| | | Yes, I've read your history and background as I've skimmed this board over the past year. I never even knew there were politics based threads on SI until then, even though I've been on the board for almost 25 years. And, it's probably time for me to ignore them from this point forward. I was consumed with understanding the Trumpian mindset. The cultish feel is fascinating, although scary.
My hat's off to all of your life's efforts in support of liberal causes. I have an uncle who is a few years your senior who is tireless on the liberal front. A poet, farmer, environmental essayist from KY. I grew up in a family full of men like him -- and I say "men" because that culture didn't encourage people like my mother to engage in any pursuits like that. She is fearless and tireless, nonetheless.
My apologies for some harsh language. I was trying to make a point, and I think it was lost because of my delivery of it. I do worry regularly, however, about the "thin" nature of what we have for information these days. And, I worry about the facility with which folks with strong beliefs tend now to find support from whatever source to support their causes without so much as a pause to attempt to understand what the other side is actually saying.
I miss the days where I could have good discussion with my conservative friends that didn't end in silence and distance. I enjoyed learning how they think, and was always encouraged to know that they thought long and hard about what they believed and believed those things genuinely.
Perhaps it's my legal training that forces my brain to think about as many possible arguments against what I believe as possible, always to test my assumptions best I can. I don't think I do it perfectly well, but it is a constant.
As a partial aside, I was admonished regularly by the dean of the law school where I taught for 15 year for telling students this: "Before I went to law school I knew exactly what I believed. Now? I don't believe a goddamned thing."
Of course, that's an exaggeration to make a point. It's true to a significant degree, however. Something in the training in the first 3 semesters of law school allows the brain to see all sides, argue whichever is your charge, but still hold on to your beliefs. For clients, though, your own personal beliefs have no place in the equation except for things like ethics, of course.
Anyway, congratulations on a life well lived in service of the cause.
PS: I'm a generation behind you in age. My mother and father are in their early to mid-80s. |
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