Quote:
Originally Posted by Laridae
This thread seems to have devolved into a political debate between left-leaning French and other Europeans and right-leaning Americans. It would be so much easier to follow if people would specify their country in their info so we could quickly see where they were "coming from", instead of having to infer it from their comments.
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You seem to be saying there are no leftists in the States or right-wing people in France. Your use of
left and
right also implies those terms are universally accepted and understood in only one way.
The failure to perceive other people's individuality is not caused by the total conformity of citizens to the political tendencies of their countries' leaders, but it is often exacerbated by misleading representation in the media.
Perhaps you perceive Americans to be universally right-wing and all French people to be leftists because a cursory glance at the media, posts by the most vocal members of forums like this and -- here's the especially fine point -- assumptions about individual members' agendas give you that impression. Trust me: It isn't true.
The public protest of millions of demonstrators is often severely underreported by privately owned and/or governmentally controlled media which endorse/enforce a different position, and that high-level decision -- to silence public opinion instead of showing it -- can shift the perception of national unity in virtually any country.
If the opinions of millions can be omitted or misrepresented routinely, then what about the quiet reality of individuals whose dissent goes largely unexpressed? The answer is, we almost never see it.
A gay person who lives in a viciously homophobic community is no less gay if they're reticent to display who they are publicly. Their reticence doesn't mean that everyone in that community -- including them -- is heterosexual.
A person who knows that expressing their opinions could create subtler problems might also be disinclined to make their views known.
Likewise the person whose political views are potentially isolating or subject to overt hostility or retaliation: They exist in France, North America and everywhere else whether they talk about it publicly or not.
And there are some of us who have concluded that ideology and political views often tell us nothing about a person's character -- that we can have friends whose beliefs are antipodal to our own and enemies with whose political vision we find ourselves in lockstep. Isn't friendship contingent on the quality of the person and not the compatibility of their beliefs with our own?
Some of us are trying to find common ground and points of discussion and agreement with people whose political views are very different. I believe that friendly discussions between apparent political adversaries are important. Every reasonable argument deserves to be tested whether we agree with it or not, and every reasonable human being deserves at least the chance to be understood.
In that sense, it's sometimes difficult to say where our posts are "coming from," as you put it. But knowing our nationality isn't the key to understanding our positions, and assuming that devious obscuration is our motivation seems rather uncharitable.
Paying attention to what people actually say -- here and elsewhere -- is the closest thing to a universal key that you're going to find.