I am thankful for #tcot on Twitter. #tcot, I think, means Top Conservatives on Twitter or Top Conservative Thinkers...
Joining, intruding into, their conversation gets me out of my echo-chamber. Listening to their ideas challenges mine and my assumptions, pushes back a little, clarifies mine or forces me to revisit the assumptions underlying them.
I’m not sure I do the same...but I’ll work on that.
But, I’ve seen what a great divide still exists in our country. Our conversations are driven by the loudest most extreme speakers on either end. Loudness and intimidation, the willingness to take a conversation to a new low, characterizes too many of our thought leaders.
I’m not sure I’ve not embraced that thinking at times. I know privately, I have, demonizing the other side in a rant.
And then I read something that lets me know others share the same frustration, the bewilderment, the embarassment, at the direction we see our country taking...but for different reasons. Reasons I don’t understand, or find data to support (find, not that it doesn’t exist), or find as compelling or whose importance override my reasons and their importance.
Maybe that’s what unites us. A shard frustration. Somewhere, somehow, we’ve all got offtrack. We, includes me. And we’ve all bunkered into our camps...lobbing verbal spears...accusing the other of the same unproductive behavior as we deliver. In one sense, it’s ok. It is a form of communication...and some of it’s pretty funny.
Unfortunately, we’ve done it so long and so hard now that, demagogues have sprung up among us, exploiting not our higher angels, our better selves, our connections that unite our diverse country...but our divisions, and our weaknesses.
The other element that unites us is...that gurgling sound we hear in the background is us...sinking. We’re sinking together.
But we all have ideas. None of us has all the ideas, or the only ideas. And in a pluralistic society, the more ideas that arise the more possibilities we have to deliver a solution that lifts us all, all of our boats, in blue water or red.
Some may read this post and think it’s funny. I tend to react first and think later. That creates a fast-track learning experience. But at what cost? I don’t know. I’m still figuring out the middle ground. Help me. I’ll help you as I can, more I think as I listen and learn.
#tcot. Thanks for listening.
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