After a God-knows-how-long break, I tried Twitter again for a few days and all of that primitive tribalism kicked in immediately. Social media pushes the most narcissistic attention seeking idiots to the top of our feeds. It's impossible to keep yourself sane without actively resisting the insanity.
One thing I have done to keep my identity separate from my beliefs is changing how I frame them. For example, instead of saying I am a 'feminist', I say I believe in equal rights for both men and women.
I try to rid myself of as many labels as possible and it's been enormously helpful.
Thank you so much, and I love the thoughts you've shared. Appreciate you commenting!
Your approach of avoiding labels is so wise. There's good research on how differently "I am X" and "I believe in X" impact our openness to other views.
And I know exactly what you mean about Twitter culture. I also find it difficult not to get sucked into that tribalism, despite me having deep dislike for it and awareness of the incentives pushing it! I've mostly concluded I have to post-and-ghost. I've found the reacting-to-reactions-of-reactions approach is one of the most toxic ways to use it (and naturally, one of uses that gets you the most followers and attention...).
The thing that keeps me up at night is thinking of young people getting their first real experience with forming arguments and handling disagreement on platforms that incentive the worst approaches. My experience with this happened on Tumblr, which had problems, but was the Garden of Eden compared to Twitter lol.
My hope is that as long as there's a vocal minority offering a healthy alternative, we have a chance to keep moving forward.
I've learned how pointless labels are, esp now that I watch hard-core capitalists on the right embracing ideas I was one yelled at for being "socialist". After some careful mental twister to relabel them as capitalist, of course, to save their ego, but i dont care what label you use, socialist or a "new" way of doing capitalism, its the ideas that matter. Not everyone gets that.
And no one ever uses Nazi, fascist, communist, socialist, or Marxist correctly, they've just become the chosen slurs of each side against whatever they dont like, to shut down discussion an "win".
I always enjoy reading your essays. Deep pluralism is still not well understood, and I've been making the case that its worse than epistemology. People don't even know how to be around each other or talk anymore.
I really appreciate hearing that you care about this! Totally agree. Nobody even uses the word pluralism lol. And in a time when we've never had a better way to see just how different every single person's perspective can be! Thank you so much for reading and commenting.
It's been enough for me to give up sectarian religion in totality and align with Deism. A Creator that is light and goodness by any name one chooses or not, a Natural Order,
no deified humans , no original sin. Born with a tabula rasa ( clean slate) free will to choose a path of morality, but not the sectarian " fire and brimstone" edict nor reciting a hundred Hail Marys with a beaded necklace and Voila!, absolution. One way or another, whether here or hereafter, egregious acts committed knowingly have consequences. Karma. That. lean slate can become quite a rap sheet... and leave people alone. Keep religion out of government and if targeting, persecuting, harming and killing people who don't bend to the religious doctrine of another's beliefs.. if you cannot live in secular society and assimilate as so succinctly laid out by the Constitutional framers- Get the fuck out and resettle in a theocracy. Between the hyper Christian Conservatives, Islamist Jihadists, Marxist atheist Islamists( figure that out), metastatic antisemitism... the only people who aren't making demands are Hindus and Buddhists and now the Hindus are being targeted by the aforementioned triumvirate. As the Constitution is being ripped to shreds.
Political partisanship have become fundamental extremist religious sects as well. Purity demands, requisite lockstep ideological obeisance. A Supreme Court that tramples the Constitution by ruling based upon religious and political ideology vs neutrality and the written law. Each " side" calling the other judicial activists. They all are.
We a country with a gaping hole that was once the pragmatic center. The hole is becoming a vortex and as it widens, it's a matter of time before we are all sucked into the abyss.
I really resonate with your vision of a Creator. I think it's a giant obstacle and mistake that we humans get so hung up on the particulars of our differences instead of trying to understand what truths exist in the many places where our different beliefs actually overlap. Religion is a good example. I appreciate Buddhism for this reason: it's not fixated on whether everyone agrees on the details, but rather that we seek to agree on some fundamentals.
Politics has definitely become a kind of religion for people! At least there's some solace to take when we find other people who see things a little more clearly than the norm. I'm grateful for your comment for that reason!
I think some see their relationship with a god or nature or whatever as a personal sacred thing to explore alone or with special companions, and some (esp in some religious traditions) see it as something to spread and enforce on others. That latter always felt less like spirituality and more like a container someone built long ago to imprison and control the spirituality of others and, too often, weaponize it.
Nothing better connotes spirituality than wielding religion as a cudgel.
The Eastern religions, ie Hinduism, Buddhism are more philosophical than ideological and promote self discovery by clearing one's mind of clutter and distraction to connect with "the light", a higher plane of self discovery and far beyond. Without dogma, condemnation , conversion requisite or proselytism.
And most ironically , they incorporate what is now proven empirical science that was absolutely unheard of way back when.
Hinduism is remarkable in its prescience. It incorporated epochs, continuum, the Fibonacci Sequence, Golden Ratio, Relativity, Chaos Theory, Energy, Elements, infinite math, balance, cause and effect.. most remarkable and missed by so many is " karma" and relativity. That everything that " is" sustains itself in a perfectly synchronized constant revolution. What goes around comes around.
Orbital. The Earth rotates on its axis. All the planets in our solar system do. And they circle the sun. The energy is created by protons encircling atoms , everything living is a binary system. Cell walls/nuclei, circulatory system, bloodcells/platelets, DNA double helix, breathing inhaling oxygen, exhaling carbon dioxide, birth/death/ regeneration, tidal ebb and flow, a species becomes extinct, a new species emerges, amoebas/paramecium, good/evil, Sacred Geometry, Pi.. the spiral. The lotus is the representation of the perfection that repeats itself everywhere. The reproductive cycle. the body. Cochlea, DNA,formation of the uterus,fallopian tubes,ovaries..Nautilus,flowers,pineapples,berries,broccoli,cauliflower,tornadoes,vortexes..
most remarkable? The "lowly" sea urchin. Hardly. So perfectly formed in its symmetry the Sputnik was modeled on its form, ability to circumnavigate in water, its aeration , impervious to radiation by its form made it conducive to space travel. But it also provided sustenance .. a major food source in the Barcelona region of Spain and coastal Portugal and economic security as a primary export and beauty in its curious design.
The Hindus were the first to understand the connectivity of all things.Including animals as sacred beings.
And it is a deistic philosophy, Brahman, the Creator of All is represented as light.
Buddhism is very similar with the " knot of enlightenment" and the answers must be discovered within.
The Abrahamic religions consider all non Abrahamic religions " Pagan". It's the pot calling the kettle black. Three tribes with one " father", humans who are endowed with God's powers.Walking on water, turning water into wine, talking to God in the form of a burning bush, Parting the Red Sea, returning from Mt Sinai with stone tablets engraved with the Ten Commandments, parting the Red Sea, Eve being created from Adam's rib, talking to a serpent, 90 year old Sarah giving birth to Abraham's son, Jonah swallowed by a whale, a Virgin birth, David and Goliath, Samson and Delilah, Noah's ark, Methuselah, God testing Solomon 's disciples to " split the baby", Golems made of clay,the Apocalypse,God residing in Zion above the clouds of Mt Nebo.
One of the oddest of God's " edicts" is the demand that there shall be no God before Him. Punishment for disobedience, graven images, Jesus dying in agony for " our sins" at the decision of his " Father". So we're all sinners. But if we just say " Forgive me for I have sinned and accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, nevermind you've committed rape, murder, arson, kidnapping, torture, child abuse.. you're absolved and going to Heaven, but have led an honest life, you're a sinner, regardless?
And the hatred!
As per Islam- There is nothing of worth aside from some cool architecture , artistic lettering and they're equal opportunity death merchants.
The Renaissance period left a legacy of exquisite religious art and architecture. Notre Dame, Assisi, The Basilica in Florence, Sistine Chapel, Canterbury Cathedral, Pieta, Statue of David, Segovia..
And the Spanish Inquistion, 30 year war ..
The Holocaust,Irish Republican Army, Sein Fein, Oct 7, Serbia KosovoTurkiye/Kurds, Iran/Saudi Arabia,Iraq/Kuwait,Yemen, Syria/ISIS, Nigerian Christians/Boko Haram, Islam/the World, the World/Israel and the Jews... Now the Jews vs the Jews..
Nearly forgot the most extreme religious cult battle- the left/ right conflict.
A much-needed piece for our times.
After a God-knows-how-long break, I tried Twitter again for a few days and all of that primitive tribalism kicked in immediately. Social media pushes the most narcissistic attention seeking idiots to the top of our feeds. It's impossible to keep yourself sane without actively resisting the insanity.
One thing I have done to keep my identity separate from my beliefs is changing how I frame them. For example, instead of saying I am a 'feminist', I say I believe in equal rights for both men and women.
I try to rid myself of as many labels as possible and it's been enormously helpful.
Thank you so much, and I love the thoughts you've shared. Appreciate you commenting!
Your approach of avoiding labels is so wise. There's good research on how differently "I am X" and "I believe in X" impact our openness to other views.
And I know exactly what you mean about Twitter culture. I also find it difficult not to get sucked into that tribalism, despite me having deep dislike for it and awareness of the incentives pushing it! I've mostly concluded I have to post-and-ghost. I've found the reacting-to-reactions-of-reactions approach is one of the most toxic ways to use it (and naturally, one of uses that gets you the most followers and attention...).
The thing that keeps me up at night is thinking of young people getting their first real experience with forming arguments and handling disagreement on platforms that incentive the worst approaches. My experience with this happened on Tumblr, which had problems, but was the Garden of Eden compared to Twitter lol.
My hope is that as long as there's a vocal minority offering a healthy alternative, we have a chance to keep moving forward.
I've learned how pointless labels are, esp now that I watch hard-core capitalists on the right embracing ideas I was one yelled at for being "socialist". After some careful mental twister to relabel them as capitalist, of course, to save their ego, but i dont care what label you use, socialist or a "new" way of doing capitalism, its the ideas that matter. Not everyone gets that.
And no one ever uses Nazi, fascist, communist, socialist, or Marxist correctly, they've just become the chosen slurs of each side against whatever they dont like, to shut down discussion an "win".
Absolutely.
Yes!
😊
Really love this, thank you!
I'm so happy to hear that Colleen, thank you! Appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment. ❤️
I always enjoy reading your essays. Deep pluralism is still not well understood, and I've been making the case that its worse than epistemology. People don't even know how to be around each other or talk anymore.
I really appreciate hearing that you care about this! Totally agree. Nobody even uses the word pluralism lol. And in a time when we've never had a better way to see just how different every single person's perspective can be! Thank you so much for reading and commenting.
It's been enough for me to give up sectarian religion in totality and align with Deism. A Creator that is light and goodness by any name one chooses or not, a Natural Order,
no deified humans , no original sin. Born with a tabula rasa ( clean slate) free will to choose a path of morality, but not the sectarian " fire and brimstone" edict nor reciting a hundred Hail Marys with a beaded necklace and Voila!, absolution. One way or another, whether here or hereafter, egregious acts committed knowingly have consequences. Karma. That. lean slate can become quite a rap sheet... and leave people alone. Keep religion out of government and if targeting, persecuting, harming and killing people who don't bend to the religious doctrine of another's beliefs.. if you cannot live in secular society and assimilate as so succinctly laid out by the Constitutional framers- Get the fuck out and resettle in a theocracy. Between the hyper Christian Conservatives, Islamist Jihadists, Marxist atheist Islamists( figure that out), metastatic antisemitism... the only people who aren't making demands are Hindus and Buddhists and now the Hindus are being targeted by the aforementioned triumvirate. As the Constitution is being ripped to shreds.
Political partisanship have become fundamental extremist religious sects as well. Purity demands, requisite lockstep ideological obeisance. A Supreme Court that tramples the Constitution by ruling based upon religious and political ideology vs neutrality and the written law. Each " side" calling the other judicial activists. They all are.
We a country with a gaping hole that was once the pragmatic center. The hole is becoming a vortex and as it widens, it's a matter of time before we are all sucked into the abyss.
I really resonate with your vision of a Creator. I think it's a giant obstacle and mistake that we humans get so hung up on the particulars of our differences instead of trying to understand what truths exist in the many places where our different beliefs actually overlap. Religion is a good example. I appreciate Buddhism for this reason: it's not fixated on whether everyone agrees on the details, but rather that we seek to agree on some fundamentals.
Politics has definitely become a kind of religion for people! At least there's some solace to take when we find other people who see things a little more clearly than the norm. I'm grateful for your comment for that reason!
I think some see their relationship with a god or nature or whatever as a personal sacred thing to explore alone or with special companions, and some (esp in some religious traditions) see it as something to spread and enforce on others. That latter always felt less like spirituality and more like a container someone built long ago to imprison and control the spirituality of others and, too often, weaponize it.
Nothing better connotes spirituality than wielding religion as a cudgel.
The Eastern religions, ie Hinduism, Buddhism are more philosophical than ideological and promote self discovery by clearing one's mind of clutter and distraction to connect with "the light", a higher plane of self discovery and far beyond. Without dogma, condemnation , conversion requisite or proselytism.
And most ironically , they incorporate what is now proven empirical science that was absolutely unheard of way back when.
Hinduism is remarkable in its prescience. It incorporated epochs, continuum, the Fibonacci Sequence, Golden Ratio, Relativity, Chaos Theory, Energy, Elements, infinite math, balance, cause and effect.. most remarkable and missed by so many is " karma" and relativity. That everything that " is" sustains itself in a perfectly synchronized constant revolution. What goes around comes around.
Orbital. The Earth rotates on its axis. All the planets in our solar system do. And they circle the sun. The energy is created by protons encircling atoms , everything living is a binary system. Cell walls/nuclei, circulatory system, bloodcells/platelets, DNA double helix, breathing inhaling oxygen, exhaling carbon dioxide, birth/death/ regeneration, tidal ebb and flow, a species becomes extinct, a new species emerges, amoebas/paramecium, good/evil, Sacred Geometry, Pi.. the spiral. The lotus is the representation of the perfection that repeats itself everywhere. The reproductive cycle. the body. Cochlea, DNA,formation of the uterus,fallopian tubes,ovaries..Nautilus,flowers,pineapples,berries,broccoli,cauliflower,tornadoes,vortexes..
most remarkable? The "lowly" sea urchin. Hardly. So perfectly formed in its symmetry the Sputnik was modeled on its form, ability to circumnavigate in water, its aeration , impervious to radiation by its form made it conducive to space travel. But it also provided sustenance .. a major food source in the Barcelona region of Spain and coastal Portugal and economic security as a primary export and beauty in its curious design.
The Hindus were the first to understand the connectivity of all things.Including animals as sacred beings.
And it is a deistic philosophy, Brahman, the Creator of All is represented as light.
Buddhism is very similar with the " knot of enlightenment" and the answers must be discovered within.
The Abrahamic religions consider all non Abrahamic religions " Pagan". It's the pot calling the kettle black. Three tribes with one " father", humans who are endowed with God's powers.Walking on water, turning water into wine, talking to God in the form of a burning bush, Parting the Red Sea, returning from Mt Sinai with stone tablets engraved with the Ten Commandments, parting the Red Sea, Eve being created from Adam's rib, talking to a serpent, 90 year old Sarah giving birth to Abraham's son, Jonah swallowed by a whale, a Virgin birth, David and Goliath, Samson and Delilah, Noah's ark, Methuselah, God testing Solomon 's disciples to " split the baby", Golems made of clay,the Apocalypse,God residing in Zion above the clouds of Mt Nebo.
One of the oddest of God's " edicts" is the demand that there shall be no God before Him. Punishment for disobedience, graven images, Jesus dying in agony for " our sins" at the decision of his " Father". So we're all sinners. But if we just say " Forgive me for I have sinned and accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, nevermind you've committed rape, murder, arson, kidnapping, torture, child abuse.. you're absolved and going to Heaven, but have led an honest life, you're a sinner, regardless?
And the hatred!
As per Islam- There is nothing of worth aside from some cool architecture , artistic lettering and they're equal opportunity death merchants.
The Renaissance period left a legacy of exquisite religious art and architecture. Notre Dame, Assisi, The Basilica in Florence, Sistine Chapel, Canterbury Cathedral, Pieta, Statue of David, Segovia..
And the Spanish Inquistion, 30 year war ..
The Holocaust,Irish Republican Army, Sein Fein, Oct 7, Serbia KosovoTurkiye/Kurds, Iran/Saudi Arabia,Iraq/Kuwait,Yemen, Syria/ISIS, Nigerian Christians/Boko Haram, Islam/the World, the World/Israel and the Jews... Now the Jews vs the Jews..
Nearly forgot the most extreme religious cult battle- the left/ right conflict.
I need that eyeroll black sheep as my avatar.
Where's the original meme?
Hahaha I'm glad that resonates. It's an original image I made. Enjoy! Love that you made it your profile image!
OH, do I need to credit you in the byline avatar? Or rather, I'd like to. How shall I do it? I credited Boriquo Gato for my profile quote.
Women live to agree with each other. No lively debate or ... Thinking happens in female only groups