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Over the past 2 weeks give or take, I have actually been pretty shocked. I see a lot more people looking to connect, learn, empathize, and take action. Way more than I have seen in my life time. It feels like a lot of people have woken up. They are seeking out history lessons, trying to learn more about how their neighbors, friends, and communities are feeling. Trying to understand how we got here, and working on a plan to move forward productively.
Companies are stepping up and doing self-reflection to see if their actions and their values match.
Communities are coming together to cleanup, support their local businesses and even create public art.
There seems to be a whole lot more "we are all in this together" thinking than there has been during this whole pandemic.
Obviously being on the brink of a new civil war is not good, but honestly I am seeing a lot more unity than I have seen in a my whole lifetime. Except here on P-O-C.
I would guess that is happening with "Liberals". Liberals is a mix of a lot of different special interest that do not always agree with or support the other, but supports the collective or package deal. They are getting together. You can see it. Conservatives, however, are not joining in. They were against the virus guidelines and lock downs, they were against wearing mask, they are against the protest (although they might support peoples freedom to protest, they disagree with the cause).
Over the past 2 weeks give or take, I have actually been pretty shocked. I see a lot more people looking to connect, learn, empathize, and take action. Way more than I have seen in my life time. It feels like a lot of people have woken up. They are seeking out history lessons, trying to learn more about how their neighbors, friends, and communities are feeling. Trying to understand how we got here, and working on a plan to move forward productively.
Companies are stepping up and doing self-reflection to see if their actions and their values match.
Communities are coming together to cleanup, support their local businesses and even create public art.
There seems to be a whole lot more "we are all in this together" thinking than there has been during this whole pandemic.
Obviously being on the brink of a new civil war is not good, but honestly I am seeing a lot more unity than I have seen in a my whole lifetime. Except here on P-O-C.
Let's also consider the audience on P-O-C. This is a forum and typically forums skew a little bit older. Gen Z and the younger Millennials tend to dominate on social media and mobile apps (Snapchat, Tik Tok, etc.) I would imagine that the majority maybe even vast majority of posters on this forum are above 30 years old if not above 40 years old.
This is also a forum that attracts people who are looking to relocate, vacation, and people like me who are geography nerds. Because of this, the forum is also very attractive to business folk, bankers, real estate agents, etc. and those professions tend to lean conservative. The other smaller audience the geography nerds and people in academia tend to lean pretty liberal. So here on this forum, you see a larger group of people who are pretty strongly conservative because they are older and work in professions that are conservative-leaning. While you also see a small group of pretty liberal academic types that just happen to clash with that group of people.
Also add to the fact that this is a pretty popular forum so you are going to attract trolls, potentially bots, and some far-fringe people that you typically don't see in action in your day to day life.
Let's also consider the audience on P-O-C. This is a forum and typically forums skew a little bit older. Gen Z and the younger Millennials tend to dominate on social media and mobile apps (Snapchat, Tik Tok, etc.) I would imagine that the majority maybe even vast majority of posters on this forum are above 30 years old if not above 40 years old.
This is also a forum that attracts people who are looking to relocate, vacation, and people like me who are geography nerds. Because of this, the forum is also very attractive to business folk, bankers, real estate agents, etc. and those professions tend to lean conservative. The other smaller audience the geography nerds and people in academia tend to lean pretty liberal. So here on this forum, you see a larger group of people who are pretty strongly conservative because they are older and work in professions that are conservative-leaning. While you also see a small group of pretty liberal academic types that just happen to clash with that group of people.
Also add to the fact that this is a pretty popular forum so you are going to attract trolls, potentially bots, and some far-fringe people that you typically don't see in action in your day to day life.
I am also "old," I am 42, most people I know are in their 30s/40s. I went to high school in a conservative part of the country. I live where there are a good number of immigrants, 1st gen people that tend to be from "anti-black" (aka Asian people). What has been fascinating to me, is that the people who are speaking up/out/askinf questions are my asian friends, my white friends, and my South Carolina friends. Usually these are the people who ignore everything. The support and conversation is surprisingly broad, even among people who tend to stay out of "politics" and "social justice" convos. That is why I think something different is going on and feeling more hopeful.
To some degree, we are all products of our bubbles that we live in, whether they be liberal/conservative, urban/suburban/rural, old/middle-aged/young adults, etc. This forum obviously skews far right with some left voices chiming in. It is hard to tell what exactly is happening on the ground level depending on who we are surrounding ourselves with and what media we consume. Mainstream media sensationalizes a lot of what happens. For some who live in small town or suburban areas and don't venture into the places where there was rioting, the media makes it look like entire cities were burned down. On some level, I can't even blame people for thinking this because that is what they are presented with, so people on here saying that our country is burning down in flames and we are on the verge of civil war shouldn't be surprising.
Most people in real life also avoid honest, candid, and reflective political discourse even with those they are close with (a millennial liberal talking to their conservative parents, friends who are on the other side of the political spectrum). We turn to talking about these things anonymously online in what are hyper partisan spaces. These conversations aren't usually genuine, reflective, respectful or productive and in my opinion, these set us back even further since these forums also us to confine ourselves even more to our bubbles and only hear others that echo our sentiments. We all do it regardless of political ideology.
I'm sure there are people posting here (since this forum does skew older) who have adult children who feel very differently because maybe they have attended protests compared to parents who see rioting on tv and think that that's happening everywhere, everyday.
This is why some people feel optimistic that we are on the verge of a social change that needs to happen while other feel that the country is going to hell in a hand basket.
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