Whiplash
Sometimes I write to sort out thoughts and feelings on different topics. This post is that type. Please comment if you like. I welcome your opinions and know I don’t have all the answers.
Watching George Floyd’s murder on TV caused me to think about things I hadn’t paid much attention to recently. Since no one in my family ever owned slaves (or much of anything at all) and I try not to be a racist, I was pretty comfortable with business as usual. That has changed for me.
I’ve always had mixed feelings about racism and social justice movements. I’m a white guy with no particular hatred for anyone else. I know I have unconscious biases like racism, sexism, and “other-ism”. Everyone does. I try to keep those in mind as I navigate through life.
Blue lives matter. I’ve always been a strong supporter of the police. It’s a tough job where you see people at their worst all day, every day.
Black lives matter. No one should be at a disadvantage because of skin color, and no one should be brutalized without consequences.
Both are true!
Every life matters! I hate what I see happening with Americans getting to such extremes that supporting Black Lives Matter automatically means you don’t support the police. Caring about any liberal cause makes you a traitor to the right wing. Mentioning that you’re a gun owner gets the cancel culture machine revving on the left. You can only prove your loyalty by being even more extreme. You are required to see everything in black and white.
I call BULLSHIT!
Life is not black and white. I’m trying hard to live mine as well as I can and understand the best ways to navigate it.
It’s true. We are more comfortable with people who are similar to us. That doesn’t mean it’s right, just the way we’re built. If we work at it, we can learn to get more comfortable with others, but being human, we’re also lazy about things that take effort.
I support LGBTQ+ rights. I’m boringly straight and too old for it to matter. That doesn’t mean I approve of everything gay people might do or that I’m comfortable with it. It just means that it truly is none of my damn business. Must be a liberal snowflake… right?
I support the Second Amendment. I’m a former Marine who enjoys target shooting. Strangely enough, having a gun seems to mean that I lean right. I don’t mind that. I’m right-wing again.
I disagree with the right about regulating gun ownership though. It’s just boneheaded stupidity to give someone a gun without proper training. Wow, I’m left-wing again, or is this just me holding two incompatible things in my head?
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I support gun regulation. We license and insure cars. I think proving you’re an adult, with no red flags like felonies, restraining orders, or serious mental health issues, and thorough training should be the minimum bar — making me a liberal traitor, even though I think every adult should start with the right to keep and bear arms. It seems crazier than anything that a felon can be president but not legally own a gun. Hey, if you can’t be trusted not to commit serious crimes, let’s just give you command of the armed forces.
I support women’s rights because wasting anyone’s ability is stupid. (Holding people back because of their sex strikes me as a perverted form of stupidity.) Isn’t that the liberal side’s viewpoint?
Wait, isn’t a smaller and less intrusive government a conservative thing? I’m getting confused.
Less government is better. The general statement is true, but that makes me a right-wing crazy… right? What I mean is that I’d prefer a much lighter touch and more effective government for the things that really require governing. We need laws to prevent abuse, not laws to enforce someone’s view of what our morals should be.
The death penalty is a mistake. I don’t think it’s immoral to kill a killer to protect society. In a perfect world, we’d be guaranteed to get the right person every time. This is not a perfect world. The death penalty is wrong because innocent die people when we make mistakes in identifying and trying suspects. The death penalty removes the chance to correct our mistakes.
Hey, if someone is attacking my family, I’d have no problem personally administering the death penalty to save them. Our legal system’s use of it assumes we’re going to get it right every time. So, I’m on both sides of that particular issue at the same time. No problem, I contain multitudes.
Racial Justice: Everyone should be equal under the law. We need to keep working together to make that happen. No one gets to pick their parents or the circumstances they were born to. I believe the playing field should be as level as possible.
I support the rule of law (and I believe that letting anyone be above the law is a form of societal suicide.) At the same time, I know the law is not perfect. I believe laws should change as we learn.
Even if the other side wins, I’m not going to pick up a gun and go to war. (Except to administer the death penalty to anyone who harms my family… see above.)
It’s hard to say what you mean anymore without getting heat from both sides! Political correctness went extreme and has been replaced by polarized insanity.
I’d welcome some sanity and your opinions, especially if you think I’m wrong. Who knows? You may have a point worth thinking about too.
That’s My Perspective…