You are What You Eat.

Today, as I sit at work, I'm thinking about how wonderfully depressing facebook is.  I'm on facebook for the majority of my work days (when I have my laptop with me) because there is simply nothing else to do.  I finish all of my usual online maintenance - as I call it - and I just leave the webpage open in case someone who is online decides to make my day slightly less boring by messaging me.  Before I've gotten to this point I've already slogged through the Denver Post, done the puzzles (the best part), read something from a book, started a grocery list, etc.
I have been struck by the incredible amount of political garbage that is propagated in my news feed.  Some of it is conservative, and some of it is liberal; but all of it is garbage.  Well, most of it.
I come across more bigoted liberal political hoo-ha on facebook than anywhere else.  And I come across a large amount of bigoted conservative hoo-ha as well.  It's pretty equal.
My problem with the liberal hoo-ha is it is generally insulting by implication.  Liberals always bash bigots but in turn are bigoted themselves; saying things like, "(#3:) Politicians believe telepathically communicating with extra-terrestrials (angels) is more important than keeping our oceans, rivers, and lakes free from pollution" listed under "Five unmistakable signs we are re-entering the dark ages," OR things like, "choose reality, it will be better for all of us," is not exactly indicative of an open mind.
Yes, conservatives say stupid things like this too.  

I suppose what I'm really trying to get at is that I am continually (for some reason) surprised at the amount of hate that is lobbed at religion.  Any religion, really.  Man is amazingly prone to hate, in general it seems.  
I had not identified my own perspective with bigotry either, until I began to "cross over."  Now that I am on the other side of the fence I can see where my errors were.  And how stupidly insistent I was about not thinking.
I see this in others.  A lot.  And I know there's nothing I can do to alter it; it takes a certain realization on the behalf of the individual to see your own mistakes.

What I can do is try my very best to be less annoyed with the garbage online, and understand that the people who post it are not filled with hate, but more often are not thinking in a three-dimensional manner.
For example, I cut off an argument with my roommate concerning the legal obligation of religious organizations to pay for contraceptives to get to my point (which had been that there were no women on the panel regarding birth control).  The argument that stemmed from my original point was that it was not okay for the government to force religious organizations to pay for something they viewed as morally wrong.  She felt otherwise, saying that people needed birth control and it was wrong to deprive them of something they needed.  I could have gotten her original point wrong, because I got frustrated with her when she was adamant that forcing someone to go against their morals was okay.  To justify it, she told me a story of a Christian man who worked for a Jewish company.  Said company laid him off two years before retirement so they wouldn't have to pay it.  In my opinion, this is a case of douche-baggery, not a case for oppression of religious freedom.  But we didn't get into a deeper discussion about it because, of late, I've been testy and not in a good place for conversations.  And, after some repetition of the words "the original point of this was" which got a little louder than normal volume (not quite yelling), I dropped it.
Some days I just don't have a fight in me; the energy to defend or explain does not come, nor can I will it to do so.
What I can learn from this is if I am not generally feeling good, I am not a good conversationalist.  I should improve in that respect.


The point of today's post is that people often don't think from both perspectives before making a judgement.  I am guilty of this too, I'm pretty sure everyone is.  I just think we should make an effort to step back and take another look at things before giving them a label.