I’m fully aware that I rub some people the wrong way…and I’m honestly pretty OK with that. That these folks tend to be dogmatic, inflexible, narrow-minded Conservatives says far more about them than it ever could about me. If those folks are so threatened by a difference of ideas…well, my work here is done, eh?
Except that it’s never really going to be done, not in this incivil and divisive world we inhabit. My goal is to get people to think, and if that upset some folks…well, such is the cost of doing business. I’ve never believed that ideas are a particular threat to decent society; it’s the slavish devotion to them even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. It’s clinging doggedly to the belief that your belief system is so far superior to others that all you need do to defeat them is to lob a few cheap personal insults their way. Who needs to put in the effort to defend an argument when you can call me “Liberal scum?” Or rest smug in the knowledge that I’m going to Hell because I don’t share your faith?
Such is the world I inhabit. Generally speaking, I think it all works pretty well. I can’t (and certainly won’t) claim 100% accuracy, but I wouldn’t write about the things I do if I didn’t believe that I hit the mark more often than not. I’d like to think that when I’ve messed up, I’m man enough to admit it…but there’s a pronounced difference between someone thinking I’m wrong and me coming to that realization on my own. I prefer to make up my own mind about that sort of thing.
One of the risks a writer takes in putting their opinions out into the either is upsetting people who, for whatever reason, find reason to take offense at what you have to say. This has been true for the more than 13 years I’ve been doing this. I don’t set out to gratuitously aggravate people, but sometimes it’s the most positive outcome- because if someone is reacting, they’re thinking…even if only enough to be angry.
My biggest hope is that would I put out into the world will be accepted in the spirit it’s offered- as a way to create discussion and/or prompt my reader to think about something. I don’t expect people to uniformly agree with or even like what I write, but if they’re thinking about it I can feel as if I’ve accomplished something. I hope I’ve succeeded at this more often than I’ve missed. If you think I’m an asshole anyway, there’s nothing I’m going to be able to do to change your mind. It’s unlikely I’m going to agree with you just so you can feel better about yourself.
