Political Views

Like everyone, I have political views. They've been formed by a life of experiences, meeting and knowing various people, and a lot of reading. So my views are not likely to change when someone sends me an email. But I have friends who are right-wing; in fact, I would say they are fascist-leaning. I'm always getting emails from these friends and they suggest that I read this or listen to that. They want to convert me from my liberal ways to the "true" American ways we saw on display in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021. 

Now it happens that I think all the flag-wavers that attacked our Capitol on January 6 need to spend some time in jail, and I don't mean a few days or weeks. I mean real time in jail, like you would get if you accidentally killed someone by reckless driving. Remember, they killed people, too. A mob is a mob. You can't point to individuals and say this person is less guilty and this person is more guilty. They're all guilty, because it was their mob behavior that enabled laws to be broken and people to die.

But what do I do with these friends I've known for many years who now want to "educate" me? They ask me questions like, "Have you read 1984?" — (Well, yes, when I was a teenager, and also "Brave New World.") They send me recorded essays to listen to, essays I've heard decades ago. Funny, no one has yet asked me if I've read novels by Ayn Rand or listened to lectures by Napolean Hill (I've done both. Rand was entertaining, though she was selling her own philosophy).

I've heard it said that there are two topics one should always avoid in conversation. Those two topics are politics and religion. Some people haven't gotten the memo. I suppose if I ignore enough of their emails, they might take a hint. Or they might not.