There are insights I’ve learned through my life as a Buddhist and neurodivergent person I’d like to share on platforms, and occasionally, some contemporary topics I’d like to weigh in on for the same reason. I’ve also been encouraged by different people in the space based on what I’ve shared.
Politically I’m a Centrist, with most of my opinions being politically correct; Anti-Trump, Pro-choice and pro women’s issues in general, No problems with how people live their lives sexually or otherwise in terms of LGBTQ. I’ll vote left cause there’s no alternative, but dream of a non-two party system.
But I honestly don’t feel like sticking my neck out in the current culture. It doesn’t feel to me as if the “bad people are being cancelled”, while that does happen, it feels more to me that we’re “waiting for someone to trip up”.
And once you’re out, you’re out. There seems to be no space for people making mistakes, learning, and growing. It’s like we’re all meant to be perfect and there’s no learning curve whatsoever.
And occasionally I like to question topics or nuance views, and that just gets hit with these extremely tribalistic opinions where I’m either “with us or the fascists”, which just doesn’t reflect where I’m coming from at all.
As an example, sometimes as a neurodivergent you really can get far by developing strategies around your weaknesses, but I see people getting torched for “victim blaming” and all kinds of really strong reactions, based on them just trying to help, not at all trying to minimalize anyone’s experience as far as I can see.
So honestly I’m just staying out. Everything I’ve learned in my life has been through trial and error, being wrong and then getting wiser, and I just don’t feel safe in this culture. I feel like everyone’s waiting for you to trip up, and if I was to make a mistake, or have a bad opinion, there’s no chance to grow, it’s just instant banishment and goodbye.
Anyone else feel like this?
Edit: Upon reflection, it feels like we live in a “Suspicion Culture”.
Not specifically no, but I don’t think it would be hard to find some examples. But I’m not necessarily just talking about celebrities, but also a general attitude happening on online communities and platforms.
But your question actually is a good example: My first thought is; “Does this person honestly want to know, or are they asking in bad faith trying to trip me up?” That’s the attitude I feel like is everywhere these days.
Not trying to “trip you up.” But lamenting the idea of “cancel culture” has become kind of a red flag in the current discourse. Your post seems to vaguely refer to specific situations, so some specific examples will help us see where exactly you’re coming from.
Cancel culture is a far-right dog whistle, so one should be suspicious of anyone using it. Panic over ‘Cancel Culture’ is another example of right-wing projection
I’m neither right wing or know anyone right wing, and I vote left. And I’ve gotta tell you, nobody I know about uses ‘cancel culture’ as a dogwhistle for anything. I’m not sure where you’re getting your information from, but I think you might be the victim of social media algorithm extremism.
You’d know if you’d read the article I just linked to.
“Far-left extremism” is yet another right-wing dog whistle. It’s becoming increasingly clear that you’ve been getting your information from right-wing media.
No amount of articles is going to change my personal experience of none of that being true.
I don’t know a single person in my circle of friends or even family that votes on the Right, or would even consider it.
We talk about cancel culture because that’s what’s going on right now, and that’s the word we have for it.
So do none of your friends or family vote orrr…
Because both democrats and republicans are right wing parties since both support and defend the capitalist class.
You know our country is murdering people around the globe constantly, right? And doing that regardless of which party is in charge. It’s a bipartisan murder machine. I fail to see how cancel culture is the thing you should be worrying about. Read theory, understand political concepts (including reading links posted by people trying to get you to expand your perspective on things), take a stance, and stand by it. Maybe paranoia about some undefined boogeyman just means you’re a bit uninformed and confused about why the world feels hostile to you. Seek answers in theories that aren’t right wing conspiracy.
I mean I can’t vote further left than possible in a two-party system without throwing my vote away and inadvertently support the right.
Voting for either right wing party doesn’t inadvertently support the right, it directly supports the right. The left starts at anti-capitalism. I’m not telling you this to convince you to be more blackpilled/doomer than you possibly are. I’m also not telling you not to vote. I’m telling you this so you can hopefully try to more accurately pinpoint the cause of the issues you’re seeing. It might help drive you to organize with other people who think similarly and want to change things for the better, which should alleviate what seems to be paralysis due to how you worry other people might react. Unless you’re a semi-famous person with harmful views or have a history of abusing people, I wouldn’t frame it as cancel culture.
What you’re experiencing as “people wanting to wait for you to trip up” could be any number of things. Shit’s rough out here, and people get tense when it’s hard to pay for groceries and rent just to work all day at a job that treats you terribly. Hurt people hurt people as they say. We also live under a system which rewards the most cruel, selfish, hypercompetitive, grifting people imaginable and places those people in positions of power to write/pass laws that make people more tense and less likely to offer kindness or grace to a stranger saying something that sounds suspicious. This isn’t just the loudmouth rude republicans. The entire system that is supported by our entire ruling body supports these kinds of people having more and more power even if the democrats act shocked and appalled.
If you want to weigh in on contemporary topics, it’s best to understand the topic first (easier said than done since research requires more than just watching a youtube video or reading some random person’s emotionally charged opinion about a thing in the news). But also, it’s no big deal to say “I haven’t researched the topic enough to give an opinion, but I’ll listen to your perspective if you’d like to share”. It’s also possible people might come in hot if you start to label yourself centrist without stating why you lean more right than a run-of-the-mill democrat. It comes across as suspicious. It’s suspicious to people who think the democrats and republicans are substantially different from each other, and it’s suspicious to people who think the democrats and republicans both need to be destroyed as soon as possible because they are destroying the world.
I’m also neurodivergent and it has taken a LOT of unlearning popular “understanding” of words/phrases that were harmful or ill-defined. Maybe because I’m also queer, it kind of jump started my journey on how to not let a sick society convince myself I should hate myself because I’m broken. Fuck that. BUT ALSO being neurodivergent (depending on the flavor) can really amplify a sort of social paranoia. A certain inflection in a way someone responded to you or a micro expression could be interpreted as the first step in being ostracized from your group. If you’re a people pleaser with rejection sensitivity, this will be very difficult to combat, but you can get through it!
You don’t vote left though, because left is almost never on the ballot. We have two right-wing parties, Democratic and Republican. When you vote Democratic, you’re usually voting to the left of a Republican, but you’re still voting right. The Democratic party doesn’t run socialist candidates; at best they run social democrats, AKA capitalism with a larger social safety net.
But what else do you want me to do?
I don’t have easy answers to that—if only I could. I’m just describing how deep the problem is.
I’m with you on that. I don’t feel like any of the choices I have will bring about the world I want anytime soon.
I don’t have any specific samples, but the fact that you’re fishing for red flags is kind of exactly what I’m talking about. It feels like were living in a “Suspicion Culture” which feels super weird and unsafe to me.
the fact you cant back anything up with any examples indicates your actual motivation.
youre ‘centrist’ but provide no ‘centrist’ policies you believe in because you know what people here will say about those policies.
Thanks for illustrating the ‘Presumed guilty’ culture I’m talking about.
Really toxic culture when people presume bad faith and feel entitled to act in bad faith.
It’s basically a lack of psychological safety on a societal scale. I wonder what that does to mental and physical health as well.
It’s less “presumed guilty” and more “cite your sources with evidence.” Which isn’t an attack or trap.
But there isn’t any sources or evidence to show that a person you don’t know isn’t evil, nor should you assume that they are and treat them like that from the outset. That’s borderline mental illness
Hence why I asked, “in your opinion.” You can at least give specific examples of the situations you’re referring to but not naming outright.
Not really, it’s an amalgamation of different experiences leading to a collective sense of the cultural attitude.
It’s obvious to everyone else I’ve talked to, if it isn’t to you I don’t think examples will change that.