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A comment on 112 Gripes About the French. Parent comment

Re:112 Gripes About the French by bumby on Saturday July 17, 2021 @10:57AM (#27866228)
You're correct. I should have been more clear that progressive and conservative labels are more apt for individual viewpoints and not as a defining characteristic of the person. I think that logic can still be applied, though. The point I was trying to make is that with any label (whether French/American or conservative/progressive) it's more productive to try and find clarity about the opposing viewpoint rather than just slapping on a rigid label lacking nuance.

While I wouldn't want to label 11thEarlOfMar personally, I think it can be helpful to look at each of those views in the context of a larger framework because it helps understand what value systems you operate with to either find inconsistencies or common ground.

Edit: I think the fact that people are so quick to either label their personhood or assume someone else is doing the same is indicative of the problem. It's also a bit troubling that a post simply advocating for contextually understanding differences would get downvotes. I don't know if that's a problem with my inability to communicate that point effectively or something worse.

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Re:112 Gripes About the French by 11thEarlOfMar on Saturday July 17, 2021 @11:39AM (#27866523)
To be clear, I agree with your original post that some type of mediation between the poles would be helpful.

Reflecting a bit more, it's hard to imagine that a government could convince it's people to go to war without a large degree of brainwashing to demonize the foe. To some degree, we need our soldiers to believe that they people they kill are deserving of death, even though the they were most likely brainwashed and drafted into the conflict on false pretenses. In a symbolic way, this happened in the US in 2020, but this time, private industry and the government entered symbiosis in polarizing citizens into a civil conflict. And people were killed.

We owe it to ourselves to peel back a couple of layers of the onion, and understand and respect other well supported beliefs, even if those beliefs differ from our own.

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