I am a French citizen living in the United Kingdom - so the issues between right and left wing politics are not as intense for me, even though we have a quite strange political crisis happening at the moment. Now reading your words in this post and another, I wish to share something: I have been a left wing sympathiser for most of my life, because I believe in caring for people, and in letting everyone be free to live their lives the way they want - as long as they don't commit crimes. However, the atmosphere of identity politics, the highly emotional attitudes, the blaming and judging, along with the dishonesty coming from people identifying as left wing has made be leave this side of the debate. When I was young, freedom was a left wing value.
Thank you for sharing your perspective as someone from outside the United States! Can you cite some examples of “dishonesty from people identifying as left wing”? I’m not saying there aren’t any; I just want to understand which claims or actions you consider dishonest.
And I agree with you that everyone should be free to live their lives however they choose to, but I would add to “as long as they don’t commit crimes” “as long as they don’t endanger or kill others.” Many actions that harm or kill others are not crimes, and what constitutes a crime varies depending on who has the power to enact or repeal laws (or which state or country the action occurs in).
An example of dishonesty is to deny that biological sex is real, and that women may feel threaten by individuals with penises (how to call them?) may use the same bathrooms, or be locked up in the same prison when it happens, or that they may compete as women in women's sports, and worse than anything else, find legitimate to give puberty blockers to children or allow irreversible surgery a number of them will regret later. The dishonesty also consists of thinking that only questioning these views is intolerable. I have read Material Girls by Kathleen Stock. There are other books but I have read this one. Kathleen Stock was a philosophy lecturer, and also a Lesbian. She has been considered a TERF - treated, like you don't treat a human being, only for expressing the views she had, a very reasonable view: that biological sex is real and matters. Her book is written in a dispationate tone, researched like a philosophy lecturer does research, and she cares. Another example of dishonesty are videos I've watched on Youtube of transactivists insulting and disturbing debates - as if debating was wrong in universities. I have also seen on Facebook and Twitter how many play a radical 'Us versus them' attitude, always blaming and condemning, obsessed by the straws in the eyes of others, you see what I mean.
Thanks for sharing examples of what you consider dishonesty. I think the main reason there is so much judging and condemning from people on all sides is that we disagree about facts and which sources of information presented as factual are accurate and trustworthy.
Another problem is that no one is fully objective - the same research findings or statistics can be used to argue opposite views. Writers and speakers can choose which studies to cite and whose personal stories to share, and leave out any that contradict their argument.
Thanks to all who have commented to express support and offer suggestions. I am currently planning a six week "Spiritual Support for Sensitive Souls" group that I hope to start in January or February. It will be a live online discussion on Sunday nights from 7-8:30 PM Central time, limited to 12 people who will pay to participate. Once the details are finalized, I'll offer the group to Changing Lives paid subscribers first, then free subscribers before I open it to others.
I agree with several of you that Zoom groups would be a great way to have sharing for each one of us: with perhaps a time limit-such as 10 minutes so that no one person dominates the sharing, break out rooms are great for two to three persons in a room, and then coming back to share also in the larger group. art/ collage, journaling, listening to music, dancing.
I too have been very sad , devastated by the election results. I actually got a small patch of e c z e m a, on the left side of left side of my face due to anxiety about the election, and the surprise I had when Kamala Harris didn't win. The last time my anxiety had become so extreme that I had a bout of e c z e m a (skin rash) was in 1994, the night before a job interview. The skin condition has now faded and it not so red-just slight pink, and is no longer itchy or flaky. I tried the allopathic method recommended by my Dermatologist, a steroid cream. It disappeared for five days and then came back. So that to me was proof that I was affected at a deeper emotional level by my hopes and dreams being dashed because Kamala did not win the election. So I went to a Chinese Acupuncturist whom is very good. He said, yes my system had become "overwhelmed emotionally, mentally, and physically" by my hypothyroidism, and my intense emotional reaction to the election. I have had three treatments with him and feel emotionally, and mentally much better. Please understand that I am 74 years old and have long been an active advocate for women's issues.
When I was 28- a teacher and together with other faculty women at a Community College, I had talked to the College President's office to ask for women counselors whom understood the trauma of rape or threatening rape to come to our college campus, and do workshops for our female and male students. The Rape Counselors came and did workshops on our campus. I also publicly acknowledged to my women students that I had become a victim of mental and physical abuse in my first marriage in 1976 to 1978. As a result a women student on campus came to me for advice on how to get away from her abusive boyfriend. I counseled her to no longer live on campus because he was there, and to go to live with her parents while she was completing her two years of community college. There several other pieces of advice I gave her, such as always be there with other friends if he came around. She completely broke up with him and successly completed her two years of Community College. That was when I lived in Arizona...Since that time of teaching Art at the College level I went back to get a second Master's Degree and eventually became an Art Therapist and also a Licensed Mental Health Counselor. I retired in 2022.
So what kind of reflection and then action do I want to do now? I intend to get a "news Diet" so that I am not surrounded by 24 hour news discussions. Meaning only select a few news outlets to listen to once a day...Like other people here I want to "gather my energy" for me. I have started doing more art. I am going to do a series of "Woman Warriors", and Persistent Women heroes of peace and war times in painting and drawing. The past from "Joan of Ark", Theresa of Avila, St Bernadette, the Mexican Story of the Virgin of Guadelupe, amazing "African Queens", Native American Women heroes. These paintings and drawing will not be illustrative, but modern in approach- like Georgia O'Keefe, Kandinsky, Mary Cassatt, and Marc Chagal. Then I will have an art show of these works in two years. Also, I plan on getting artists (men and women) interested in having a Group Show in a Gallery, loosely called a (political ?) Art show, here in Seattle, in about two years.
It is smart to take time off for a couple of months as several of you have mentioned. There is a true story of an African Queen, who became an African King. Her Story is on netflix, called "Njinga"(several episodes) She and her brother before her had to try to stop the tremendous the amount of slave trade first started by the Portuguese slave captors in the 1600s in the Uganda area of Africa. She was partially successful.
Thanks for sharing these details about your prior experiences and current plans, Laura! I've been on a "news diet" since the election and almost never listen to any news. I occasionally read articles, but usually regret it when I do. I'm focusing on being kind to people I know or encounter and other small ways I can help create a better world for everyone and trying not to dwell on major problems (Trump and his nominees, for example) I can't do anything about.
Hi, Wendi. First, I want you to know that I appreciate all the work you have done here and while I often don't take the time to comment ( life!) I find value and support in your words. I too often wonder if the time spent writing and sending out my little love note on Substack is reaching the hearts it needs to and making any impact. That one-way quiet street can be sobering. I think people generally don't make the time to comment here on Substack, mostly due to time. I, too, have needed time to heal from the events of late and have rededicated myself to showing up as the person I want to be in the world. And like you, I am reconsidering how to do more of that in community ( Zoom gatherings, etc.) and in my local in-person community. I spent some of my energy revisiting my website to offer more of those kinds of things. All this long rambling to say - yes! take care of yourself and your spirit, recalibrate, listen deeply, and you will find what is the next right step for. you. I will be here cheering you on. I look forward to whatever shape your offerings take, trusting that you know best what your soul is calling for next. Peace and virtual hugs, Mary
Thank you so much, Mary! I appreciate your comment and agree that many of us don’t make time to comment or leave reviews on writing we value. And now is such an uncertain and overwhelming time, so we need time to reflect, renew our spirits, and find new ways to be the change we want to see.
Like you I am reeling from the election. I like zoom small group gatherings. Regularly scheduled each with a short activity. Some I've done are art work, chanting, somatic exercises, with break out group to process if necessary. I am taking two months off. So I'm short on ideas. Peace and blessed season. Darlene.🙏✌❤
I am a French citizen living in the United Kingdom - so the issues between right and left wing politics are not as intense for me, even though we have a quite strange political crisis happening at the moment. Now reading your words in this post and another, I wish to share something: I have been a left wing sympathiser for most of my life, because I believe in caring for people, and in letting everyone be free to live their lives the way they want - as long as they don't commit crimes. However, the atmosphere of identity politics, the highly emotional attitudes, the blaming and judging, along with the dishonesty coming from people identifying as left wing has made be leave this side of the debate. When I was young, freedom was a left wing value.
Thank you for sharing your perspective as someone from outside the United States! Can you cite some examples of “dishonesty from people identifying as left wing”? I’m not saying there aren’t any; I just want to understand which claims or actions you consider dishonest.
And I agree with you that everyone should be free to live their lives however they choose to, but I would add to “as long as they don’t commit crimes” “as long as they don’t endanger or kill others.” Many actions that harm or kill others are not crimes, and what constitutes a crime varies depending on who has the power to enact or repeal laws (or which state or country the action occurs in).
An example of dishonesty is to deny that biological sex is real, and that women may feel threaten by individuals with penises (how to call them?) may use the same bathrooms, or be locked up in the same prison when it happens, or that they may compete as women in women's sports, and worse than anything else, find legitimate to give puberty blockers to children or allow irreversible surgery a number of them will regret later. The dishonesty also consists of thinking that only questioning these views is intolerable. I have read Material Girls by Kathleen Stock. There are other books but I have read this one. Kathleen Stock was a philosophy lecturer, and also a Lesbian. She has been considered a TERF - treated, like you don't treat a human being, only for expressing the views she had, a very reasonable view: that biological sex is real and matters. Her book is written in a dispationate tone, researched like a philosophy lecturer does research, and she cares. Another example of dishonesty are videos I've watched on Youtube of transactivists insulting and disturbing debates - as if debating was wrong in universities. I have also seen on Facebook and Twitter how many play a radical 'Us versus them' attitude, always blaming and condemning, obsessed by the straws in the eyes of others, you see what I mean.
Thanks for sharing examples of what you consider dishonesty. I think the main reason there is so much judging and condemning from people on all sides is that we disagree about facts and which sources of information presented as factual are accurate and trustworthy.
Another problem is that no one is fully objective - the same research findings or statistics can be used to argue opposite views. Writers and speakers can choose which studies to cite and whose personal stories to share, and leave out any that contradict their argument.
Thanks to all who have commented to express support and offer suggestions. I am currently planning a six week "Spiritual Support for Sensitive Souls" group that I hope to start in January or February. It will be a live online discussion on Sunday nights from 7-8:30 PM Central time, limited to 12 people who will pay to participate. Once the details are finalized, I'll offer the group to Changing Lives paid subscribers first, then free subscribers before I open it to others.
I agree with several of you that Zoom groups would be a great way to have sharing for each one of us: with perhaps a time limit-such as 10 minutes so that no one person dominates the sharing, break out rooms are great for two to three persons in a room, and then coming back to share also in the larger group. art/ collage, journaling, listening to music, dancing.
Hi Wendi,
I too have been very sad , devastated by the election results. I actually got a small patch of e c z e m a, on the left side of left side of my face due to anxiety about the election, and the surprise I had when Kamala Harris didn't win. The last time my anxiety had become so extreme that I had a bout of e c z e m a (skin rash) was in 1994, the night before a job interview. The skin condition has now faded and it not so red-just slight pink, and is no longer itchy or flaky. I tried the allopathic method recommended by my Dermatologist, a steroid cream. It disappeared for five days and then came back. So that to me was proof that I was affected at a deeper emotional level by my hopes and dreams being dashed because Kamala did not win the election. So I went to a Chinese Acupuncturist whom is very good. He said, yes my system had become "overwhelmed emotionally, mentally, and physically" by my hypothyroidism, and my intense emotional reaction to the election. I have had three treatments with him and feel emotionally, and mentally much better. Please understand that I am 74 years old and have long been an active advocate for women's issues.
When I was 28- a teacher and together with other faculty women at a Community College, I had talked to the College President's office to ask for women counselors whom understood the trauma of rape or threatening rape to come to our college campus, and do workshops for our female and male students. The Rape Counselors came and did workshops on our campus. I also publicly acknowledged to my women students that I had become a victim of mental and physical abuse in my first marriage in 1976 to 1978. As a result a women student on campus came to me for advice on how to get away from her abusive boyfriend. I counseled her to no longer live on campus because he was there, and to go to live with her parents while she was completing her two years of community college. There several other pieces of advice I gave her, such as always be there with other friends if he came around. She completely broke up with him and successly completed her two years of Community College. That was when I lived in Arizona...Since that time of teaching Art at the College level I went back to get a second Master's Degree and eventually became an Art Therapist and also a Licensed Mental Health Counselor. I retired in 2022.
So what kind of reflection and then action do I want to do now? I intend to get a "news Diet" so that I am not surrounded by 24 hour news discussions. Meaning only select a few news outlets to listen to once a day...Like other people here I want to "gather my energy" for me. I have started doing more art. I am going to do a series of "Woman Warriors", and Persistent Women heroes of peace and war times in painting and drawing. The past from "Joan of Ark", Theresa of Avila, St Bernadette, the Mexican Story of the Virgin of Guadelupe, amazing "African Queens", Native American Women heroes. These paintings and drawing will not be illustrative, but modern in approach- like Georgia O'Keefe, Kandinsky, Mary Cassatt, and Marc Chagal. Then I will have an art show of these works in two years. Also, I plan on getting artists (men and women) interested in having a Group Show in a Gallery, loosely called a (political ?) Art show, here in Seattle, in about two years.
It is smart to take time off for a couple of months as several of you have mentioned. There is a true story of an African Queen, who became an African King. Her Story is on netflix, called "Njinga"(several episodes) She and her brother before her had to try to stop the tremendous the amount of slave trade first started by the Portuguese slave captors in the 1600s in the Uganda area of Africa. She was partially successful.
Thanks for sharing these details about your prior experiences and current plans, Laura! I've been on a "news diet" since the election and almost never listen to any news. I occasionally read articles, but usually regret it when I do. I'm focusing on being kind to people I know or encounter and other small ways I can help create a better world for everyone and trying not to dwell on major problems (Trump and his nominees, for example) I can't do anything about.
Hi, Wendi. First, I want you to know that I appreciate all the work you have done here and while I often don't take the time to comment ( life!) I find value and support in your words. I too often wonder if the time spent writing and sending out my little love note on Substack is reaching the hearts it needs to and making any impact. That one-way quiet street can be sobering. I think people generally don't make the time to comment here on Substack, mostly due to time. I, too, have needed time to heal from the events of late and have rededicated myself to showing up as the person I want to be in the world. And like you, I am reconsidering how to do more of that in community ( Zoom gatherings, etc.) and in my local in-person community. I spent some of my energy revisiting my website to offer more of those kinds of things. All this long rambling to say - yes! take care of yourself and your spirit, recalibrate, listen deeply, and you will find what is the next right step for. you. I will be here cheering you on. I look forward to whatever shape your offerings take, trusting that you know best what your soul is calling for next. Peace and virtual hugs, Mary
Thank you so much, Mary! I appreciate your comment and agree that many of us don’t make time to comment or leave reviews on writing we value. And now is such an uncertain and overwhelming time, so we need time to reflect, renew our spirits, and find new ways to be the change we want to see.
Like you I am reeling from the election. I like zoom small group gatherings. Regularly scheduled each with a short activity. Some I've done are art work, chanting, somatic exercises, with break out group to process if necessary. I am taking two months off. So I'm short on ideas. Peace and blessed season. Darlene.🙏✌❤
Glad you’re taking two months off, Darlene, and thanks for your feedback about Zoom gatherings.