A Personal Story (#1 in a Series)
It's happening to me, to you, to everyone. The end result, if we keep it up? Chaos and social collapse.
Sunday, October 15th, 2023
Dear Freedom Friends,
This story has been on my mind for about two weeks. I know what I want to say, but I’m unsure of how to say it. Please bear with me, as I do my best.
There are many different types of “perfect storms.” Literally, all conditions can come together to create the most intense hurricane, the strongest typhoon, the coldest blizzard, and so on. Then, there are “perfect storms” that have nothing to do with weather. About two weeks ago, such an event occurred in my life, and the experience highlighted friction points in modern society that impact all our lives.
Why do I say “our lives?” Because, close to 100 million Americans have gone through exactly what I am about to describe. Beyond our borders, I suspect over half the population of Earth has had the exact same experience. Recently. How often can we say that?
I’m not talking about eating food, sleeping, using the toilet, and other basics, such as breathing, walking, talking, and all the rest of normal life. No. What I went through was startling and alarming, and we are all at risk. Spreading like a cancer, this dangerous, new habit is eroding the fabric of our communities, leaving division and intolerance in its wake.
No One Can Divide Us, But Ourselves
Whatever enemy invites us, time and again, to be divided against one another — it is ultimately our choice, whether to accept the invitation and self-divide. Or not.
Today, I will share the story. Please let it sink in. Most likely, you do not need to imagine yourself in my shoes. I suspect my story will trigger your memories, and you will find it quite easy to relate to my experience.
My Story
About two weeks ago, I was helping my friend by mucking out her front field. Before leaving, and while the hose was filling up the last watering trough, I headed up to my friend’s house, to tell her I was done and wish her a good day. My friend came out of her house, and yelled at me, “Are you a climate denier?!”
Earlier that morning, or the night before, I had made a post on Facebook.
I wrote that people who are ignorant of recent climate history (2,000 years) could be more easily misled by aggressively pushed narratives that left little room for nuance or questions. I also pointed out that the push to shift America’s fleet of family use vehicles to electric is problematic on a number of levels — the harsh realities of cobalt mining, the very minute amount of carbon offset by electric cars, and the fact that China’s carbon footprint is roughly equal to the next four biggest polluters on Earth.
All of this is true. So, it ought not to be a problem. But, for my friend — it was. What bothers me, however, isn’t that she disagreed with me. It’s how she went about it.
She was angry. Furious, in her own words. At me.
She came barreling out of the house, instantly expressing her anger toward me, with a raised voice and strident tones. She was accusatory and aggressive. She was yelling (loud enough for her housemates to hear), as she demanded I answer her question, “Are you a climate denier?”
She expressed dismay at the idea that she could be friends with a “climate denier.”
She had no interest in discussing the topic respectfully, nor did she seek to understand my thoughts and reasons for having them.
She made ready use of the label “climate denier” which means whatever it means to her, leaving me to wonder, “what thoughts, traits and attributes are you ascribing to me, as you ask this question?”
She insisted that she had my own best interest in mind, because I sounded like a “climate denier,” and my local reputation would be ruined if others saw my post and also assumed I was a “climate denier.”
She leaned into the “shut up unless you’re an expert with a degree” attitude, outright dismissing my personal interest in the topic and ongoing awareness and self-education since I was fifteen years old. She literally said, “You’re just reading things. You’re not a scientist. You’re not conducting research. You have no basis to disagree with what the experts are telling us.”
Lastly, she stated that what I had written was “wrong and dangerous.”
I maintained my usual even keel and responded with calm respect, but overall — the experience was distressing and disappointing. The reasons are many, and that’s really what I want to write about this coming week. There are layers that need to be unpacked, so we can view such “outbursts and blow-ups” as what they typically are:
a dangerous new habit of treating people like “throw aways,”
an outward expression of panic and fear,
and an increasingly prevalent habit of coercion, intolerance and bullying.
We Are Not Alone
If you’ve found yourself in similar situations, know you’re not alone and your feelings are valid. When a person is ostracized, there is an inescapable feeling of danger. There’s a reason banishment and exile exist as deterrents. In most cases, they are a death sentence. Yet, today this is rarely so. And we must be strong. Remember — to be cut off, tossed out, cancelled, dismissed, or blocked by another person — says little about you, and much about that other person’s vulnerability to the forces that “invite us to divide.”
This October, we’ll explore some of the ramifications of this new form of intolerance, why people ought to draw a line at being treated this way, and how we can keep the door open for those who may one day apologize.