I posted this in another thread but now not sure it was the right thread...
Anyway, just a random thought:
Thought I'd leave this here as I was red-pilled a short while ago you might say.
I am one of the fortunate few who got to watch Michael Jordan play a high school game. being from NC and my mom a UNC CH grad, I have been a huge UNC and MJ fan since I was young.
Thus, as I got older, my hatred for another school in my own town of Durham grew and grew. We called it dook but it is actually Duke University. In those early days, Dean Smith mostly owned Coach K, but after Coach Smith retired, Duke started to narrow the gap. To me, everything about Duke and its student body was repugnant. Just a bunch of snooty trust fund babies from NJ.
Fast forward a few years, Jordan is playing for the Bulls and his kicks are one of the hottest things on the market. Harvey Gant, a black man, was running for senator, and MJ's mom asked him to give Gant an endorsement. MJ told her he would send a donation but he didn't want to become publicly political. And he made the now-famous quote, "Republicans buy sneakers, too."
Fast forward to more recently. When I did an evaluation of my time, I was beyond shocked to realize how much time I spent in confrontation with other people, online and in-person. But the worst realization was over what we were being contentious. Absolutely stupid meaningless stuff like who is the better school, UNC or Duke? Who is the basketball GOAT, MJ or LeBron? Which political party has it more right, Democrats or Republicans? And so many other absolutely pointless things.
And then, I started to see what was really going on. As a society, as a world, we seem to unconsciously become part of a tribe, or more specifically, multiple tribes. We allow ourselves to devolve into the 'us vs them' mentality. The thing that really struck me was how two 'us's' (say, for example, two hardcore UNC fans, could then become at odds if they found out that one of was a democrat and the other a republican). It is complete insanity.
It embarrasses me to acknowledge, as a 57 year-old man, how much time I would spend each day watching YouTube videos and then getting into arguments with other people, any and every one of whom could have been young teenagers or, worse, people far older than me. I would be looking for a video about how to manage a mailing list in a particular brand of funnel software, when I'd see a video that just screamed for my attention, watch it, then start 'interacting' with the other people who were just as zealous as I was on whatever the subject was, either pro or con.
Bottom line: We can go through life without an us vs. them mentality but it takes a lot of work and a lot of self-awareness and presence of mind about it. I realized I had to look above any of the petty stuff and realize that in the grand scheme, none of it matters.
The reason for this post is that I did this unconsciously for years, even thinking it was fun, not realizing what a waste of time and energy it is, and how meaningless it all was. So, if you find that you're doing any of this without really seeing the bigger picture, hopefully this opens an eye or two. As this is the INSIDERS, probably not a lot of people in here fall into this. But if it can help one person, the time it took to write it was worth it.
There are so many better ways to spend your time than pointless confrontation with people you don't know and will likely never interact with again over matters that mean nothing.
Since I have gotten better and better control over this, I realize how much happier I am on a daily basis, how much more time I have to do other more productive things. I don't watch any news now save for the morning weather. ESPN is dead to me. I was never big on social media but now I do not Google anything except for business/educational purposes, ignoring the 'suggestions' based off past searches that pop up. I still use YT for educational material but, as with Google, ignore that suggested videos.
Now that I have tried to purge every situation that would cause a me-vs-thee situation or mentality from my life, I am much better able to see everyone, the entire world, Tar Heel and Blue Devil, democrat and republican, Muslim and Jew, simply as what they are - people just like me trying to make their way in the world. And the thing is, some of the ones I would have considered my 'enemy' before are actually people I might be able to help or who might be able to help me. If everyone could adopt this mindset, and focus on helping or asking for help, coexisting harmoniously, can you imagine what a better world it could be?
But of course, I can only control what I do. And for now, that seems to be enough. I will still have differences of opinion with people and I will still stand up to defend what I believe. But it is never over anything pointless and it doesn't mean that anyone I disagree with has to be my enemy. It is simply someone who has a different view than me.
I see that I'm starting to ramble so I'll close with this: as MJ said, republicans buy sneakers, too. Well, republicans buy a LOT of other things as well, things many of you might have to offer. And so do democrats. And Tar Heels. And Blue Devils. And Muslims. And Jews.
Hopefully, you see what I'm saying.
Anyway, just a random thought:
Thought I'd leave this here as I was red-pilled a short while ago you might say.
I am one of the fortunate few who got to watch Michael Jordan play a high school game. being from NC and my mom a UNC CH grad, I have been a huge UNC and MJ fan since I was young.
Thus, as I got older, my hatred for another school in my own town of Durham grew and grew. We called it dook but it is actually Duke University. In those early days, Dean Smith mostly owned Coach K, but after Coach Smith retired, Duke started to narrow the gap. To me, everything about Duke and its student body was repugnant. Just a bunch of snooty trust fund babies from NJ.
Fast forward a few years, Jordan is playing for the Bulls and his kicks are one of the hottest things on the market. Harvey Gant, a black man, was running for senator, and MJ's mom asked him to give Gant an endorsement. MJ told her he would send a donation but he didn't want to become publicly political. And he made the now-famous quote, "Republicans buy sneakers, too."
Fast forward to more recently. When I did an evaluation of my time, I was beyond shocked to realize how much time I spent in confrontation with other people, online and in-person. But the worst realization was over what we were being contentious. Absolutely stupid meaningless stuff like who is the better school, UNC or Duke? Who is the basketball GOAT, MJ or LeBron? Which political party has it more right, Democrats or Republicans? And so many other absolutely pointless things.
And then, I started to see what was really going on. As a society, as a world, we seem to unconsciously become part of a tribe, or more specifically, multiple tribes. We allow ourselves to devolve into the 'us vs them' mentality. The thing that really struck me was how two 'us's' (say, for example, two hardcore UNC fans, could then become at odds if they found out that one of was a democrat and the other a republican). It is complete insanity.
It embarrasses me to acknowledge, as a 57 year-old man, how much time I would spend each day watching YouTube videos and then getting into arguments with other people, any and every one of whom could have been young teenagers or, worse, people far older than me. I would be looking for a video about how to manage a mailing list in a particular brand of funnel software, when I'd see a video that just screamed for my attention, watch it, then start 'interacting' with the other people who were just as zealous as I was on whatever the subject was, either pro or con.
Bottom line: We can go through life without an us vs. them mentality but it takes a lot of work and a lot of self-awareness and presence of mind about it. I realized I had to look above any of the petty stuff and realize that in the grand scheme, none of it matters.
The reason for this post is that I did this unconsciously for years, even thinking it was fun, not realizing what a waste of time and energy it is, and how meaningless it all was. So, if you find that you're doing any of this without really seeing the bigger picture, hopefully this opens an eye or two. As this is the INSIDERS, probably not a lot of people in here fall into this. But if it can help one person, the time it took to write it was worth it.
There are so many better ways to spend your time than pointless confrontation with people you don't know and will likely never interact with again over matters that mean nothing.
Since I have gotten better and better control over this, I realize how much happier I am on a daily basis, how much more time I have to do other more productive things. I don't watch any news now save for the morning weather. ESPN is dead to me. I was never big on social media but now I do not Google anything except for business/educational purposes, ignoring the 'suggestions' based off past searches that pop up. I still use YT for educational material but, as with Google, ignore that suggested videos.
Now that I have tried to purge every situation that would cause a me-vs-thee situation or mentality from my life, I am much better able to see everyone, the entire world, Tar Heel and Blue Devil, democrat and republican, Muslim and Jew, simply as what they are - people just like me trying to make their way in the world. And the thing is, some of the ones I would have considered my 'enemy' before are actually people I might be able to help or who might be able to help me. If everyone could adopt this mindset, and focus on helping or asking for help, coexisting harmoniously, can you imagine what a better world it could be?
But of course, I can only control what I do. And for now, that seems to be enough. I will still have differences of opinion with people and I will still stand up to defend what I believe. But it is never over anything pointless and it doesn't mean that anyone I disagree with has to be my enemy. It is simply someone who has a different view than me.
I see that I'm starting to ramble so I'll close with this: as MJ said, republicans buy sneakers, too. Well, republicans buy a LOT of other things as well, things many of you might have to offer. And so do democrats. And Tar Heels. And Blue Devils. And Muslims. And Jews.
Hopefully, you see what I'm saying.
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