Here's a puzzler: how does a liberal writer with a conscience respond GENTLY to people using slash-and-burn rhetoric, dead-wrong talking points, misinformation, and flawed logic to comment on her posts? (Does it even matter that the worst of these are her relatives?)
Clearly our political discourse has coarsened in recent years. Clearly there is lots of anger. It only took the creation of a faux news organization over a decade or so to shatter any sense of solidarity or mutual respect among disparate threads of the American body politic. It's like a civil cold war.
Far be it from me to imagine a way to patch that all up. I'm only looking for a way to continue discourse with angry relatives and do so gently, humanely, in a way that doesn't violate my own sense of decency ... when my instinct is to CRUSH THEM!
I have considered the policy of non-engagement. I have learned to practice this policy as an escort at Planned Parenthood. It is hard on the blood pressure. But on my own Facebook page? Leaving trashy comments that are full of factual disinformation on my page???
I welcome advice from other writers.
Clearly our political discourse has coarsened in recent years. Clearly there is lots of anger. It only took the creation of a faux news organization over a decade or so to shatter any sense of solidarity or mutual respect among disparate threads of the American body politic. It's like a civil cold war.
Far be it from me to imagine a way to patch that all up. I'm only looking for a way to continue discourse with angry relatives and do so gently, humanely, in a way that doesn't violate my own sense of decency ... when my instinct is to CRUSH THEM!
I have considered the policy of non-engagement. I have learned to practice this policy as an escort at Planned Parenthood. It is hard on the blood pressure. But on my own Facebook page? Leaving trashy comments that are full of factual disinformation on my page???
I welcome advice from other writers.
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