The individual is the ultimate minority.

Some individuals matter less than others to society.

The individual is the ultimate minority.

Some individuals matter less than others to society.

The individual is the ultimate minority.

Some individuals matter less than others to society.

Just saying I made errors doesn’t provide evidence I did. You argue like Peterson. I took his argument about Chinese culture and argued by analogy to the United States. His argument doesn’t work here, unless you define majority. The majority that has mattered since the founding is white male. History doesn’t lie on that point. Asians do better means nothing when they can be rounded up in internment camps or attacked because they are assumed to be the cause of COVID just because of their appearance.

Intersectionality. The logical conclusion of intersectionality is individuality.
The individual is the ultimate minority.

The problem is exasperated by “let them” figure it out. We are all made in God’s image. We all have the responsibility to love 1) God first and 2) each other. I am the first to admit that many Black people in inner cities have lost the vision and are on a downward spiral. As a teacher I attempted to address the need to have vision and goals. I was labeled “racist” against my own people! The problem in schools is inability to freely speak of Godliness in order to assess right and wrong. The problem is made worse by electronics that students use in classrooms for anything other than class focus.

We are all responsible for our mindset and how we treat people. There are many Black people that are as educated if not more than their white counterparts. Many of those white people feel threatened by their Black counterparts. They consider all Black people as getting welfare or other benefits that they are either not entitled to receive or gives them an unfair advantage.

Maturity in Christ and demonstration of the fruit of the spirit should eliminate the problem in the body of Christ. The election of Donald Trump widened the fissures of pride, divisiveness, arrogance and consider other people as less than. Why?

Black people, especially women, are considered less attractive. I discovered that the same is true in Hispanic culture. Those that are fair skinned are considered “white.” The Internet has hundreds of thousands of memes referring to Black people as apes and/or superhuman. When we aren’t considered human, it is easier to treat us as “less than.”

What is key is that he seems to comprehend that the left and the right will always, always co-exist. And they need to, because they counterbalance one another.

I don’t think there is any disagreement there, certainly not from me. But I can remember a time when both parties did work together when necessary, and I have voted with both. Where I see the breakdown starting is with the Goldwater race against Johnson in 1964, and a vast acceleration during the Moral Majority days in the 1980s. The Right became intransigent and compromise was no longer seen as positive and necessary.

This is also the period when the new conservative economic doctrines which George H. W. Bush correctly called “voodoo economics” came into play. It was a perfect storm of religious leaders tapping into political power and nationalism becoming the new religion. Our budget has never been the same, and the GOP has morphed into a bizarre mess which is anything but conservative.

I realize that the Democratic party has gone through its own issues during this time, but having watched from both sides of the aisle over the years, it seems largely in response to the changes in the GOP. They certainly aren’t at their best now, and I don’t see that changing very soon unless they get a grip on priorities. The threat from this current administration goes beyond parties and requires a counterbalance of rival control in the Congress.

In order for this country to work, we need at least two functioning, healthy political parties that speak for the major views of the people. That’s not happening but from where I sit, I can’t equate the evils. I see far more damage coming from the Right, and it has been a long time coming.

Sure… here’s my ideology: No ideology is reality. An ideology is a way of framing and understanding reality. Consequently, I try to identify the difference between facts and ideological structures built on top of facts.

Everyone engages in some form of constructive or reductive ideology, and Dave Rubin certainly has an ideology (classical liberal, libertarian, free market, pro-Bill of Rights, etc). The degree to which I find him useful or interesting is the degree to which he rejects both leftist and right-wing ideology. What is key is that he seems to comprehend that the left and the right will always, always co-exist. And they need to, because they counterbalance one another. Attempt to suppress either one, and you have lit the fuse.

Ideology is inescapable. But at the very least, I want to be able to detect when I am getting a “cops and robbers” narrative. IMO, modern leftism at its most pronounced (some universities, some media, some corporate cultures) is utterly comical in its conviction that it is right and everyone else is wrong. It polices language and vocabulary, it polices art, it polices the activities of its own adherents. It’s essentially a religion. When far left ideologues start getting all over me or others about identity politics, etc., they seem unaware of how impotent and small they are. They are like Christians who tell atheists that they are going to hell because the Bible says so, and are unable to grasp that the people they are talking to share none of their faith convictions. (I’m a theologically conservative evangelical in most respects, btw.)

Currently I am without a political home. I despise both political parties. I don’t believe that fully blossomed Libertarianism is the answer. So, I am just watching and waiting for a movement I can support to emerge. The likes of Dave Rubin, Sam Harris, and others who have been identified as part of the “intellectual dark web” are the only ones making much sense to me right now.

As an addendum to my previous response, let me say that I do not think it is as simple as what I described. We obviously can’t dissect and come to agreement/disagreement on all of this in the space provided. I just gave you a bit of my own thinking on when and why things started going south.

The bottom line is that I think we agree, as do most people I know, that we need both sides represented i.e. at least two parties that work together for the common good. We probably disagree about whether and which party is more dysfunctional and carries a greater burden for the present state of affairs.

I hope we can also agree that Trump represents, if not a worst case scenario (Lord I hope the bar goes no lower!), then certainly a step in the wrong direction. It still boggles my mind when I realize that a big chunk of voters still support him. What does that say about us?