Well, still/some is different from does/very much. You’re the person I respect most because you DO something, you’re not anti-intellectual, and you positively educate. Even better when I add value you appreciate it, and when I’m unconstructive you ignore it. Which is about perfect in my world. 😉
I’ve been thinking.
I used to love these malcontents.
Their hostility made me lose that love. Fast.
Their continued hostility and anti-intellectualism made me sad and weighed on me. To the point where I considered stopping my work just so I didn’t deal with them.
And my limited participation in groups that are politically active, successful, and doing something constructive made me understand that there are good people out there, especially successful working, middle, and upper middle class men – but these young ‘online’ malcontents had no value, caused me to interact with their frustrating stupidity, childishness, and hostility, and poisoned the well for my work.
So it’s more that, for my own quality of life, I just want them to (shut up and) leave me alone so I can do my work with the good people who aren’t anti-intellectual, aren’t disagreeable, already get out and do something, and will not undermine everything they touch. Every single person with some leadership or knowledge is eventually dragged down by the overwhelming urge to satisfy the loud, rude mad boys, and find a false sense of confidence in clicks, attention, and grifting.
Now, association with SOME people allows me to use the good cop bad cop model, which is the most successful means of persuasion. And that model seems very effective. I can try to reach someone on their terms, but someone else will bound the discussion with limits, that prevent their terms from overstepping into justification.
So I guess what I”m saying is that I want to help everyone. Most of time the conservative position is correct. But most of the time conservatives are an obstacle to success.
In the end I think I”m probably emotionally exhausted between my health problems and the negativity. And if I don’t find a way to reduce that stress I”ll just choose to stop public participation entirely.
So that explains my behavior.