stay woke

it's hard not to see all of the uproar in media.

there's purported systemic racism, there's alleged curtailing of rights, there's abject incompetence in bastions of public trust. and those on the short end of the social struggle stick are livid. their advocacy and the reported injustices against them don't directly affect me so i'm only inclined to engage in activities to signal support at an appropriate amount to how much i'm affected, which at most is an affirmation to aspects of their axioms aligned with my principles. we're complex human beings that way, we're not entirely what our doctrines dictate.

i'm generally annoyed at this point.

there's this majority of people across firing lines not entrenched in either parties that will be forced to be shot by one side if you wear the wrong color. all this hostility makes a convincing argument to choose one side over the other because it's painted as a confrontation where one will have to win, the other will have to lose. sometimes it's that, sometimes amicable outcomes are acceptable. but winning is great, winning is ideal, so someone has to lose. i understand a fight is a fight and there's a loose set of unwritten rules governing these activities and people at opposing ends have their positions, their guiding narrative, their weaponized rhetoric. most people will have to decide where their allegiances lie based on the presented evidence. but leaders, just like their followers, are still human beings too - with their blind spots, their biases, their clouded judgment. that gets multiplied the more we celebrate seemingly reasonable fallacies.

very rarely do we know what's going on behind the scenes. to get an idea, it's either from the rivaling team that's going to be construed as unflatteringly or when you're part of the inner circle of your own tribe when you're way past the point of objectively looking at the situation. so there's no source of verifiable and actionable information for people still on the fence seeking to understand the broader situation. so we gravitate to charismatic personalities or catchy slogans. it is a system rife for abuse. when you believe that you're winning and that you're on the right side, you're going to like it. when you feel left out against an antagonizing abuser, you're going to hate it. we all have to play by the same set of rules in order to win as a society. now if one deems that the game is rigged for you to never win, then remember that destruction is a form of creation.

it's troubling that at a time where information is widely accessible, there is less objectivity, there is less critical thinking. i don't think no volume of knowledge will instill those values. we're only objective as far as our eyes can see and we're only critical against our enemies.

so i'll be standing at center of the skirmish while everyone else is scurrying to one side to shoot in the direction of detractors, and the only thing meeting me in the middle are the barrage of bullets.

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