I want peace

There is way too much demonization going on, on all sides, to be sure. We will need to learn to all work together if we are going to make progress away from the mess we are in now!

I completely understand where you’re coming from–nobody has the right to bash anybody else, I really don’t care who it is. People judge and criticize, unfortunately. And I understand about not wanting to feel ill will towards those who are like that, it’s definitely very hard. We can’t control what other people do, but we could control how we react and respond.

I agree. Though I think demonization stems from a combination of ignorance of actual facts and wanting to be right and/or not be wrong about what’s we’ve chosen to assert based on our lack of information. I don’t get why it’s so world-shattering to be wrong if you are, yet, to some people, it’s harder to recognize it and move on, than to engage in ad hominem and false bravado.

I’ve been feeling this way for a long time, because my opinions always seem to land somewhere in the middle of two extremes, with everything, so I often feel alone in my views. What I’ve found helps for me is, shutting off the news, and limiting my time on Facebook. I have unfollowed (stayed friends with) anyone who I know posts things I don’t like seeing, so that I choose (and mentally prepare) when I go to their page (when you unfollow, you stay friends with them, but their feed no longer shows when you open the page, and you have to click on their page to see it). I limit my time there to see if anyone said anything to me, reply, every once in a while I post something positive or funny, and I check on pictures of my nieces and nephews, and mostly get right out of there. Scrolling through there these days is not usually positive.