Often I wonder why Trump supporters aren’t changing their minds about him.
I think this quote about changing mind explains it.
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Do you see more about changing minds in today’s blog post?
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Here’s what I find when I search for “changing minds” on YouTube:
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I’d like to be changing minds of those who don’t want to watch that very illuminating TED talk.
Thanks to all who are here for this changing minds post, including YOU!
We cannot change around
Until we change within
To scream and yell and sloganize
Only shields us from our own lies- Christopher Jones (Verbal Assault)
I have changed my mind about so many things. Sheesh. In High School, I attended No Nuke rallies. By the time I was 21, I was in the Army. I have come back around to No Nukes but also Support Our Troops. These are not mutually exclusive. I was super competitive in athletics, even in pick-up games. By the time I was in my 30s, I was just happy to play.
Everything was black and white. Now, while there are still some black and white issues, everything else is shades of gray.
I am not going to change my mind about you, my friend.
they have to admit things to themselves
They do!
Reading a biography of U.S. Grant, I am struck by the damage done to Georgia and South Carolina by Sherman and to the Shenandoah Valley by Sheridan, and I am thinking that, in many ways, MAGA is one of the products of the damage done. Was it necessary, I have to wonder. Was there a better way to go about ending slavery?
I don’t think so. I know this reply is supposed to be about changing one’s mind, but just as Stan says. “There are still some black and white issues.”
I have sometimes doubted the wisdom of liberal victories in much the same way that I wonder if there was a gentler, kinder way of ending slavery. Abortion and gay marriage come to mind. But I always come back to the alternative. There could be no compromise with abortion rights and gay marriage, just as there could be no compromise with ending slavery.
So perhaps that is an example of changing my mind. I no longer doubt the wisdom of extending those rights to all. There can be no exceptions. I don’t know any way around it.
Thanks for the shout out!
A better way to end slavery. That is a very interesting point. Would the US have ended slavery via market forces? Were there enough slaves in the country to create a self-contained system, meaning they would reproduce to maintain working levels, or would the slave holders need to import new slaves?
If the former, then I could see the US moving more toward indentured servitude for a limited time before cancelling slavery altogether. If the latter, foreign market forces would have drastically impacted the US, as most colonizers had given up slavery. Bear in mind, the US was still very much growing up, not quite a teenager yet in human parlance.
The US had not matured yet. The US was old enough to fight but not old enough to exercise restraint. The collective mindset was that one side must wipe out the entirety of the other side. This is partly why you read about the barbarism of Sherman and Sheridan and of the Confederate attrocities: Fort Pillow Massacre, Andersonville, Battle of the Crater. Nobody really wins in war.
Sherman said later “I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell.” General Stonewall Jackson (confederate general) ““People who are anxious to bring on war don’t know what they are bargaining for; they don’t see all the horrors that must accompany such an event.”
Excellent reply. I am working on a piece for my substack on this subject as well.
Share with us, please.
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I appreciate your mind, Barbara.