In the most open era of the modern world, and with so much access to having a voice and being able to enjoy free speech, why is it that now disagreeing can make you a racist, a snowflake, or a lunatic? To quote Ricky Gervais, “If you’re mildly left-wing on Twitter, you’re suddenly Trotsky, right? If you’re mildly conservative, you’re Hitler, and if you’re a centrist and you look at both arguments, you’re a coward and they both hate you.”
I’m going to use myself to write about why it’s ok to disagree and still be respectful, understanding, and able to maintain relationships as long as there is mutual respect and understandings for the others’ beliefs. Of course, to most of the sensible and balanced populous this mindset has obvious limits. I can’t be friends with someone if they disagree that anyone is any less deserving than anybody else to their entitlement to basic human rights. I will however listen to a counter to any opinion of mine if I am given the respect to respond with thought and sensible debate. Leaving myself open to mixed opinion and potential abuse, I’m going to use examples that I know will be contentious in this article, and potentially offend, but that’s my right.
So we all know what happened to George Floyd, and what his death has led to in terms of reaction, emotion, public outcry, and also to crime. Let me just state before you continue reading, what happened to George Floyd was murder. There is no debate or doubt from any sensible minded individual, and the watching and inactive police officers who were also at the scene should also be charged at the highest possible level of severity. I agree with all of this. I also agree that after seeing the chest cam footage that Mr Floyd was difficult to deal with and put up a resistance to arrest, including stating time and time again that he couldn’t breathe from when the officers made initial contact to the very last few seconds of his life. However, whilst agreeing that the arrest was made more difficult by Mr Floyd, either because he genuinely couldn’t breathe whilst in the car or he was deliberately being difficult is inconsequential to the outcome. Mr Floyd had a criminal background as well… yes… heard that many times…. so what? I agree with that because that is fact, however Mr Floyd’s only crime that day was the passing of a fake $20 note. For everything else he had been committed of in the past, he had served his time. Mr Floyd was murdered for a petty crime. Again, as the previous point has covered, Mr Floyd’s past is inconsequential and immaterial. Murder is still murder, and what followed has not stemmed from just this. George Floyd’s murder was the last straw to years of systemic and obvious racism, being downtrodden and looked down upon. So that’s’ how I sit. I like to see both sides before I voice an opinion or put my response across. I like to take in as much information as I can. I don’t like propaganda or fake news, and I factcheck everything before commenting. I listen to and watch various podcasts because I either like how the broadcaster knows their subject matters extremely well, their views, their intelligence, or because I like to see what views will be put across from a different perspective. I like to listen to Ben Shapiro but don’t agree with many of his views. I like James O’Brien on LBC because he’s calm, lucid, intelligent, and comes across as a decent human being. I like to listen and watch Akala because, like Shapiro, he knows his facts extremely well, although they would probably disagree with each other on many subjects due to their ideology. Jordan Peterson because he listens to questions and answers methodically. None of this makes me an extreme left or right winger, nor does it make me a fence-sitter. For example, I like Peter Crouch’s football podcasts, but I don’t see myself marrying Abby Clancy or signing for Stoke City in the near future either.
I cannot stand the being shouted over mindset and being labelled due to political views for understandable reasons. I have seen a Trump supporter vilified and labelled as a racist, and his business, home, and his and his family’s lives threatened. His reason for voting for Trump was that Trump’s campaign message included the best financial outcome for his loved ones, both long and short-term, and not racially motivated, or for any other reasons other than than it made the most sense for the financial stability of his family. Listening to the interview asking him why he was voting that way was beyond embarrassing and designed in a way to lead to judgement. Now we all know that Trump as a person is a joke, and that to vote for him based on his ways to ‘make America great again’ in general is just showing how small-minded how his electorate is, but to base it on the fact that with his political objectives your own family would be better off is understandable. As seen time and time again, some of Trumps’ stats since his Presidential term has started are admirable. Unfortunately, they won’t hide that he’s an imbecile and completely devoid of morals or scruples.
Over the last few months we have all voiced opinions on more political and global matters than we have experienced in the majority of our lifetimes or become exasperated with ‘friends’ who fail to see reason, fact, or show any kind of empathy or decency to our fellow human beings. I honestly cannot remember how many times I have had to explain to someone who counters with ‘well, all lives matter’, what the point of BLM is. Using the putting out the fire in the burning house first or looking for the lost sheep analogies do not seem to work when the response of ‘all lives matter’ just keeps being repeated. Yes, I agree, logically thinking. All life does matter, of course it does. As a bog-standard statement of course life matters. No person of any colour or origin would say that it doesn’t. As a life, my daughters’ life matters to me more than anyone else’s, without question and I mean that as no disrespect to anyone else, be that in my family, friends, or on this planet. This is not the point of BLM. I understand it, I respect, I stand alongside it, and I support it. No people should ever feel secondary or feel secondary to anyone, and the focus right now is where it should be, and that is helping and prioritising, understanding and supporting. I use the term ‘an even playing field’ a lot now, and when people keep going on about all lives mattering, they’re missing the point. Unfortunately, a lot of people seem to need constant reminders that that is what we don’t have at the moment and reminding that black lives matter. They matter because they haven’t much or enough in the past, and that’s why it is so important to understand BLM.
Taking everything into account that has impacted us all this year, I will disagree with more people than I agree with. So will you. We all will. I will disagree with anyone that thinks that police brutality is ok, as is prejudice on any scale. I have thoughts within these points that include that unreasoned physical attacks and looting is also wrong but understand that emotional reaction can trigger acts and that these acts have made people sit up and take notice. I will disagree with anyone that believes that protesting is wrong. I believe that not wearing a face mask to prevent the spread of the Covid19 virus because it is a breach of your human rights is the most ridiculous and selfish thing I have ever encountered. I believe that as a nation and as people we should be doing more than we currently are, which isn’t much, to support those in need of refuge and asylum, and will disagree with anyone who doesn’t. I believe that France is as much to blame as we are for the terrible deaths and living conditions that the asylum seekers and refugees are enduring due to washing their hands of the situation and not having an ounce of humanitarian feeling.
So where am I? I’m quite open to be disagreed with, no problem. I’m quite open to offend you if you don’t like my opinion. That’s fine. Be offended. I don’t particularly want to be seen as belonging to a particular political leaning, but taking all into account, I can be bracketed somewhere like Gervais has been, and labelled as “an old-school liberal who believes in freedom of expression, but also freedom from the hypocrisy of the intolerant woke”. That will do fine. You can disagree with it if you like too.
