Thread by @JuliusGoat

Both Sides, Part 4: We Are The Sides

"A thought: What if there aren’t two sides? What if there are many?—almost infinite in number, and not oppositional, but cooperative?"

getrevue.co/profile/julius…

What if there aren’t two sides, but many?—all working in a spirit of I Might Be Wrong and I’m Sorry About That and I’ll Do Better Next Time?

What if, as a result of all this, we aren’t just suddenly more sensitive as a society, but much more aware?

What if there are tens of millions of us, acting in a spirit of growth and improvement, a shared understanding that all human beings are intrinsically valuable in and of themselves, considering a truly extraordinary array of lived experiences?

What if there is, as a result, a momentous shift transpiring—right now—a massive explosion of voices heard, as people take back their own rightful license to exist as themselves, and to bestow cultural and social license, as others try to listen and learn and change and improve?

Think of all the different things we’re learning about how to live together, how to best honor the essential humanity of one another.

Think of all the different perspectives available. Think of the complexity. Think of how much work there is to do in order to be a society that arranges itself not around enforcing a single default way of being human, but embraces the full spectrum of what being human can be.

Think how much we’ll learn.

Think how much we’ll improve.

Think of the challenge of it. Think even of the inconvenience, the accommodation we’ll all make, as we make room in areas where we’ve been given a surplus of space, for those who have been given none.

Think of how much more we’ll have to listen, to live peacefully in a society where so many different types of people exist.

We might never stop learning.
We might never stop improving.
We might never stop being wrong.
We might never become blameless.
Think how much better that will make us.

Think of how many more voices will be heard. Think of how many accomplishments will become possible, as people who never had opportunity gain it. Think of the lives extended and saved.

Now: think of the people who don’t want to participate in that—and more, who don’t want *anybody* to participate in that.

Think of all the people who'd rather just not listen or learn about ways to live that would make it easier for other people to live, all in defense of their own perceived right to do as they please, w/o ever being “oppressed” by receiving knowledge of their impact on others.

Think of all the people who treat even the suggestion that they might have harmed somebody—or spoken incorrectly, or benefitted from an unjust configuration of society—as an unforgivable assault on their character and their freedom, one that demands a retributive response.

Think of the people who consider even the mention of the existence of other types of people to be disruptive and disturbing.

https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1447366400046243844?s=20

Think of how angry people get because of pronouns in your bio.

Think of the people who consider the slightest accommodation offered by somebody inside their definition of “normal” to somebody outside their definition of “normal” to be an unacceptable cultural sacrifice and a sign of calamity and ruin.

https://twitter.com/orlandosentinel/status/1385581448363716608?s=20

Think of the people willing to do anything to avoid receiving knowledge about any injustice, any wrong, that might impugn their own sense of blamelessness and call them to some action.

Think of the people willing, even eager, to see power enact violence on their behalf to prevent the transmission of such knowledge. Think of the people willing, even eager, to enact such violence themselves.

https://twitter.com/RoryLinnane/status/1455672869887823875?s=20

Think of the people willing to let them enact such violence, who treat these dark desires as acceptable and sympathetic, even normal.

Think of the people whose perspective is that they are the only side that matters, and that all other people, by insisting on taking equal place in our society, by insisting that their perspective also be heard, are an existential threat.

Is this one of the two sides?
Is this HALF of the entire ideological equation here?
Think of how much we’ll miss.
Think of what we’ll fail to learn.
Think of the improvement that won’t happen.
Think how far behind we’ll fall.
Think how much more stagnant this makes us.

Think of the voices we’ll never hear. Think of the accomplishments we’ll never see.

Think who will be harmed. Think who will be killed.

Think how difficult we will make life for so many people, by making them one “side,” all in service of prioritizing the comfort and convenience of the other “side."

Do we have to endlessly debate the notion “no we don’t have to listen to others, and no we don’t have to change”?

Do we have to endlessly consider the proposition “We are already exceptional, and we will only accept statements premised in our exceptionality and our supremacy”?

THAT'S "both sides?"
THAT'S open-minded?
Pardon my Sanskrit, but fuck that.

Listen: All of us, trying to figure out how to honor everyone’s basic humanity? We are the sides.

*We are the sides.*

And we’re listening to each other *already.*

getrevue.co/profile/julius…