I don't see people as disposable. Even though I'm surrounded by unpleasant people, this is where I am right now, and how can there be a sense of the family of humanity, if we get picky about who counts and who doesn't?
I relate a lot to what you're saying to the point that I'm a little sketched out by it because it feels like you're digging around in my own head and verbalizing my thoughts. I feel much the same as you do here. A problem I have in my blog is that sometimes I'll be explaining an issue I'm having with a person and I'm just trying to work it out or give others a chance to relate and people will come in and villainize the person. I think I dig you vibe here, it's like, a lack of nuance in thought, people come down really hard on one side or the other and don't stop to think that everything's really complicated and maybe there is not a right answer nor a solution.
However in this case I think wyote was trying to make the point that the people you surround yourself with heavily influence you. For example, I did used to have friends whose main focus was politics but because I moved on and started focusing on my art my friend set shifted to something that compliments me better. I don't think he meant to dismiss people. Wyote if all people on this forum falls in line with tolerance of ideas; he's not one of those "cut off their heads!" Types. Maybe he should have stressed he meant to make more friends who you have common interests with but not necessarily get rid of any only friends. Does that make sense? Expand your horizons.
The best thing for everyone is when everyone treats everyone else with some compassion and respect. I think politics doesn't help that, and actually damages people's connection with others. I think your politics might be making you aggressive and detached from real people.
I don't want help. Help is patronising, and the last thing I want is a patron. I just want to enjoy life, and it's hard to enjoy it, when people are more interested in their politics than they are in being civil to each other.
I relate to this too. Again straight from my head! You scare me (in a good way). We have lots of generalizing in society from politics that come accross as "ALL people from this group think this and want this" and the lack of nuance or honesty about the fact that no, some people who are part of that identity or group of people feel differently, can make you feel isolated and not heard. I think that's what makes it frustrating when people think they are doing good and saving others or making society better when you feel like you're not being heard, you're being generalized because of a loud group of people who are monopolising power. And
@Pin 's solution to this is to go and get the power yourself which makes sense on an intellectual level, but maybe you don't *want* that power.
I relate a lot to just wanting to live a simple life with my friends and family and do the best I can in my day to day life to nurture myself and those around me. That is just how I am. I have been frustrated as I lean into who I am that my friends want to bring up politics, want to have these heated discussions about something I have no real power to change nor do I want to. What I recently realized is that they're not talking about politics at all; they're talking about their feelings. They're talking about their own fear, their own hopelessness, their lack of control, and using the system of politics or religion or whatever it is as a springboard to illustrate their pain. Many of them also think that using politics or religion will help them to solve that pain. But as a spiritual person (different from religious), I realize that only the self can heal the self and when we are fixated on a system as the source of our pain and the only way our pain goes away is to change that system we are externalizing and not taking personal accountability.
Not everyone uses politics in this way, but many people. And I do think it's natural for human beings to focus on the community to some degree because we want to survive and so we are looking to maintain balance and harmony. As technology has progressed the scale of what we can look at though has zoomed out, so you have people in different countries protesting something that happened in another country and it becomes very abstract and disconnected from what we can actually change. Whereas if you went down to your homeless shelter and donated that would have a big impact, focusing on such huge issues as an individual the reality of our influence is slim.
Again, though, that's why many people chose to focus on big issues instead of their local community. They don't actually want to get involved and do the work; they are looking for a way to express their feelings.
