Fetzer Institute’s Website:
Where have you experienced safe and courageous media spaces that support a wide range of ideas and expressions? How do you contribute to an environment that allows for authentic expression?
My response, (with minor redactions):
I have not found that free expression is politically allowable on social media, often especially among those I generally tend to agree with. I like Facebook, but I use it differently than most users, because it is easy to offend progressives. The irony here is that I am fairly progressive. I found the best way to communicate is to lead people to understand my psychology by posting an article or meme on my wall and then to immediately comment underneath it with articles. To demonstrate exactly what I am doing with plausibly deniable post-modern communication, I recently posted the article:
“Trump Loves the Military. But He Doesn’t Like Using It,” at Time Magazine.
Then underneath it in the comments section I posted the following articles:
“We’re staying silent out of fear,” at the Washington Post
“The Candidate Dividing Iowa Progressives – Warren supporters tend to like Pete Buttigieg just fine. Bernie supporters? Not so much,” at The Atlantic
“Pete Buttigieg’s Campaign Says This Wikipedia User Is Not Pete. So Who Is It? Tracking down the editor who tracks every move the South Bend mayor makes,” at Slate
“Military Times questionnaire: Mayor Pete Buttigieg” at Military Times
“Political Moderates Are Lying” at Quillette
The Quillette article’s opinion is ultimately what I am leading people to understand the thoughts I am attempting to express. It is basically that moderates are afraid to disagree with people they generally agree with on ideological lines. It is a matter of ‘tribalism,’ which is basically a subcultural group conformity along ideological social values. I’ve learned to postmodernly communicate like this, rather than expressing my thoughts outright, such as; ‘the belief that I don’t like Trump, but that it is also odd liberals don’t support his level of restraint to use the troops. I’ve come to believe he does respect and care about warfighters about as best an incredibly egocentric individual can,’ I can’t outright say that, because most of my friends and family express this visceral hatred for him that can’t really be about him in the end, but what he symbolically represents subjectively to them.
Anyway, that’s how I’ve learned to express myself. It’s all about postmodernism and plausible deniability if one wants to communicate without being attacked by some random idealogue. I’ll post the links below in case anyone actually wants to actually read them. I always keep in mind, most people don’t make it beyond the headlines and perhaps the source:
“Trump Loves the Military. But He Doesn’t Like Using It,: by Time Magazine.
https://time.com/5696955/donald-trump-military-strategy/
“We’re staying silent out of fear,” at the Washington Post
“The Candidate Dividing Iowa Progressives – Warren supporters tend to like Pete Buttigieg just fine. Bernie supporters? Not so much,” at The Atlantic
“Pete Buttigieg’s Campaign Says This Wikipedia User Is Not Pete. So Who Is It? Tracking down the editor who tracks every move the South Bend mayor makes,” at Slate
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/12/pete-buttigieg-wikipedia-page-editor.html
“Military Times questionnaire: Mayor Pete Buttigieg” at Military Times
“Political Moderates Are Lying” at Quillette
https://quillette.com/2018/07/02/political-moderates-are-lying/
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