Hello you all!
Before I’m off to a much needed holiday, I thought I’d do another rant… And, boy, is there a lot to rant about! As you may know, I’m German, so I have kind of an outsider’s insider view on Charlottesville. The sad truth is, White Supremacists, Nazis, the KKK, Alt-Right, they are everywhere. They come in different disguises and different flavors, but ultimately, they’re always the same and we see them, because they scream the loudest and do the unthinkable – hurting other people. I also want to clarify that, in my opinion, the ultra-left is not one bit better (as evidenced in Hamburg, G20). Actually, I think the ultra-left and the far right are closer to each other than to the liberal and conservative middle, no matter in which country. And that’s where the problem lies. The people who protested peacefully against the march in Charlottesville seem to belong to the middle (at least that’s what I took from CNN and various other news sources), while the KKK and White Supremacists definitely belong to the far right. Not condemning their behavior is simply unacceptable.
This said, let me get to the core of my rant. We won’t stop our society’s problems (equality, energy, global warming, ….) by hating each other. We won’t come up with creative solutions if we let our judgement be clouded by the sentiment that only we have the key to all truths. (This right has until recently been reserved to religions, one they defended with tooth and nail – and look what it has gotten us all into.)
Yes, there are people who don’t like LGBTQ-folk. This is an opinion and as long as that opinion stays where it belongs – inside a part of their heads where the dislike for onions and muscle shirts is stored as well – nobody has a problem. As long as people stay civilized and remember there’s more than one way to live your life and that respecting the choices of others is important if you want your own choices to be respected, then everything is fine. As long as we don’t forget that the law is there for a reason, nobody gets into trouble.
You don’t have to like somebody or their life-choices to work with them, respect them, help them when needed. You only have to respect them.
The moment we forget about respect, the problems start. Because without respect, violence finds an open door and people get hurt or die. This is not the way. Not in the US. Not in Germany. Not anywhere.
If you don’t like somebody or something they do, just keep your quiet or, very politely, point out that you disagree. In return, accept gracefully when somebody does the same with you. There’s no reason to use foul language just because somebody thinks Jamie should have killed Drogon and that Cersei is a better queen than Daenerys (if you’re wondering about this example, go to YouTube, watch a video with Daenerys or Cersei in it and read the comments; it’s what I just ranted about in a nutshell; a very sad nutshell…).
To make a long rant short, a variety of opinions is the life-blood of a functioning society. Don’t let hatred cloud your view. Don’t stop looking for the good even within the bad. Try to go high, when others go low (yes, I stole that one 😊). If somebody has a different opinion, don’t stop talking to them, but don’t start a fight either. Be civil. Be respectful. Look for the common goal you may have. And if you can’t find one, politely say your good-byes and leave in the knowledge that THIS is how humans should interact.
Rant over. Happy Holidays for those who are still going!
