We know tensions are high. Many of us are feeling upset and disappointed. Some are feeling helpless, overwhelmed, anxious, a deep sense of dread, and other very strong feelings. You have every right to experience those feelings and those feelings are extremely valid.
However, those feelings can often blind you - they can tint your world in a color which shapes how you are interpreting the words of others. They might stop you from picking up on key words someone else is using which signal their agreement with you or they might make you interpret neutral words as a signal of disagreement. These emotions can also push you to say things which might be more confrontational than usual or they might make you more emotionally vulnerable or volatile. These are all natural and normal parts of being a human and being emotional.
But we are operating in a space with others and we need to remember to center the humanity of everyone present. If you’re finding yourself unable to give people the benefit of the doubt or to treat them with good faith and to provide space and questions placed in good faith to understand what they are saying without letting your biases creep in, it might be time for you to take some space away from a charged environment like politics. I’ve seen some nasty behavior in the last 24 hours. As a team, we’ve tried our best to clean up some of the worst of it, but I also know I’ve given a bit more leeway to some infighting than I normally would because I know emotions are high. But I’m reminding you all that you are better than this. I’m asking you all to help keep this a nice space and we can only do if we do it together.
Honestly, I’d love to see a month-long pause on discussing the presidential race itself.
State-level stuff, ballot measures, etc, no problem, but IMO there’s not going to be any productive discussion of the presidential race right now; there’s still too little information, too many emotions, etc.
That aside, (because that’s not the kind of thing that should happen without the community agreeing to it) I know that I’m probably part of the problem because Politics is where I tend to comment the most, and I’m going to stick to discussions of what to do next rather than wasting any more energy on litigating what went wrong at this point.
I have my suspicions about what happened, but that’s all they are as of right now, same as anyone else. But I do know for sure that I’m pissed off, and I know that I’m not going to be able to keep it from affecting how I engage with people if we get into an argument.
I’m just glad we all have this community, because it’s definitely an anchor-point for me right now (and thank you, mods, for all your work maintaining it).
Would love to see you start posts and discussions about what next! I’ve personally been really energized by all the activity I’ve been seeing in activism, queer, and anarchist groups since the election results were clear.