So I occasionally watch YouTube videos, and sometimes Facebook reels. I like TikTok. I don’t spend a LOT of time watching them, but once in a while it’s nice to just watch some short clips and call it a night. TikTok in particular has become highly amusing to me, since I managed to FINALLY get it to send me conservative humor (see my post from Feb. 5).
See, my feed is blue. It’s REALLY blue. Some of this is because I still read/listen to/watch Left leaning stuff because I report on it to you guys. Frankly, most of it is because I’m poly, pagan, kinky, and pansexual. There’s this assumption that if you’re any ONE of those, you must be Liberal. To be all four? The algorithm thinks I’m so deep Left it’s impossible to think. So it sends me Leftist crap constantly.
It’s not just one place. I get it in my news, because I actively seek out Left news for education’s sake. I get it in my Facebook because I get it in my news, and because some of my friends and acquaintances are Left. I get it in YouTube because it’s a Leftist hell hole. I get it in TikTok because that seems to be the initial basic setting, and you have to work to get out of it.
The main problem I have is that it isn’t just that “they” think I should be Left; it’s that certain facts about my person, physical things, seem to doom me to be “mistaken” for Left when I am not. As an example, we’ve all mentioned septum ring theory: the idea that if a person has a septum ring, they’re almost invariably likely to be Leftist. The same thing with blue hair. If you have both, you’re definitely a Leftist.
I don’t understand how hair color dictates politics. I’m offended by it. I have very far Right friends with septum rings and green hair. No one on our side cares. Any time someone with wildly colored hair or big tattoos or facial piercings “comes out” as Republican or Right leaning, the Left goes into complete melt down mode. I cannot even begin to tell you the number of times I was told that I couldn’t possibly exist on the Right because y’all would hate me and kick me out for being pan, poly, pagan, or kinky. Instead, I found there’s a vibrant LGB community here on the Right. A lot of poly people are conservative. Pagans are all over the damn place. Kinky is… yeah, well anyhow. LOL… You get what I’m saying. The Right doesn’t care.
The Left wraps up their politics in their entire belief system, their personality, and their reality. Therein lies the biggest problem, really. It’s why you can’t talk logic with a lot of leftists. If you start to dig into any aspect of what they believe, they immediately take it as a personal attack. They believe, 110%, that you are attacking them, the person. They cannot comprehend the concept that one can attack the ideal or the fact (or lack thereof) and not be the least bit upset about the person behind it.
The amount of time it takes to dismantle even one small part of the leftist’s worldview enough to show them that it’s faulty causes them to break. I don’t mean that figuratively, for most of them, either. It may seem stupid to you, but I want you to think about how you’d feel if you found incontrovertible truth, actual facts and photographs, proving Trump diddled little girls. You’d be shocked to your core, because the man you’ve known and loved doesn’t seem anything like that. It would mess with your world view and rock your core, because we’ve just KNOWN he’s not the bad person the Left paints him as. That’s how they feel, that depth of despair, every single time you pick at a bit of the Left’s beliefs. If you do manage to break it down into small enough pieces that they can understand it, and they accept it, it doesn’t break down the other parts of their worldview, because to do so would cause them irreparable harm.
When I watch videos of people on the Left being questioned by good speakers (Charlie, for instance, but also many others who are new journalist types), I see the answers get more and more vague as they go along. If you push too hard, they will actually change the conversation entirely, sometimes attacking in a random direction, just to make the questioning stop.
I don’t believe most of them do this out of spite. I believe it’s the response to the trauma they’re living. Having known people who’ve survived serious trauma, it’s a mental tactic most victims don’t even realize they’re doing. I see people on the Left acting much like the victims of domestic abuse and sexual abuse that I’ve known. They’ve been lied to for so long, and it’s just… it’s a lot more comfortable and less painful if you just acquiesce. Standing your ground hurts. And frankly, the human brain is not meant to endure long-standing pain. We’re built to avoid it.
Yes, there are agitators out there. We all know it. Sometimes we can pick them out, and other times, we have to wait for law enforcement to do it at a later date using videos and written statements from witnesses. There only need to be a tiny number of agitators, though. Two or three seeded through a large crowd can turn it into that mob in seconds. They create a flashpoint.
But “most people” are just that… they’re average, they’re the bulk of the people out there. When you press them, they cannot articulate why they’re protesting, or give you different methods to fix the problem. They just chant their slogans. It’s easier than losing their friends, family, and community. Or jobs. I know; I’ve been there. The big difference is, I’m an abuse survivor, and so I recognized (eventually) what was happening to me and how I was responding. I saw it was unhealthy, and I got out. Most people don’t have that experience (nor would I wish it on them). This is just “normal” to them. And since “everyone” is saying the same thing, it must be true.
And that takes me back to that statement I’ve made several times: Not every news station can be lying to me, all at the same time. From a logical standpoint, that is simply absurd. Except we know it isn’t. We know that they ARE lying to us, all of them. It’s tough.
I don’t have the answers. I wish I did. The only way to fix this stuff is to have people on the Left have an epiphany. That only comes when they’re challenged, and they’re avoiding those challenges because it’s hard. So they have no reason and no impetus to change.
I wonder if those algorithms explode for someone like Erin Palette: a trans gun-ownership activist. Or Robert Avrech, an Orthodox Jew gun owner conservative working in Hollywood as a screen writer.
🙂
From talking with a bunch of people who are “log cabin republicans,” I’m hearing their algorithm just goes all blue. 🙁
“I don’t understand how hair color dictates politics. I’m offended by it.”
Don’t be offended. The hair color is not dictating politics, it is an outward sign of it.
,
When the sun rises in the east for 10,000 days straight, you kind of expect it to rise in the east for the 10,001st as well. Look at the people openly displaying their politics, whether it be at a protest, bumper stickers, or signage in their yard. Which side of the political aisle tends to have more tattoos, piercings, and unnatural hair colorings? Yeah, the left. Without evidence proving otherwise, humans will assume.
.
Yes, there are people on the right side of the aisle who have piercings, tattoos, and unnatural hair colors. They are the exception, not the rule. Generally if you see someone who has the septum ring and shockingly blue hair, they are leftist. And, yes. Barring information saying otherwise, humans will run with their biases and prejudices more often than not. If I see someone wearing a Seattle Seahawks jersey today, and I am assuming they are happy with the results of yesterday’s game. Unless they tell me they are a huge Pats fan, and they lost a bet, I will continue in my assumption. Expecting otherwise is unrealistic. Humans just do not work that way.
I understand what you mean… but let me run by you my personal biases on tattoos, piercings, and hair coloring. And before you say it, I do understand I’m a single person, and so I don’t represent any big group, but I think I am fairly … standard, when it comes to Gen X folks.
.
The first people I ever met with tattoos were my grandfathers. Both had tattoos from the war. Both Christian; one Protestant and non practicing, and the other Catholic, and practicing as much as his wife insisted. Great examples. I get that army tattoos are not like other tattoos tho. My next introduction to tats was with friends who were in a biker gang. Christian biker gang. Conservative as all get out. First people I met with dyed hair were conservative, too, though I admit that was a vibrant burgundy and not green or blue. My intro to piercings was through other cultures, so that doesn’t scan as nicely, but again, most of the people I knew who came over here from other places, who integrated and enjoyed BEING American while still embracing their native culture through food, art, and yes, body piercing… were Conservative. I now realize why that’s the case, but at the time it did seem funny to me.
.
Yes, there are lots of people with blue hair and septum rings who are Left. So many so that we have the Septum Ring Theory. I get it. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t offend me… because really, I know so many Conservatives (both old school and new) who color their hair, get piercings, and have tattoos. I refuse to change myself physically (NOT color my hair, remove my piercings, remove or not get tats) just because some people on the Left think they own it… OR because some people on the Right get their panties in a wad over me looking like a Leftie.
.
Consider it “grey man” camouflage if you like. Or think of it as my way of saying that the government is still too damn big, because if they have people in the government whose job it is to be irritated about my choice in body decor, then there are too many people in government.
.
I don’t care what you decorate yourself with. I don’t even care if people get facial tats or piercings, if that’s what floats their boat, so long as they aren’t using it as an excuse to be on the dole. My piercer from when we lived back in Maryland had all sorts of body mods, but most definitely wasn’t on the dole, because he had a lucrative job and loved it. Good for him. He’s supporting himself and several mini-me’s at this point, all with a zippered tongue that makes me somewhat nauseous to think about LOL…
.
If what you’re doing doesn’t affect me, then have at. That is what is conservative, or so I’ve been told. Keeping your nose out of other people’s business. Who you fuck, who you hang out with, what vehicle you drive (Tesla, Harley, rice burner, whatever), what food you eat, how you mow your lawn… none of these things have the power to hurt me. You do you, boo.
Good feedback, and I probably should not have brought up tattoos as I do know as many conservatives with them as liberals. I think the type of tattoo, or the location may vary based on political affiliation, but that is a discussion for another time.
.
Cultural reasons for body piercings are just the, cultural. It becomes a calling card for the left (based on my lived experience) when you are obviously a US born, white, and whatever other stereotype for Americans i can thing of, but have a septum ring. No, no cultural or heritage reason for it, so it’s most often a self identification of which side you are on. Again, the sun has risen to the east for eons, I will expect that tomorrow. (based on my lived experiences that is.)
.
And, like you, I just do not care. Modify your body as much as you want, as long as it does not impact my life. No, I will not hire you with a face tattoo and a dozen piercings, As an employee you are representing my company, and that does not fit the image I want. But, if you have tats, piercings, etc… that the customer cannot see, I do not care. Same with your political affiliation. Keep it under wraps when you are on the job. (and off the job, please keep it civil. I do not need my phone blowing up because you are wishing someone ill on social media.)
.
As much as I want to claim I am better than that, unfortunately, I am just as human as everyone else, and I cannot erase my biases and prejudices. Very few people can.