I don’t want right-wing fanatics…I don’t want leftist fanatics…I want a place where all views can be discussed with respect and civility. /r/politics was NOT that place. I hope Lemmy can avoid the echo chamber to allow respectful disagreement and discourse to occur (while not overly defending extremists on either side).
I like to believe there is much more we agree upon than disagree…and while not always the case, sometimes we need to take a moment to ensure we aren’t talking passed each other and be willing to listen to understand (even if you don’t agree in the end). It’s okay to disagree as long as you respect one another.
“If you want to be heard, first learn to listen.” - John F. Kennedy
“should we have a 2 cent sales tax to fund schools or a 4 cent one” is politics. “Should trans people exist” is not politics.
Or, rather, don’t argue with someone who doesn’t think you’re a human being. Don’t give them a forum.
Agreed. I don’t like how much our society has given into the Right’s attempt to inherently politicize the existence of minority groups. The TREATMENT of those minority groups by the government is certainly political, but not whether or not they should be allowed to exist.
I’m 100% okay telling people who think that Transgender healthcare should be banned, or that the Jews are the root of societies problems, or that the government should force women to carry pregnancies to term to go have those opinions elsewhere, that they aren’t welcome here. I don’t think it’s somehow “anti free speech” to do that either, they can go scream it on the corner of their street all they want. Just don’t let them do it here, because these aren’t issues that I think should be up for debate. The root of the “debate” around those issues is bigotry (and control over the individual, in the case of abortion) and I don’t see any way to acceptably decouple the bigotry from the “issue” at hand.
Sometimes society decides an idea is too shitty to be expressed publicly without shame and ridicule, and I think that’s fine. I don’t have a problem with private spaces openly banning that kind of speech.