I've been called that a few times in my life, as well as many worse, more derogatory things. It's often happened in the heat of debate when I have an opposing opinion to someone else, which, the last time I checked was allowed but these days with the amount of censorship in the world and it all starting to feel very soviet union of old, who knows.
There are so many weird and wacky things happening right now around the globe and a few weeks back I had an interesting discussion with someone about the state of the world. The opposing views were present and I put my points across which were then rebutted with "can you give me examples?" and I said yes, I can, but do you actually want them? If I sent you a list of things backing this up, would you actually read them? To which they replied "No, I probably won't". The conversation then turned to the recent Elon Musk segment where he basically tore the BBC presenter to shreds because they made a claim that they could not back up with facts. I explained that I could totally back up mine, that's why I asked. He seemed rather offended by this and started being a bit dismissive of the debate at hand and then rather started telling me that my body language seemed aggressive (because I was leaning forward as opposed to sitting back).
That actually caught me off-guard because I wasn't even aware of my body posture or language until he pointed it out. I certainly wasn't being actively aggressive, but I was enjoying the banter and I was accepting of his points of view and provided him the freedom to hold them and express them, but I never once felt that it substantially changed the way that I viewed the person and I certainly wasn't going to get personal, because to me, it wasn't personal.
I ended up apologizing for coming across as aggressive and that it wasn't meant that way, it was just an interesting conversation, one that I have with very few people.
The following day I received an apology from him saying that he had been told by a third party that he had been very condescending and that he perhaps shouldn't have been quite so quick to tell me off for the way the conversation went. I was just as apologetic and we ended it on a good note.
It hasn't changed how we address each other, but I have a feeling that there's a good chance that he now thinks of me more as a nutcase than a family friend which he did previously...all based on a single point of divergence. I've always found it interesting that so many people are divided by points of view whether it be based on faith, gender, race, politics, pronouns, money or an array of any number of other things. We are constantly bombarded with images and narratives that we need to be more inclusive and yet, this is probably the most divided the world has been in a very long time.
It's bizarre to observe it all around us especially considering that the world economy is on the brink of collapse and we're heading head-first into WWIII. The bigger picture seems to be forgotten when there are so many ground level arguments to be had.
Does that make me a nutcase? Perhaps, but that is also a matter of opinion I suppose and while I would never call someone that based on a certain political viewpoint or whether they believe in God, Gaia or Allah, I can't quite grasp why one view point or narrative seems to be perceived as superior to another to the point where attacking someone personally is deemed as "the right thing to do". I'm pretty sure that's how wars started all through history.
So I think that we need to be more respectful towards people with other views. Most of the time, neither is 100% accurate or absolute truth and all sides get it wrong from time to time. What I would like to see more of is people acknowledging that. At the end of the day, we're all human and should try to respect each other as people first and foremost without letting all the other fluff get in the way of that.
