Politics-What's on your mind?

[~ocean]

Originally Posted by charley

Considering my not-so-perfect childhood, I was never taught to "trust" anyone outside my immediate family. Moreover, I was always, even from childhood, quite skeptical. Luckily, being skeptical is healthy, while of course, being suspicious is always indicative of having had really bad conditioning.

To me, the element of trust is only present when there is love. As a matter of fact, when there is love, trust is a part of that love, and the issue of whether or not to trust doesn't even come up. Other than that, in ego development, it is something to be earned. The nature of trust always includes honesty, openness, transparency and above all, generosity of spirit. I can always tell who is generous and who is selfish (and not to be trusted) by the way in which they are capable of revealing the full extent of the core of why they say what they say - in other words, how they respond. You see, the worse kinds of lies are the lies of omission.

Insofar as public officials are concerned, I always thought that police officers were there to help you, especially if you were lost, and I have even driven to the closest RCMP office while driving thru Canada to get directions. I really didn't know any police officers while growing up, and I read in my 20s how there was a large number of law enforcement who beat their wives! Recent estimates are that they are 4 times more likely to hurt women than the rest of the population. I could never trust someone who was on a power trip.

Insofar as politicians are concerned, nothing that any Canadian politician has ever done has had the slightest effect on my life. If anything, their lack of action regarding climate change (and other issues) since I read "Silent Spring" in my 20s has always made me think they should all be arrested and charged with the genocide of the animals who live in nature (and more recently the Australian PM who should definitely be charged with murder - the estimates are about 1 billion animals killed in the Ozzie wildfires).

In the building where I live, the police even knew my apartment #, and would buzz me when they wanted to get into the building. Eventually, I found out that they had a code they could push and would tell them to call their head office and get the code and stop bugging me. Just because someone wears a uniform does not make them "perfect". Just because someone holds some government office doesn't make them "perfect". The worst kind of person is someone who plays god with the lives of others, and tries to get them to live according to their idea of how they should live. These kinds of people usually attract a gang of people who are susceptible to peer pressure, and the members of such a gang are notoriously untrustworthy, basically because their idea of how they see other people is always screened through their loyalty to whoever is in charge. They just can't be true to themselves, because their idea of being true is always to their "leader", and not to themselves - the whole issue of being a "leader" or a "follower".

As Shakespeare wrote, "Neither a borrower nor a lender be." So, in the same vein, I would say, neither a leader nor a follower be. It is only then that one can clearly see what the heck is going on.

So, my only question would be why on earth should anyone trust any "authority"? My main motto would be to "question authority", while remaining skeptical.

Good thing we have these threads to talk about issues wether personal or social. Vent away charley u need to get a lot off your shoulders . Common sense bares the weight .. open your heart there are wonderful people in this world esp. right here on this site ~ always feel free to express we are all here to help you.

[GeorgiaMa'am]

I was listening to NPR's All Things Considered, and heard an interviewee state that, as regards rape victims, we must encourage the culture to not only believe what they have to say, people must also consider their experiences to be important. For example, most people (even Republicans) believed Christine Blasey Ford was telling the truth about Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulting her, but they did not consider it important enough to deny Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination.

This highlighted what has been a blind spot for me - I have believed, I think, that of course everyone believes rape is important and serious. But now that this has been pointed out to me, I have realized that _of course_ there are many people, probably mostly men, who don't consider it important at all, or of little importance. Very disheartening when thinking about the human race.

I also think my belief was a creation of the way I was raised, to be a white, Southern "lady", whose "virtue" was to be protected at all costs. I had not thought about this particular issue beyond my own experience. It had to be brought to my attention by this interview; on the surface of it, of course what I believed is true, i.e., rape is a terrible crime. I had just not seen it from a bigger perspective, i.e., not everyone feels that way.

[dark_crystal]

Originally Posted by GeorgiaMa'am

I was listening to NPR's All Things Considered, and heard an interviewee state that, as regards rape victims, we must encourage the culture to not only believe what they have to say, people must also consider their experiences to be important. For example, most people (even Republicans) believed Christine Blasey Ford was telling the truth about Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulting her, but they did not consider it important enough to deny Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination.

This highlighted what has been a blind spot for me - I have believed, I think, that of course everyone believes rape is important and serious. But now that this has been pointed out to me, I have realized that _of course_ there are many people, probably mostly men, who don't consider it important at all, or of little importance. Very disheartening when thinking about the human race.

I also think my belief was a creation of the way I was raised, to be a white, Southern "lady", whose "virtue" was to be protected at all costs. I had not thought about this particular issue beyond my own experience. It had to be brought to my attention by this interview; on the surface of it, of course what I believed is true, i.e., rape is a terrible crime. I had just not seen it from a bigger perspective, i.e., not everyone feels that way.

I think that because we are white Christian ladies in the South, a rape of US is a terrible crime-- against our fathers/husbands/protectors/family/class, but most of those same men that would swear vengeance on our perpetrator are likely to have committed their own assaults against women who were NOT us, and would not see those assaults in the same category.

AND they would tell us to suck it up pretty quick if we went around acting traumatized for more than 60-90 days following the crime.