I'm not the wisest owl, but I have a lot of experience being on the internet since the dawn of social media and apparently I'm part of the "woke" (that isn't a slur it's a badge on honour) crowd so I want to share what little wisdom I have as an older millenia. Because I'm an old young person AND a young old person at this point in my life and I think I can share something that can help bridge the generational divide. I'm witnessing threads of people getting caught up in emotions right now and some have left the site (maybe unrelated events) but as people do leave through upset please let me say this, and it is meant generally so no need to take it personally unless you feel the shoe fits: You cannot make everyone happy, you cannot make everyone agree with you, and you cannot agree with everyone. People will misunderstand you, and if you want to tell someone something you have to meet people on their level of understanding first and build upwards, if you think someone is uneducated you cannot just throw big words at them and make them feel small and expect them to listen. You have to be prepared to give people the benefit of the doubt, and to at least listen even if you don't agree, so you can at least understand, and you don't always have to agree either. An opinion is an opinion. And somones current opinion may not be representative of their true ethical stance on things. You are your own person, you have your own experiences that can and will be different to someone else's. It is a delicate balancing act to be able to shield ourselves whilst remaining open, to change and to other people, and new ideas.
I'm not saying allow people to walk all over you if that's what they are doing, but it is the default reaction of already traumatised people to go into defence mode at even the slightest provocation and it isn't always necessary or productive. Your feelings will always be valid. But your reactions, may require some consideration and further investigation. If someone continues to engage in problematic behaviour you can always report it later on. (I get it, I side eye people who say they are "ex alt right" as sus too.) I'm kinda sticking my neckout here, so I want to clarify, I'm also not saying stick around and be the punch bag, if you don't want to engage with certain people and their behaviour then don't, that is your perogative, but I am saying do try not to ostracise them in the processs of calling that behaviour out because that is how already vulnerable, people fall down extremist rabbit holes, they don't feel a sense of community anymore and then get picked up by having their loneliness predated on by by far more insideous agents.
I know I am nobody really, but if I can make one plea can we all try to be kind to ourselves and eachother. We austists are an already vulnerable group of people and eachothers natural allys in this harsh world.
(Too late at night to fix all the typos.)
