All Things in Moderation

Especially around here, if I were to start a conversation with a comment that was complimentary of President Trump, it wouldn't matter what I followed that with because people would immediately see red, and worse than not listening they'd assume the worst of whatever I was going to say next.  

In fact, I was recently in just such a conversation, and though the initial statement wasn't about President Trump it was about something almost as controversial, and so even though I followed it up with almost the exact opposite statement, the person I was talking to got angry and harangued me both for my initial comment (which I knew they would vehemently disagree with) as well as my follow-up comment (which was actually something they vehemently agreed with, but they weren't able to properly hear me say it because they were so irritated at my initial comment).

This is what passes for our national discourse nowadays.  People are incapable of believing that you can make two statements next to each other that involve balance or nuance, so having heard one statement they immediately know what your next statement will be even before you've said it, and even if what you actually say is the exact opposite.

Look, I get that "bothsidesism" is infuriating when to acknowledge the merits of one side is to dangerously accommodate something that instead should be repudiated and condemned.  We can all agree that there absolutely are absolutes out there for which intolerance is not only allowed but expected.

What is problematic is when your phasers are set to kill regardless of the topic, as if there are no issues for which there are multiple legitimate positions, nuances, and an ability to compromise and empathize and hey maybe even create room in your head to change your mind.  

President-elect Biden is, regardless of how you feel about him personally and where you are on his political positions, a decent and thoughtful and open-minded man.  That may frustrate you to no end if what you want is someone who holds different views and is more unflinching in holding them.  But it is at the very least his starting point.  Let us see where the national conversation goes from here.  It is one we must all participate in, both in speaking up and in listening up.