There is some absolutely stupid shit happening in Dearborn, Michigan right now. People are showing up, yelling at each other, waving flags, screaming about religion, politics, America, Islam, Christianity, and whatever else they can cram into a five-minute argument before somebody decides the next logical step is throwing a punch. The whole thing has turned into exactly what these kinds of confrontations always turn into: a giant public tantrum with police standing around wondering why humans keep doing this shit. (Michigan Advance)
Here’s my take.
Believe whatever the hell you want.
You want to be Christian? Be Christian.
You want to be Muslim? Be Muslim.
You want to be Jewish? Be Jewish.
You want to be atheist? Knock yourself out.
You want to believe in aliens, Bigfoot, ghosts, the government, the government being run by aliens riding Bigfoot? I honestly don’t care. Believe whatever makes sense to you.
That is the whole point of having your own beliefs. THEY ARE YOURS.
You don’t get to walk up to somebody else and demand that they adopt your worldview because you think yours is better. And they don’t get to demand that you abandon yours because they think theirs is better.
This isn’t complicated.
What I don’t understand is the need to turn every disagreement into a fucking street fight.
If somebody believes something different than you, congratulations. You have encountered another human being. This has been happening for thousands of years. Apparently we’re still working on the tutorial.
You can disagree.
You can argue.
You can debate.
You can tell somebody that you think their beliefs are completely ridiculous.
You can walk away.
What you shouldn’t do is turn a disagreement over religion or politics into people fighting in the street.
And that goes for everybody.
I don’t care which side started it. I don’t care which flag somebody is holding. I don’t care what religion somebody follows. If you’re standing in the street looking for somebody to fight because they believe something different than you, you’ve already lost the argument.
The whole situation in Dearborn is especially stupid because it appears some people are deliberately showing up looking for confrontation, while other people are responding to them instead of simply refusing to give them the reaction they’re apparently trying to get. Even the Dearborn police chief has told people to stay away and not engage with provocateurs. (WDIV)
That’s probably the smartest thing anybody has said about this entire mess.
Don’t give them the show.
Don’t give them the fight.
Don’t give them the attention.
Go home.
Eat dinner.
Watch something stupid on TV.
Walk your dog.
Work on your car.
Listen to some punk rock.
Do literally anything other than standing in a street screaming at another group of people because they don’t believe what you believe.
I’m Gen X. Maybe that’s why this shit seems so damn simple to me.
You do your thing.
I’ll do mine.
We don’t have to agree.
We don’t even have to like each other.
Just don’t fuck with me and I won’t fuck with you.
That’s pretty much the social contract I grew up with.
Believe in God. Don’t believe in God. Believe in Allah. Don’t believe in Allah. Believe in nothing. Believe in everything. I genuinely don’t care.
Just don’t turn your beliefs into an excuse to hurt somebody else.
And for the love of everything people claim to believe in, stop fighting in the fucking street.
Humanity has invented the internet, smartphones, artificial intelligence and machines that can vacuum our floors.
Surely we can figure out how to disagree without punching each other in the face.
Apparently that’s still an advanced feature.
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