Word Wars and Worse

I'm a liberal Democrat, and I find Donald Trump mainly disappointing. But, outside of my liberal bubble, I don't talk about this much because it does not seem to advance my beliefs to go around bad-mouthing the beliefs of others. I try not to post things that are snarky and disrespectful. However, when my friends do this, I often read their snarky sarcastic posts.. Sometimes I even laugh out loud. Even if this enjoyment is private, there is an element of disrespect here. These are difficult times. Sometimes it feels like Civil War II (fortunately, without cannons). How do we communicate in these times?

Apparently, Ben Carson recently said that “poverty, to a large extent, is a state of mind.” In his blog yesterday, John Scalzi responded with a discussion of what led to his success as a writer:

Yes, you might say, but you, John Scalzi, have an industrious state of mind! Well, that’s debatable (more on that later), but even if it is true, is it more industrious than the person who works two shitty jobs because they have no other choice? Am I more industrious than, say, my mother, who cleaned people’s houses and worked on a telephone exchange while I was growing up, so that I could eat and have a roof over my head? My mother, who barely cracked a five-figure salary while I grew up, worked as hard as hell. Tell me her “state of mind” was less industrious than mine is now, and I’ll laugh my ass off at you. Tell me any number of people in the small, blue-collar town I live in, who make significantly less than I do, and who are one slip on the ice away from tumbling down the poverty hole, have a “state of mind” substantially less industrious than my own, and I’ll likely tell you to go fuck yourself.

I think Scalzi has a very coherent argument about the things that led to his success as a writer. He lists the role of access to opportunity, network of people, luck, his creativity, breaks from the culture, his wife, and number seven, his “state of mind.” He writes a lovely argument, but his political opinions are pretty consistently liberal. That restricts his audience. (Though, as a science fiction writer, he may get readers from outside the liberal bubble). And threatening to tell people “to go fuck yourself,”--is that persuasive language?

Another “argument” I read yesterday was a Ted Talk by Pope Francis which is just full of touching ideas that made me feel inadequate and greedy. Here's a sample:

Quite a few years of life have strengthened my conviction that each and everyone's existence is deeply tied to that of others: life is not time merely passing by, life is about interactions. As I meet, or lend an ear to those who are sick, to the migrants who face terrible hardships in search of a brighter future, to prison inmates who carry a hell of pain inside their hearts, and to those, many of them young, who cannot find a job, I often find myself wondering: "Why them and not me?" I, myself, was born in a family of migrants; my father, my grandparents, like many other Italians, left for Argentina and met the fate of those who are left with nothing. I could have very well ended up among today's "discarded" people. And that's why I always ask myself, deep in my heart: "Why them and not me?"

Now what does this all mean to me? What does it say about effective communication? Much that I hear and read seems designed to offend the “other side.” What is my role during this crazy time?