#my perspective

Just for your consideration,

Why are you arguing?

Perhaps the point you're making is right but I think there is something a lot more people should consider... What are your intentions in making it?

Are you making this point because you want a better world for your fellow humans or do you just enjoy arguing?

Do you understand that you are just as capable of being "bad" and ignorant as any other person?

Do you feel intellectually superior to the people you're attempting to educate?

Do you have hope that we are slowly moving towards a better world or do you think it's hopeless and discourage hope in others when they speak it?

Does it bother you when you hear people trying to love their communities despite their shortcomings and flaws? Sure, you can move to a new place that's more progressive but if no one plants the seed, there can't be a future where communities learn to be more inclusive.

If you live in the states, do you make snide comments about people who participate in voting because it's pointless and dumb to even try?

Do you snarl at the idea of someone believing they can improve the world?

How can you be better than the average ignorant peer if you only learn how bad the world is for the sake of Internet gotcha moments without a thought of betterment moving forward?

In my opinion, without an earnest hope for the betterment of the world around you, you literally cannot be arguing with strangers on the Internet for any reason other than for fun.

Are you doing all of this because you think the world can be improved by it or do you want to bully someone while retaining moral high ground?

If this person takes your words to heart and tries to do better, will you support their efforts or will you just keep knitpicking at them until you have the upper ground again?

If you earnestly believe that the world is bad and unfixable, what do you hope to achieve by arguing to begin with?

The reason we have such a vast understanding of so many things is because we have very smart people who dedicated their brains to specific things and became experts.

That knowledge trickles down to the rest of us so we can understand to whatever extent we can manage any particular subject.

It doesn't matter how educated you are. You're always missing some key piece.

You'll slip up. Say a turn of phrase that you had no idea was bad. Someone will correct you. You will get hot and feel scared that maybe you're not the good person you tried to be.

We are all operating under limited understandings and just because you have the Internet to tell you a thousand ways at once how to be good, it doesn't mean you won't inevitably find yourself in a misunderstanding.

You can't know everything and you certainly can't know anything that you haven't come to know yet.

It's also important I feel, that we keep in mind that other people who make small uninformed mistakes are not the same as the monsters who are VERY informed while harming others.

I grew up in the south and still wake up in a cold sweat over normalized behavior I perpetuated as a kid and teenager.

I can't take that shit back. Neither can anyone else.

It's so important you know your own heart and intention. Even if I know that I know very well that I'm an imperfect person and vastly under qualified to be a real help for a lot of causes that squeeze my heart, I also know that I want to. I want to so badly it feels like I could fall apart at the seams.

It's not about being right. It's not about other people seeing you as a good person. It's about you making the effort to be even if no one sees it.

Sincerely, someone who collapsed under the pressure of unrestricted empathy more times than they can count.

An Evening With PinkPantheress

Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, NY