Ok, so not much posting over the last weekend, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t things I’m knocking around in my head.

Last week I went to lunch with my son. He and I are much alike in some respects, but we differ on politics. I’m more conservative and he is progressive left. We’ve been down the road a bunch of times, and I’m ok with him telling me his viewpoints, and I believe he at least wants to hear mine.

In this latest discussion, he is becoming more convinced that ‘republicans’ are trying to actively suppress free speech and democracy and want to take over America and institute an authoritarian white-supremacist regime that stifles all dissent.

 I’m afraid that he has been listening solely to leftist views. Which is how you get to see the ‘other side’, which in this case would include his father and the one who raised him… as existential threats to everything his way of life stands for. I dunno, I don’t think that’s healthy.

While I disagree with the left, I highly doubt the majority of rank and file democrats believe the things that the intellectual leaders of certain leftist movements are pushing.

I’m holding on to the fact that most of us want to live in a just and reasonable society so we can just go to work, earn a living, find some joy and hopefully prosper along the way. The degrees to which one is convinced society needs to change in order to effectively do that is largely what determines political outlook.

A while back I watched the Social Dilemma, a movie which detailed the ways in which social media is warping discourse in America. The point of social media is to keep users engaged on the platforms as long as possible, so that they can be shown advertisements that will hopefully convince them to buy stuff.  The algorithms keep users online by showing them content they agree with, which consequently means viewpoints they don’t like are removed. As users continually engage with content that supports their views, confirmation bias kicks in and those users will tend to become more radicalized.

One can monkey with the process by listening to both sides, which will apparently confuse the algorithms, but apparently, that’s not the norm. People by and large tend towards confirmation rather than hearing opposing viewpoints.

One of the ways I hope I’ve avoided some of this, is by purposefully listening to other views. I don’t really listen to many people on the “right”. I listen to mostly those on the left, who have had some negative experiences on their own side, and have the guts to stand up against it.

So I certainly know about problems on the left, but I also hear their complaints about the right. I have also been moved to the center by listening to their own arguments against positions I have typically agreed with. This has caused me to consider markets, for one example, in a different scope than I might have otherwise.

It has also made me more aware of at least the central complaints many on the left have. I can genuinely see the concerns, even if I disagree with some of the proposed solutions. For example, one of the core differences between right and left is personal responsibility versus collective responsibility. While I tend to lean pretty heavily towards the personal responsibility side of the equation, I have also come to see the other side. In any situation, individuals, as free moral agents, of course have personal responsibility for their decisions and actions. But every member of a society is born into that society. He doesn’t freely assent to the moral contract as an option. Society is made up of a collection of individuals, each of which has responsibilities as well as rights. We collectively expect members to act responsibly, but we likewise owe them their rights as part of our end of the bargain. The political and democratic portion of society is going to be mostly concentrated on resolving the societal level issues. That doesn’t negate personal responsibility, it just says that personal responsibility is the responsibility of persons, not the collective. The collective’s job is to take care of its responsibilities.

So there’s an example of an area I’ve moved away from my former position by listening to voices from a different background.

If we don’t take the time to hear what others are saying though, then we can become tools of the most radicalized voices. I fear this is happening, but I’ve been given an opportunity to answer in some dialogue, so I started writing back. Of course it takes some time, and careful thinking. My reasoning has to be impeccable since it’s being judged critically. If I say something, I need to be sure it’s backed up, and I don’t assume the premises on which I founded my thought are known to the person reading it.

All of this is good for me on the level of settling through and sharpening my own ideas. And it’s also an opportunity to show the love of Jesus.