Truth has everything to do with love…
For the past 10 years I have been on a journey due to the privilege I have. The privilege to know who I am, to have had the chance to learn that and have had the support in order to go on that journey. I am not the person I was 13 years ago or 8 years ago or the person I was 3 years ago. Writing and having this job of creation, asking questions, reading, listening, informing myself and drawing inspiration for my stories from all facets of life brings out a lot out of one. Then 2 years ago I have had the opportunity to start a new job where I don’t only have to ponder free speech more objectively, but I also have to abide by international law when it comes to what people can and can not post. This has brought me a lot of insight in how even more people think, act and behave. But this also put in me in front with certain philosophical questions regarding free speech, consent, mal intent and mistakes due to ignorance. Not just that but it continuously puts me face to face with points of view that disagree or contradict mine. And for better or for worse in some cases, I was lucky or unlucky enough to always have someone to disagree with me. Whether I was 5, 15, 25, or now in my 30s there is always someone there to tell me that I either don’t know what I am talking about, tell me I’m wrong or just contradict me for the sake of contradicting me. And this next sentence is depressing, but I do not know any person in my life with whom I spent enough time with at some point not to call me stupid. So I was always faced with opinions I did not like, I did not care to see or hear or straight up insults and now, I have learned if there is no one to contradict me, where to find those voices easily, in order to check myself, before I wreck myself. So the past ten years have been a very arduous process for me. From writing four books about self-criticism of past mistakes, points of views and down right stupidity, to actually trying to take accountability for that behavior while trying to change my behavior and outlook on things. Or try to work on some of my insecurities that were born out of other people’s betrayal of me. I won’t go into that right now, but I’d love to come back to write about that and what changed some time in the future. Point being that this whole text here is not here in order for me to humble brag how great I am or the work I did in order to try to do all these improvements. It’s so what comes next makes sense, this was just context on why I believe some truths are simple. And if you read my guide to being a good person or we’re not ready for progress or misunderstood control, you might have a guess what’s coming next or why that is what it is.
The truth is simple!
And here’s a guide to truth.
1. Truth has nothing to do with Hate, Hate Crimes, Hate speech, Oppression, Discrimination, Genocide, Violence of any kind against innocent and oppressed people, Racism, Xenophobia, Sexism on both sides, Homophobia, Transphobia or any kind of targeted discrimination and hate.
When I say truth has nothing to do with these, I mean that there is no reason to subject anyone innocent people to any of this. There is no way in any lifetime at any point in history to justify this behavior against any one innocent people. I do not mean that these things do not exist, they clearly exist and are very true to some people.
Why start with this? Because once you remove all these things, a clearer picture arises. One where you do not blame and individual group of people for their actions, but you start to see the context, the actual and historical context of those that do violence and why they do it. Not that it is acceptable, but you might understand the root of it and how to deal with it.
This also implies other forms of violence such as justifying people not getting paid their fair share, justifying people’s lack to rights to buy homes by citing stupid things like “demand and supply”. Or justifying overpaying for groceries for the same reason. Or bringing up “inflation” and telling others they don’t know anything about "the economy”.
And no, hate and violence in self-defense against an oppressive force or anyone believing and any of the things that have nothing to do with truth, as mentioned in point 1 is not a hate crime, discrimination or violence, is self-defence.
As you can see ignorance is clearly a factor in all these things that have nothing to do with the truth. Because in order to be on the side of truth, you need to be well informed and challenge your points of view. Which is a thing most people probably do not care to do, whether it’s due to a system that overworks them, or because it is a violent system that forces them to comply in order to survive.
Obviously when you are ignorant you are more easily lied to and manipulated into these types of behaviors.
Well… That was easy. Who knew truth would be so simple?
Of course it’s not quite that easy, some truths are very complex and need a greater effort to be understood. But if everyone can simply look at their beliefs, and remove those things, their life will get easier. You don’t even have to understand them. You just have to abstain from having such beliefs and abstain from justifying such horrific behavior.
Whether you are in the oppressed and victim column, where you can justify your rage against the machine clearer. Not that it should need justification, as oppression, hate and everything mentioned you might fight against is unjustifiable. Or whether you are that which is in power and is justifying violence because you see your violence as natural and normal, compared to those that are hitting in self-defence, you might find that is quite easy to drop those things and do not require much effort, if you really have a heart and some compassion left. Not that you should have believed this things in the first place, yet they are the product of the system we participate in, and these things tend to be normalized and the victims dehumanized.
Because again, no such behavior can EVER be justified.
PS. Hopefully I do not have to spell it out and to write that obviously lies have nothing to do with the truth.