Responding with empathy to tragic situations starts with talking about it

My opinion is that I think the underlying problem of putting people into labels and groups. The human condition apparently wants to lump people together and hate them together. Then mix that in with dehumanizing rhetoric, lies, and hate, and it's a bad combination.

I'm a mod of a couple of subs, so I try to pay attention to social media culture wars on various sides of the political spectrum so I know what's happening when people parrot them in comments.

Matt Walsh absolutely engages in it (one of his recent posts had his own kid in a Halloween costume reflecting this culture war...who in the world takes a holiday and politices their kid with it!?). I also struggle and strongly dislike when people react to an awful event by blaming and hating groups they don't like. Today Matt Walsh did exactly that, he responded to shootings by pointing some rather extreme blame at groups he hates. Matt Walsh peddles hate. And hate spawns more hate.

At the same time, Matt Walsh recently reposted a video from Vanderbilt saying they would get involved in under 18 transgender treatment, including surgeries. That one admittedly got my attention because their administration said it's a good money making activity and any staff who voices their objection was threatened with consequences. That felt extreme. You mentioned libsoftiktok, they've also resposted videos of lewd drag shows in front of children, in one case of a man in drag costume letting and encouraging a little child touch his genital budge. Most adults are going to realize that's a problem. So these social media folks are making some legitimate points here.

But then I see how people react. I've sometimes modded and removed comments where people legitimately believe. Some people treat LGBT as some monotholitc dehumanized group. People think the community is deliberately engaging grooming behavior. People in this group aren't individual people anymore, they're some grotesque group. It's sounds and smells like a crazy conspiracy theory and not a rational complaint.

My gripe is the root problem labeling and putting people into groups. Once we do that, we hate them and accuse them of conspiracies. We blame them because we think we're smart enough to know what really happened. Then even crazier people latch on it and strip out all nuance. Society allows it far too much. We shove people into labels and dehumanize them. I think exmormon engages in it. I think Trump and his followers engages in it. Republicans vs Democrats is rife with it, much more than it used to be a few decades ago. I go back and read talks from leaders in my church and have seen some of them engage in it from time to time. This sub is also rife with it, but not nearly at the level of the exmormon sub. So as long as society hates, it spreads, and we lash out.

I wish society could recognize this kind of hate and prejudice across the board. But too often people engage in prejudice against one group while they blame another group for theirs. We don't see the people within the groups anymore. We don't know them. We don't see faces. We just imagine boogeymen, and the craziest of the crazy latch on and act out on it.

/r/mormon Thread Parent