I lean leftwards because I want more people to get the help, dignity and peace they need and deserve. Now I feel a wave of being told to "harden my heart" and I feel scared and isolated. I don't have it in me to become a martyr and estrange myself from most people any further, I get nervous with the leftism I see so often expressed as wanting the bad people suffer, and that anything short of revolution is not just not good enough, but worse than doing nothing. And then I have constant guilt that I'm judging people more discriminated than me for how they express things; that my fears aren't valid and expressions of privilege.
By now I'm feeling emotional burnout, I get annoyed by any respone that isn't in-depth analysis because it just feels like watching the same responses happening over and over and never going anywhere.
big agree. im like Mr. Cool Breeze & Chill when dealing with reactionary sentiments, clowns, and bozos. i don't have people justifying/celebrating genocide to my face much at all, so it's not a big moral/ethical conundrum im facing. it's more casual ideological framing and i just push back a little as i can with jokes or quips... i.e. landlords are living from [others'] paycheck to paycheck, cops need more overtime to take naps in parking lots and evict poor people in the rain, private equity is a very chubby tick, etc and look for who smiles with a twinkle in their eye.
im more interested in finding pals than verbally pwning and identifying myself to enemies.