a strong belief i have that i recognize a lot of people don’t share is that different things can be right from different perspectives, & different things can both be right from one perspective at the same time bc sometimes life’s problems require multiple simultaneous solutions

for example, political/social justice movements need people of varying levels of fanaticism. in order to push a movement forward and not get mired in over-compromise, you need the radicals who believe strongly that their truth is THE truth. progress comes from that

you also need people who are more willing to work with and see the value of people who might be amenable to your perspective but don’t totally agree or aren’t very informed yet. without that, movements become too small and purist then fracture, dwindle, and die

i am someone who sees value in nuance and perspective but i’m not mad at people who dislike that about me because i know that to be who they are and to create the change they want to create, they have to believe that their answer is the only answer & nuance is a concession

so i’ll always like them more than they like me bc i see value in who they are and they see concession to evil in me. so that’s ok with me. i don’t need people to see value in the way i am to know that the way i am has value and is also needed in the world & in making progress

i don’t think that there is one true answer to every single moral question. i absolutely have things i believe are right and wrong, and some of those things i believe are necessary to be a good person. i also have things i believe are right & wrong but respect dissenting views

many people however do believe in a universal right and wrong for every single issue. and though i don’t agree, i don’t think there’s anything wrong with them or that i’m better for favoring nuance bc that hard-line mentality has a role to play & in their worldview they’re right

i recognize that my worldview is weird and confusing to a lot of people and they don’t understand why i’m not upset about them disliking me or why i push back against things that seem reasonable bc they don’t see that i’m pushing back on the expectation to immediately agree

every group has purity tests and in-group and out-group rules and markers, including the groups that insist they don’t, because that is one of the in-group markers. when people try to give me a purity test i usually choose to fail it bc i don’t want to join any group

for a lot of people, that is an out-group marker and means i must be part of an opposing group. i’m not, bc my worldview doesn’t require that, but theirs does and i’m ok with that, i just don’t want to do it myself so if they need me to pass every test then i am just not for them

if you need me to be willing to conform to every in-group marker the second you tell me to - such as “if you don’t unfollow this person within 24 hours i’m blocking you” - then you should write me off bc i am going to keep disappointing you bc i decline to participate in that

in many worldviews that refusal to pass those tests signifies something sinister and i can see that and i get why i’m very confusing to people sometimes. but to me, it doesn’t mean that, so i accept that people will misinterpret me & i can’t control that