Chilling effect.
Thought this might interest some of you.
Some 62% now believe the political climate prevents them from expressing their true beliefs
Holding your tongue, or taking a second to think about if your words might be offensive isnt necessarily a bad thing. Remember, we have freedom of speech, not freedom from repercussions caused by our speech.
I think its more that everyone is on edge about social and political issues and it is so easy to say something that can be deemed polarizing. Also, who goes out and discusses their beliefs with strangers or with folks you dont have a certain level of familiarity with where it wouldnt be impolite to discuss religion/politics/ or any other controversial issue?
Maybe this is a reflection of social media interactions, as opposed to the in-person interactions we all used to have?
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These numbers seem far too high based on what one sees on Facebook.
Some people need to shut the Hell upā¦
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If you live in a dictatorship or theocratic state.
That sounds great but in practice, it empowers the fragile and stupid while terrorizing the intelligent, the creative and the strong.
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I was going to give my own opinion on this, but I feel itās probably best that I keep it to myself.
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Smart ā¦ donāt want to upset the kiddos
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Yes, offensive thing like you who vote for, who you associate with and some of your religious beliefs.
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Exactly, only Rowlingās enormous wealth and following saved her from the mob when she made fun of an article about mothers than couldnāt bring itself to mention women.
She wouldnāt have had backlash, other than people on Facebook if she were not rich and famous.
Thatās all cool then.
This isnāt true anyway, regular people have assholes on the internet contacting their employers demanding they be sacked.
We call that being an adult or I do. But itās getting hard to find people who can do that. I speak in front of decent sized groups often and Iām always careful of what I say. I was before this political climate and will be afterwards. I donāt know everyoneās beliefs and I certainly donāt know what people who arenāt me have gone through. Not making assumptions about people is hard enough though I try to do my best to fight that internally.
I donāt think people should be scared to share beliefs or opinions. But I do think not all beliefs and opinions need to be shared in public all the time. I miss when I didnāt know everyoneās religious and political beliefs in the world. Now āeveryoneā shouts them from the rooftop 24/7 for some reason.
People say shit online they would never or hopefully never say in person. Hell I say shit in here I would never say to strangers. But weāre in a pandemic where most people have more time to be online than ever before. And itās not a good thing. I have Facebook and Twitter but never really post anything. I just donāt care to share much of my personal beliefs and opinions online. Havenāt before āthis climateā and wonāt afterwards if afterwards exists.
I am from a pretty conservative area where honestly I wouldnāt be surprised if a Biden sign in my yard wasnāt torn down. I have been shocked and dismayed at what I see on Facebook. I believe I have mentioned this before but a local page exists which used to be called my town news on Facebook. For forever it was anyone seen my dog? Anyone mowing lawns? Looking for a new place to rent any suggestions? Other than people butchering words it was harmless.
For months now the place has been horrific. Itās anti-mask vs pro mask, black lives vs blue lives, Trump vs Biden, whatever the pressing topics are of the day now that everyone has time to fuck off I guess. And itās not a discussion itās people posting some meme or video and then going at it. Constant threats to kick ass, threats to kill others who disagree, etc. Both people who seem to be left and people who are right. You can still find have you seen my dog posts once in a while. But they are quickly buried under new memes, photos, videos and the next round of hatred.
I do not know what the cure for this is or if it exists. I do not think this is a left issue and I donāt think it is a right issue. I think itās both. People are so built into one team or the other that anything counter to that is not disagreement. Itās the enemy, nothing more nothing less.
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This shit is really lame. I have had some issues recently with an employee and another employee. One was an older conservative woman and one was a younger liberal woman. They were teamed up together recently and had a long car ride together. The older conservative woman shared her beliefs that not all black people were bad but almost all were. That her and her husband only used the n word when talking about certain types of them and that many black people killed by police had it coming. The younger liberal woman discussed with me that this made her very uncomfortable and that she no longer wished to be a partner with her.
I talked to the older conservative woman about this and she did not deny anything that was shared. I let her know that her personal beliefs were her personal beliefs but that I did not think it was appropriate work conversation. I also told her that in our line of work we work with very diverse groups of people and that we need to be mindful of biases we may have. We canāt serve our kids and families in my line of work if we have disdain for them. Itās actually something we talk about a lot anyways as itās not so much often a race thing (majority of our clients are white) but also a people thing. When you work with domestic abuse, extreme poverty, drug use itās hard to separate the person from the action at time and not think people are hopeless.
I donāt think either were happy with what I did but I didnāt really give a shit. The older conservative woman has now been fired (nothing to do with that at all she just wasnāt doing significant parts of her job and had already been on an improvement plan). Actually canned the younger woman as well (completely unrelated to what happened she fucked up in a different kind of way).
Itās difficult though. We work in a small enough area to be fairly āpublicā people. We are known by judges, lawyers, parents, kids, etc. Iāve had the conversation of being mindful of what we post online and I donāt think thatās a bad thing at all.
But I think it can go way overboard and I donāt think average people should be hunted down and made to be fired necessarily. But your online presence carries over into your real job now often it just does. Maybe 30 years ago your annoying opinions or thoughts were just known by the people you loaded boxes with. Maybe they ticked a guy off but whatever. Now you put all that shit online and maybe UPS or whoever thinks nah we donāt want people associating us with that so fuck em.
In certain professions itās been this way for a while. If youāre a teacher youāre under a different microscope than if you mow grass. Maybe the grass mower can have all sorts of pictures of weed, alcohol, whatever and who gives a fuck. But the kindergarten teacher has that and people are talking to the school board. My mom likes a glass of wine and she was a primary teacher for years in a very small town where I grew up. She never bought wine in town. She didnāt want kids or parents to see her buying booze.
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How the fuck can I fight you if you wonāt give me anything man?! Come on weāve always seen things (most) way differently. You canāt just come back and then not cross swords with me via typing on a phone when we both should be doing other things. Iāve been at work since 7 AM got to kiss my daughter goodnight and have probably 3 more hours of stuff Iād like to knock out. But instead Iām here looking for a scuffle and youāre taking this line?!
Donāt cancel me bro! (And again good to see you back).
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If what you want to say begins with āIām not a racist, butā¦ā or āIām not prejudiced, butā¦ā maybe you should reconsider what youāre dying to share with the world.
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Or maybe, people shouldnāt react like babies and use moments like that to try and educate people. The fact someone prefaces with not being a racist tells you that you are probably dealing with ignorance and not hate. Isnāt it better for people to expose their potentially misguided beliefs to the world so we can combat them intellectually rather than have people live with those beliefs that never get questioned or scrutinized?
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āKnow your audienceā. Those topics arenāt great to bring up with strangersā¦ And itās generally classless trash that do bring it up to strangers unsolicited.
Most discourse seems to happen online these days, and manners are non-existent there. Itās a shame. Manners generally help moderate our positions and make interesting productive discourse much more likely.
Yeah people make a hobby of being offended these days, but a lot of people also make a hobby out of trying to gaslight and get a rise out of folks.
You arenāt going to bait me into getting myself cancelled!
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I have one far left person who can discuss politics reasonably in person. One.
I avoid the topic with almost every person I know who is outspoken about their wokeness/leftism. Some seem to assume I share most of their beliefs.
I think this feeds into TDS and related behaviors. Some of these ideas are so unhinged and disconnected from reality that a discussion becomes all risk, no reward for me. People never get the benefit of someone willing to vocalize disagreement, so they believe their ideas are much more popular than they really are.
For example, Iām not ready to unpack my sister in laws statement that racism is somehow at the root of a shooting that took place in front of my Niecesā school.
Iāll just ask for the pepper instead.
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Maybe more people are taking offense because they consider themselves āalliesā. Whereas before, folks used to only get offended (or announce something was offensive) when something was directly offensive to them personally, but now a straight white guy will call out something that is offensive to a black lesbian woman.