Agreed and well said. It reminds me of when someone lauds Thomas Jefferson as being brilliant and having great political ideas for America, but then someone clutches their pearls because he was a slave owner. Yes, being a slave owner is abhorrent, BUT it doesn’t negate the positive contributions. That isn’t how reality works. You can condemn the bad and accept the good when it comes to the effects of people and organizations and concepts.
You’re absolutely right, but in the end, humans are very adaptive so if you really want to do something (within reason) you can. It is way easier to just make excuses as to why you can’t versus just trying something new out. It isn’t like you can’t go back to the old way if it isn’t working out for you, you know? I am not a vegan, but I’m in the culinary arts and if there is one thing I’ve learned it is that when it comes to food, you can just about make anything likeable to anybody. It is about presentation and the amount you effort. Granted, there are some exceptions like Cilantro tasting like soap for some, but for real. Effort and time is the big factor. Gotta experiment because it is an art.
Don’t let assholes sway your convictions, regardless of what they are. Convictions are personal. Sure, it is really great to have a community that shares in some of the ways that you think about the world and your behaviors, but that isn’t the end all be all, right? Furthermore, people are going to be more negative than they are positive (Especially on the internet) so I bet if you keep looking, online and in person, you’ll find a group that you mesh with. People who gatekeep are just insecure about their own positions because they aren’t being authentic and like others have said… they’re probably just wanting to be part of a club.
My human nature wanted to rail against what you were saying at a certain point (especially when you called out feminists and leftists) since I can relate to your target audience, but yeah. Good words.
Wet sand, along with pulleys and lots and lots of man power, and using the Nile to float stones from upstream to the building site. More complicated than that, but yeah.