I recently asked a family member my political archetype and she called me The Enigma, because, although I have the education to the radical as rational, I still think nothing is more radical than universal love, even for those who would destroy us (and me, for being mixed-ethnicity).
I understand why, among lefties, righteously punching Nazis is such a thing. I admit I still listen to intolerant people instead of wanting to punch them, and they usually come away from talking to me more balanced and understanding. Am I doing something wrong? No. Does that mean everyone should be like me? No. For me it comes down to capacity. The responsible use of capacity (and privilege) is to engage in the janitorial work of justice, cleaning up the messes left by more marginalized people who fight just trying to survive. For me, the tools of social justice are 85% for judging myself. I offer the same standard to others like me. At the end of the day, there are many ways to make things less bad. I’ve never had the temperament for front-line social activism. I prefer to talk to people who disagree with me, and I’m good at it. They are both legitimate approaches to injustice, and they complement each other. As I continue to grow, in courage, confidence, convincingness, and privilege as well, I’ve gotten more comfortable occupying this role.
All of this operates within my short breakdown for when we should be tolerant, when we should judge, and what it has to do with capacity. When you can assume good faith, you should stick with dialogue, assumption of good faith in others, and other so-called enlightenment values. When you can’t, or when anyone says they can’t, you’re in a political space where vulnerability is weakness. But those of us with the capacity and resources to endure bad faith have a responsibility to always be doing our part to support the conditions of dialogue, even if it means holding ourselves to a higher non-political standard in political spaces. This serves marginalized people in the long-term, contributing to repair without asking anyone to expose themselves to danger who doesn’t want to, and who doesn’t think it could do any good.
