Apparently you missed or chose to ignore my use of the word "seems" and interpreted it as "so completely and definitely". As time goes by you SEEM to be taking a more and more uncharitable view of my comments, to the point where I'm spending most of my time now defending things I didn't say. I've never once mentioned your age or used it to dismiss your opinions. I'm not trying to dismiss your opinions. I don't agree, clearly, but I'm trying to understand. That's why I asked the questions at the end of my comment which you haven't answered here.
You say you didn't say I was ageist, but then you also said I was like those who defend "Defund the police", who you do define as ageist. Hopefully you can see how this comes across as a contradiction. Again, I'm not making assumptions about you as a person. It feels like you're the one doing that to me.
I didn't address the fact that the majority of white people voted for Barack just as I didn't address the fact that Trump's share of the black and Latino vote actually increased this year. It's not really relevant to what we were originally discussing. But the short version of my answer would be that there are many factors that govern the way people vote, and race isn't the main one. I'm actually just about to publish an article about this. Consider Biden's comments that if you vote for Trump "you ain't black". Why is this offensive? Because it assumes that black people will always vote on this single issue and that any deviation from this somehow undermines our identity.
Many people vote purely based on the party they've always supported, or on single issues, or because they don't like the last party that was in power. The fact that a majority of white didn't vote for Obama (and let's be clear, Obama won 43% of the white vote in 2008 to McCain's 55%, it's not like there was a landslide against him) doesn't mean that every white person who didn't vote for him was racist, or indeed that every white person who voted for him wasn't. I know you've taken issue with my describing some arguments as simplistic, but this is the kind of thing I'm talking about.
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"I am a fearful human being walking about seeing things that really aren’t there just because I want to"
You wrote this referencing my comment, but my comment was refencing what the author was saying in her original article. That's what we were originally discussing, remember?
"We walk alongside them on a daily basis, they are in our midst. And when I think that all they want to do is kill black people like me, then yes, I think I have every reason to be afraid."
This is a direct quote from the article, and the reason why I commented in the first place. You said this fear is justified, I said it isn't.
To use your examole, every time an incident like Amy Cooper's disgusting behaviour is caught on camera it's broadcast on TV on a loop for us to watch in horror. And in a way that's fair enough. It's truly reprehensible. She deserves every ounce of suffering her newfound fame causes her. But it seems to create a distorted image of society in some people's mnds. It's like if every shark attack that ever happened was national news for days. Or every plane crash. Or every car accident. Our perception of the dangers of these things would become horribly skewed.
I feel that the vast majority of the time I'm given the benefit of the doubt. I'm treated just like everybody else, I'm treated farily and with respect. Am I treated badly sometimes? Of course. There's not a soul on the planet who isn't. But I don't assume that the cause for that is racism unless there's good reason to. And there rarely is. But I will say this (and I'm saying it generally, I'm not saying that this describes you). If I walk around assuming that people will treat me badly because of my colour/gender/sexuality/whatever, I'm much more likely to feel that every time things don't go my way, that's the reason. Society takes on an aura of persucution that's almost entirely in my head. I've known many people like that.
I'm not trying to fight with you. I have no animosity towards you personally at all. In fact, the tone of our conversation was really friendly I thought. At least at first. I'm not making assumptions about the kind of human being you are. How could I possibly know anything about you? I'm just pointing to how I interpret your arguments as I see them on the screen. If I'm wrong, fine, tell me how, but don't take my attacks on your arguments as attacks on you. They're not intended that way at all. And if you're still interested in talking, I'd really like to know your answers to the questions I asked at the end of my last comment.
