This past week I did something I said I was done with- I got into a “discussion” online about something political- specifically the question of DC statehood.<\/p>\n
I freely admit this isn’t a topic I know a lot about and I am genuinely interested in learning more about it.\u00a0 I saw a post on it by a long time friend and asked a couple questions.\u00a0 \u00a0Not only were my questions NOT answered by my friend or anyone else, but I was insulted by several of this person’s friends for asking questions in the first place.\u00a0 There were also comments questioning my intelligence for not having my mind already made up.\u00a0 I will admit I did get a little snarky by the end of the exchange myself, and I’m not proud of that.\u00a0 But the entire thing really made me sad.<\/p>\n
I should add that I was the only woman in this thread.\u00a0 My friend and all his friends who piled on are men.\u00a0 I would like to think that is not why I was treated this way, but unfortunately I don’t think I can say that with any degree of certainty.<\/p>\n
I know that politics were involved- apparently the very fact that I am asking questions about DC statehood in the first place means I am a pinko commie liberal.\u00a0 Which is laughable, but apparently a belief deeply held by this group of people.<\/p>\n
It’s also worth noting everyone involved is in their 40s or older.\u00a0 I wasn’t dealing with some dumb kids who are too young to know better.<\/p>\n
But why did this happen at all?\u00a0 Why did my asking a question lead to a laundry list of assumptions about me personally and the insults that followed?\u00a0 \u00a0I wish I knew.\u00a0 I blame the pandemic for much of it, but this tribal “us vs. them” mentality was around before COVID hit and I fear will be around long after it ends.<\/p>\n
I don’t have a good answer other than that.\u00a0 I wish I did.\u00a0 If you have any thoughts I’d love to hear them!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This past week I did something I said I was done with- I got into a “discussion” online about something political- specifically the question of DC statehood. I freely admit this isn’t a topic I know a lot about and I am genuinely interested in learning more about it.\u00a0 I saw a post on it by a long time friend… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-issues","category-things-that-make-you-go-huh"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t