on how a progressive doesn’t want participation from a conservative. I think the conservatives are wrong, because it is a very valid argument to exclude conservatives from progressive decisions. There is a lot of complexity there that I have not worked through (because it is too hard), but treating a conservative well is necessary — the hard part, for me, is treating a conservative well and accomplishing anything.

Example: My family and American politics have a similarity with regard to having conservatives and liberals.

For example, my dad, when he was younger, liked to say “I am farther right than Attila the Hun”, whatever that means (but I got his point). He has moved away from that over the years, but he is still a strong conservative. I had a couple of window stickers on my car over the Trump years, saying things like “Republicans are Total Psychos”, etc. {Side Notes: (1) I lived in Missouri and never had an issue with that from anyone coming up to me or defacing it, etc. So, I lived in Missouri and was surprised that I did not experience aggressive conservatism. Thank you, conservative Missourians. (2) I see how my window stickers were treating the vulnerable poorly. All I can say is that judgement needs to be used, and it was/is my judgement that I worked the middle there.}

Continuing, when my family had a get-together with about 20-25 family members, many of us were near my car, and my dad made sure to point to my Trumpism-detesting window stickers. I can’t remember the words he used, but he reinforced that it was OK that I had that bumper sticker, and everyone around essentially just nodded their head in agreement and/or acquiescence. I hate to say this because there is some wrongness to it, but IMHO the reason that worked is because my family has a bunch of hard, pleasant people in it who have gone through a lot of tough times, and we have a family belief that we are a strong family. {Side advice: please avoid addictive substances and violence as much as possible. Strength of will has low odds of beating those - better to never habituate them.}

Thanks for reading. Please comment and/or write a related article.

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