I often find myself drawn into arguments that I've no business investing my time. I don't mean that in the sense that I'm ill prepared. It's the hard truth that my attempts at making sense or using logic typically recieve a cold shoulder. People don't like intelligent discussion. They employ limited intelligence in forming an opinion and then use that lack of support in discussion. The longer they've lived with this self absorbed truth, the more difficult it becomes to have a rational conversation. They end up offended that anyone dare challenge their preconcieved notions about the matter at hand, which is exactly what they are, mere notions. I end up looking like the bad guy, the pretentious, talkative ruin of whatever it is they're attempting to say. It all ends in a mess of heated discourse, each participant more frustrated than before. And I find myself silently infuriated that I got caught up in the wave.
So I've begun to ration my arguments for the subjects I feel are truly, truly important. This election season saw me go to town on a number of issues: my Libertarian political beliefs, my idea that my faith and other peoples private lives didn't need to have any correlation, my distrust of both major candidates, my disgust with organizations like the ACLU and PETA, the fact that gay marriage doesn't bother me a bit, my annoyance with both the far left and extreme right, the ineptitude of Michelle Bachman, my hatred for the very notion of gun control, and about four hundred other issues.
I had people on both sides of the aisle criticize me for for a number of reasons: How can you be a Libertarian and have Christian values? How could you possibly be okay with gay marriage? Why do you cuss here and there in your blog posts? How can you be fiscally conservative when people are starving? What's wrong with Obama? What's wrong with Romney? What do you mean Sarah Palins not intelligent? You're in your twenties and you don't know a thing. What do you think God thinks about your politics? How is PETA bad? Do you hate animals? What do you mean evolution and faith are connected? (The list goes on)
I realized I was spending way too much time defending myself.
Sometimes we spend so much needless time trying make people understand, we don't get to enjoy our individuality. The most surprising discovery I made these last few months was just how ill informed large portions of our population are. When you have politicians who can't explain a five point plan, you know you've got issues. When you've got Christian ministers that don't realize just how different the King James version of the Bible is from the previous translation, you've got some red flags. When atheists give you crap for being sure there's a God and then turn around and say they're sure there isn't, you've got some severe hypocrisy. I got tired of the noise. I retreated into my own mind a bit, where it was quiet. I found out I kind of like having a distinct set of opinions. I rather enjoy not being everyones favorite brand of human. If that's pretentious, sue me.
I sleep like a baby at night.
