Reply To: On Tyranny Lesson 4: Take responsibility for the face of the world
I have seen many signs of hate in my community over these past few years; some subtle, some not. During the last election (and the one before that), vandalism was common when people dared put out their political signs; in my area, it was usually Democratic signs that were stolen or knocked down. At my brother’s house, they dared to fly a Black Lives Matter flag, and some people would honk and curse at them as they drove by their house. My sister-in-law, in taking a walk in the neighborhood, was sworn at and called a nasty name by a group of men in a pickup truck; it was obvious that they had recognized her even though she was far from her house, and had labeled her as an enemy. Neither my brother nor my sister-in-law are people of color, BTW; they were simply targeted because they dared think and vote differently than those others. Didn’t matter to those people that they had been born and raised in this community and had been good neighbors (and some of the people doing the damage had not). The atmosphere has sometimes been quite toxic.
It’s like many citizens are viewing the country as being engaged in a sporting event instead of a fight for democracy and good governance; you’re either on “our team” or you’re not; if you’re not, we’re going to trample you down; I see many social media posts locally where one of the biggest comebacks that some people can find to make, (like it’s the most important thing of all), is “we won! There are more of us than you! So suck it up!” The need to be “winners” overpowers the need to be fair and decent. (Of course, our current leadership is feeding into this as well.) And name-calling and insults are usually included as well as things degenerate even further.
Now, one might argue that those people who tore down the political signs are indeed following Snyder’s suggestion of “…Remove them yourself and set an example for others to do so.” The difference, though, is that he was speaking about symbols of hatred. You may hate another’s political sign, but if it’s merely advocating a vote for a different candidate, that’s a democratic process that should be respected. If that flag asks you to think about conditions of humanity, that’s the opposite of hate. People need to be able to critically think and see the difference; but when certain symbols become pervasive, people do get immune to their impact, and I believe that’s the point of this chapter in that regard.
Going through the motions anyway, even when the message is hateful and there are destructive consequences, runs the danger of making that the new norm, and somehow acceptable. We need to be able to not go along with the herd, and be willing to take a stand of resistance, in every way we can. We can refuse to patronize companies, stores, groups, who feed into the madness; we can disagree when someone makes a blatant statement that is hurtful or dangerous, and try to have a productive dialogue when that’s possible. We can use our votes, and our voices, and our pens (or keyboards) to let people know that some things just aren’t OK, and be informed enough to be able to tell them why. What we CAN’T do is turn a blind eye and pretend it doesn’t matter. It does.
