How do you view the world? What lens do you look at things around you? Take an honest look at it. Take a step back, if you have to. Are you able to view events from varying perspectives, from another person's shoes? Or are you narrow in how you view the world, that your way is the only way?
Given the current political climate, those who lean toward the liberal (left) side may view everything that Trump does is bad and should be criticized accordingly AND that everything they view on their side is for the greater good. One may also say the same thing about the previous Obama administration in regards to conservatives/GOP.
But how much of it is true?
Two events happened last week, one personally on Friday and another more public fiasco on Saturday that spurned this post on perspectives/paradigms and how others view the world.
Friday, I saw a FB post from a science fiction author (no, I will not share who it is) who was criticizing the current President for signing Bibles while visiting the recent havoc caused by tornadoes in Alabama. Now, my first instinct was to ignore it, hide it, and move on with my life. But I was curious. I inquired as to why they saw it as a problem. In their opinion, people shouldn't be signing books they didn't write. And since he didn't write the Bible, he shouldn't sign it.
Okay . . .
So, I poked the bear a little more--grin. A gentle poke, mind you. Writers may be asked to sign other things, like part of someone's body or their Kindle/iPad. What did I get back? The same rehashing, that it was odd he was asked to sign a Bible, clearly a book he didn't write, this author said.
In viewing the other comments, it didn't take a genius to figure out how politically-slated the author's "friends" were, not to mention the pure hatred toward a single member of our society.
Keep in mind, with my gentle poke, I reminded them that if the President handed out copies of his books, signed and all, how would the media portray it? The response from said SF author? Same old rehash from before. The author didn't answer my question at all (I wanted to remind this author of how a certain president with the last name of Obama gave a gift of a iPod with all of his speeches on it, but thought better of it.)
In the end, I just deleted the comment, "snoozed" the author for 30 days, and went on with my life. This author clearly was too narrow-minded and hypocritical to expand their thinking, even to have a civil dialogue. Because a civil dialogue was my only intention.
The other event took the true crime podcast community by storm. Again, I'm not mentioning names, but a popular true crime podcast was removed from a network (a podcast network, not a media network like CNN or Fox; again, no names here) for posting a meme on Twitter. Looking at it from both sides, I saw people who were clear supporters of the podcast and those who hated it. There was much blaming on both sides.
I'll end this post quickly, as I see that it's rambling on for quite a length, but the true lesson learned from the true crime podcast fiasco is this: when dealing with something, be it a meme or a post, before responding, take a pause. Ask yourself: do I want to do this? What are the consequences, if I do?
Even though our natural response to a stimulus is to quickly respond, take a moment . . . and ask if you really should respond the way you want.
I could go on and on, but this post is long enough. I may revisit this topic at another time.
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