My friends know this, that there is no point in trying to get me to discuss politics because I just won't do it. Not because I don't have opinions. I have a lot of opinions! And of course like everyone else I think my opinions are pretty good ones.
I don't discuss politics with my friends, or with strangers for that matter, because where I live, in the United States, political lines are drawn very sharply. You are on one side or the other. If you are on my side we can be friends. If you are not then we are enemies. My enemies are bad people and I don't have to listen to or respect their views. But I'm not the one saying this!
I like knowing people who are different from me. I like hearing how they experience life. The books they've read, the places they've traveled, the hobbies they enjoy, I love to hear their stories! I can spend hours with my friends talking about all sorts of things, but never about politics.
Thomas Jefferson
to me!
Source
And then today I broke my own rule on social media. I didn't mean to. Someone posted a quote, supposedly by Thomas Jefferson saying that only tyrants criticize a free press. I thought it was unlikely that Jefferson ever said that, so I searched out the quote and found - from the Thomas Jefferson Foundation no less - that yes indeed, Jefferson never said it and furthermore the meme was totally made up and had been circulating widely for over a year.
I should have stopped there. I had found out the fact of the matter and that should have been good enough. But no, I copied and pasted the link and the information. My message was please do your research before posting things like this. And the original poster said thank you for the correction.
But my friend's friends were not happy. The words were still true, whether Jefferson said them or not! And that is where I broke my rule. I should have said nothing. What does it matter to me, I don't even know you! I wrote:
Point is it wasn't a founding father calling out Trump as a tyrant. Just somebody making stuff up to make us think so. To make us angry and outraged. I'm not even sure the words are true. A tyrant eliminates free speech and the free press, controls the press and silences any opposition. If anyone, even Trump, tried to do that here we'd be hearing a different narrative. Or crickets.
I should have known better, that trying to divert someone's outrage and sense of drama would be fighting words. I was suggesting that we should take a step back and approach this calmly. I don't know why I thought that was a good idea. I stand by what I wrote but it wasn't my best idea to say anything.
But it was a good reminder for me and why I don't discuss politics with my friends!
@freedomshifthttps://steemit.com/ccc/@freedomshift/guaranteed-daily-income-and-payout-for-newbies-2-0-in-ccc-and-follow-the-honor-code-the-creed-conditions-and-limits-inside