Disgusted1 48 1 week ago
So I thought I was liberal for years.. I still have many many liberal ideals, and I'm not much for conservative ideology.. but I did have a bit of an awakening around Milo..
Everyone kept telling me that Milo was evil, and I never really paid attention to anything he ever said.. I just didn't care to, I had other stuff going on in my life.. one day I caught a little bit of Milo on Joe Rogan, and I had to leave for work after like 10 mins of the interview.
Before I watched the full interview, I was chatting with an older, liberal, female friend of mine who I used to discuss politics with, and generally agreed with many things. When I told her I was watching an interview with Milo, and it seemed like things I had been told about him weren't actually true, she gave me a quick "brb" and came back to tell me not to listen to him..
I told her that it doesn't matter what other people say, and even if he is full of bad ideas, freedom of expression is important and when you start shutting down people whose ideas you don't like, eventually your ideas will be on the chopping block.. and that I just want information, I'm interested in all kinds of things, and I can't see justifying my own point of view without knowing the other side of the story.. not to mention listening to him is not an endorsement, I have enough faith in myself to say that if something is said by anyone that truly is evil and wrong, I'll be able to recognize it, and discard the bad ideas while holding on to the good ones..
This did not sit well with her, and I was astonished.. she started telling me that certain types of speech SHOULD be considered illegal, kids should be sheltered from people like Milo, and that she didn't have to listen to anything anyone said to know that they are wrong, evil and promote things like rape, misogyny and hate.. it turned out to be the same ideology conservatives used to have around the "satanic hysteria" back in the 80s and 90s.. when bands like Judas Priest were sued because conservatives insisted they were sending satanic suicide messages in their music.. she had these huge, negative opinions yet she had never once actually looked into it herself.. she was just parroting other liberals opinions.. which I've found were absolute bullshit.
She accused me of being a rape sympathizer because I listened to what he had to say.. she said because I've never been a woman, and raped.. I just didn't care enough to not listen.. my persuit of knowledge to her, was promoting rape culture..
I haven't spoken to her since that moment.. she tried to change the subject, and talk about something we agreed on, but you don't come back to normalcy after someone tells you that your natural desire for information perpetuates rape.. and that you essentially think rape is ok.. My views on many things have changed, but my view that free speech is paramount to everything else still stands.
The left has lost their collective shit, it was right under my nose the whole time, and I didn't see it until I started paying a little better attention to all sides of the story.
