People in my circles are quite suspicious of me now due to my inability to be quiet.
It feels dumb to talk about and it's hard to even really find the words to what I want to say but I find it difficuilt to keep quiet sometimes, especially when someone says something very dumb about something I've been putting a lot of time into studying. There have been a couple times now where someone has said something dreadful about Palestinians and I've had to reprimand them. It's hard to keep quiet about things like this while also not going too far. Sometimes simply saying that you don't hate Chinese people for no reason at all is enough to make some people around you suspicious. One time someone raised their eyebrow just because I said I'd love to visit China some day. When someone for example makes a comment about Cuba that's clearly just wrong, I try to nudge them in the right direction subtly but it turns out not subtle enough. I need to learn to be quiet sometimes but even if I do stay quiet that also looks suspicious! I guess the only thing left to do is pretend to be a lib but it feels .. wrong. It feels like I'm encouraging those beliefs to the people around me. I think I just need to chill and let things be but it's hard sometimes. I try to surround myself with cool people but that's not always possible. It feels dumb to talk about but it's been bothering me a lot lately. Have any of you ever felt like this?
Edit: Thank you all for the great advice! Sorry about my unorganized rambiling, I was a bit tired when I wrote this. The replies are very helpful and have given me a lot to think about. Thanks again :)
Edit 2: I've thought a lot more about how I felt and how to best articulate things but first I want to quickly clarify that I would never be quiet or tolerate any kind of vile hatred aimed towards Palestinians or any marginalised and attacked people. Ever. I think over time people started getting upset with me and saying that I was an extremist, radical and other flavours of red for voicing my opinions or just getting suspicious of the things I've said over time. Sometimes even smalI things like just not hating China was enough to confuse some people and it started to weigh down on me.
I thought I'd have to cool it off and stop being so vocal on some things due to the backlash I had been facing but after reflection I realized that my words have actually made a difference and have actually pushed people further left on issues that they nornally would not have been. Even with small things like just humanising Chinese people. Some people are just vile and cannot be reasoned with but others can be talked to. I suppose after awhile it starts to wear down on you and get at you. But I've taken the advice given to me here to heart and I'll best to continue with what I'm doing. Once more thank you for the advice I'll try my best!
PS: Sorry for the edits I'm not used to forums I hope it doesn't disturb anything :]
I feel like it all the time honestly. One thing that has helped me at least have productive conversations is to ask people “why do you feel that way about Palestinians” or “why wouldn’t you travel to China?”
Then that opens the door a little bit more. Unfortunately, people get very offended when you approach it from “you’re wrong and here’s why” instead of “why do you feel that way?”
I second this. Also, it may help to journal your thoughts and emotions freely. Or even better to vent out to a comrade!
Big time agree. People often build their entire positions on top of a few very shoddy lies that simply have been repeated enough and never challenged.
Recognize the narrative they're following ("israel is defending itself/China is doing a genocide in Xinjiang"). Empathize with their underlying concern ("I care about the safety of civilians/rights of minorities"). From there you can easily deconstruct the underlying arguments and show that they do not match the reality (israelis are not safe/Xinjiang is).