We need to stop calling each other "liars," "evil" or "stupid." It is perfectly possible to be good, smart and honest while also being misinformed or just plain mistaken.
Trump supporters KNEW he was flawed when they voted for him. When he acts out like a three year old, or when details about his depraved personal life come to light, or when he lies like a professional con man, they are NOT surprised. They knew he was flawed, but they preferred this to Hillary Clinton because she was politics as usual. Were any of us content with the status quo in 2016?
And frankly my problem with Trump is he is too much like politics as usual. Considering that Hillary would have been facing exactly the same congress, I remain unconvinced that Hillary's presidency would have policy wise been much different from Trump's. The difference is she would have been quieter about it, and her decisions less questioned, and all the processes less transparent.
Trump spends vasts amounts of time and energy lambasting the Republicans. He is every bit as hostile towards them now as he was during the primaries. When it comes to practical policy, when he is faced with a progressive congress, he might sign off on very progressive policies.
Defeating Trump in 2020 is completely impractical. He has dominated headlines - intentionally and successfully on a God-like level - since he became president. Bad press is better than no press, and thinking that Trump will hang himself is a mistake Hillary will never be able to make again.
People who care about making this world a better place should be learning from Elon Musk. When it comes to really saving the world and improving all our lives, few are making the kind of progress he is. But he didn't fight against Trump, he recognized that we are living in a populist world (something Democrats in the primaries would have been well served by in 2016,) and did all he could to educate Trump and help Trump make better decisions.
More importantly we need to recognize that most people on the far left and far right agree strongly some of the most important issues:
The far right wants to see the end of government picking winners and losers in the economy.
The far left wants to see an end to money dominating elections through lobbyists.
Those two sentences are describing exactly the same phenomenon. The same is true on many of the the other issues facing the USA at this time.
A buddy of mine who is a college professor and I were recently e-mailing about attendance policies, and I suddenly realized I am a huge kill joy when it comes to attendance:
The class is designed a certain way. If face to face is an important part of the class design, then students should be heavily graded on attendance.
Sterotypically in the past, students argue that they don't need to attend class because they can cram from the book and class notes and "pass the final."
Shame on any university that wastes face time in this way.
Any lecture that takes place should be highly interactive, answering questions from students, having students answer each others questions, and provoking questions and so on.
Face time is generally too valuable to waste on lecture. Students should be in simulations or in small group work/discussion.
Teachers who feel they must lecture uninterrupted should just make a video and have people watch it outside of face time.
If this is true of the subject matter, there is not much point in wasting student or teacher time in class.
Instead they should have had a capstone paper they had to write for the course that summarized the course materials, guaranteeing they were exposed to the course material OR
The entire course should have been one big take-home open book test, hundreds or thousands of questions that hit every point the instructor wanted the student to learn in the class.
Students should not be let off the hook from the learning they did not get from failing to attend class. On those grounds I think attendance should be graded, and heavily.
Likewise, students should be given credit for learning they got from attending class but which might not show up on other forms of student learning evaluation.
Example: Brazillian Jui Jitsu. A hot shot weight lifter decides he only needs to go to the class a few times a month, and that he should get belt promotions because he watches so much BJJ youtube on his own. Compare that to the average cubical dweller who manages get get to BJJ class four times a week. A year latter, as far as scoring in BJJ tournaments is concerned, the cubical dweller is going to kill the weight lifter, the cubical dweller really should be considered to have a higher grade of knowledge.
Students have a responsibility to participate in learning communities.
Frankly it reflects poorly on any higher education program that produces students who can't work as a team, participate in civil conversation, and show up on time where they are supposed to. Attendance, attendance, attendance.
The student got into the school based on their academic reputation. It is their PRIVILEDGE to go there, not their RIGHT. Part of that privilege involves an obligation to help class mates learn. Good luck doing this when you don't even attend class. That sort of Ayn Rand "I can just pass the final after I cram" BS should be grounds for expulsion.
And if you don't grade based on attendance, the Ayn Rand student will blame you when they get a D on the final, when in reality they deserve an F in the class for taking up a spot at the school that could have been used by a student who was actually interested in learning something.
I got serious about religion a few years after I got serious about martial arts, and studying psychology in school has helped me understand how martial arts have helped me be a better person. I have done martial arts off and on since I was a young teenager, and even as a 40-something still work out at the local MMA gym a few times a week and do some Tai Chi every day. I have been involved in many various security and community relations projects.
The Seattle Housing Crisis is a real conflict with real casualties, causing homelessness and incredibly long commute times. I regularly meet people who are between places to live who have singificant income. In December of 2017 a friend of mine moved out of the Ballard neighborhood where he had been paying $1,500 per month for a two bedroom apartment. The next tenant moving in would be paying $2,800 per month after a few minor renovations. At the time of this writing that friend is shuffling around between homeless shelters and friend's couches.
Many religions pay tithes. At the end of 2012 I was barely managing to keep my family with three young children housed and fed in the early days of the Seattle Housing Crisis. My landlord gave us notice that we had to move, and at the same time I got notice from my job that I was getting laid off. I struggled to barely find a place we could afford to live until I found another job. Instead of paying my tithing every month, I was in the habbit of saving up my tithes and paying them at the end of the year, a very imperfect practice by most tithe-payers standards.
Then a few days before we were to move, our new landlord cancelled on us as well. As we struggled to find time to look for a new place, I decided to take a few hours to go to Church and pay my tithing, showing my kids the money after I withdrew it from the bank. That very night we signed on the dotted line for a new appartment, and were able to move as scheduled.
But what happened with my search for employment was even more uncanny. On my first day I was laid off, just before I left for school, the thought struck me: "check out your last job's main competitor." So I did, and they happened to have a position I was perfectly qualified for, and I applied. On the way back from dropping off the kids I got a call for a job interview for the next day. That interview went well, and the following day I got a job offer for more money than I was making at my job I was laid off from, and had more long-term career potential.
My story is true and miraculous, but it is also cliche among tithe payers. Was my tithing an ideal tithing? No. Did God show grace and bless me for paying my tithing anyways? Obviously! But it is one thing to recognize God's grace, but it is an entirely different thing to be able to show that same grace towards others. The scriptures of many religions demand that we show grace, mercy and forgiveness towards others: God demands we show his grace towards others through our actions.
At one project I was involved in I was responsible for protecting the perimeter of a block in downtown Seattle. I was wrecklessly talking on my cell phone as I patrolled the area. I ran into a man verbally accosting a woman trying to get into her car, using sexist language that made me very concerned for her safety. I interrupted with "Sir, do you know this woman?" He replied by comming at me swinging. Still on my cellphone I used bobbing and weaving and footwork to avoid the strikes... on camera, much to the amusement of my supervisor at the time. The miscreant eventually tired, wandered down the street, blocked traffic, got arrested and went to jail.
This miscreant left behind a back pack. Interested in who he might be, we secured the back pack and examined its contents. We discovered sentimental objects from his childhood, medications, and documentation that led us to believe that he was a homeless veteran who was not recovering well from a back problem, and that he had been mixing medications with alcohol at the time of our skirmish.
A few weeks later the miscreant reappeared on the perimeter, looking for trouble. I got his back pack, and walked directly up to him, and asked "Sir, is this yours?"
He immediately broke down into tears. He sobbed "no one has ever done anything like this for me before." We never had problems from him again.
When God showed me grace, it made me a better person. When I showed this miscreant grace, it made him a better person. If showing grace can be this powerful in a street brawling situation, how much more important is it that we show our family members grace when we have arguments at home? Frayed family relationships are costly, and we should be quick to repair them, helping each other to become better people.
The most famous religious leader of the Old West was known for saying “He who takes offense when no offense is intended is a fool, and he who takes offense when offense is intended is a greater fool.” If I am working at one of these public safety projects and someone insults me from an alley, I can take it personally or not take it personally. If I take it personally and the miscreant in the alley didn't mean for me to take it so personally, and I start taking action against that miscreant, then morally speaking, I am the one who is really in the wrong. BUT far more importantly, if the miscreant DID want me to take the insult very personally and THEN I proceed to take action against him, I could be walking into a trap and he could have a friend waiting behind a dumpster to jump me.
Being thinned-skinned makes us easily manipulated and vulnerable. But it also complicates family relationships. In our personal lives we should forgive quickly, show grace towards each other, and strive to not be offended in the first place, opening doors for deeper communication that can lead us all to being better people. As the scriptures say, we should be "wise as serpents, harmless as doves."
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