Regarding the difficult but important conversations I have had in the past 36 (ish) hours.
I'm thinking about tactics.
Thoughts are still forming.
I'll circle back later.

There are some specific people I'd like to get involved in the conversation so I'll tag you all when I have something more coherent to say.

Laters! ❤️

I'm getting there.
I'm thinking about "friendship evangelism", a common idea in the church, and how we might apply the approach in other, non-religious contexts.

Put this picture in your mind:
A man stands on a street corner, Bible in hand, sincerely and loudly proclaiming the Gospel.

How are people reacting to him?

Are people stopping to listen?
Is anyone really taking in what he's saying?
Is his sincere and loving work changing any hearts and minds?

How do you think the people are feeling, being preached to by this method?

Are they encouraged? Are they uplifted?
Do they feel judged and condemned?
Does his method make people ask questions, or does it put people in a fight-or-flight frame of mind?

If the latter, what do they do?
Walk away and ignore the message?
Respond aggressively? Defensively?

Also, our preacher stands on his corner, speaking his truth for hours at a time.
He's saying nothing wrong.
He's harming nobody.

But is anybody stopping to listen to him for that whole time?
Does anybody even *have* the time to take in all he's trying to say, in one fell swoop?

Would he be better off breaking down his message into bite sized pieces and sharing them regularly but not all in one go?

Thread continues after I've had my shower.

Ahhhh. That's better.

So in the church, the concept of friendship evangelism is very simple. It's about meeting people where they are, without judgement, recognising the individual and their needs and listening more than we speak.

Now lets apply that to *any* big issue of the day.

Will extended diatribes, broadcast to all and sundry, change hearts and minds? Or will people react as they do to the street preacher, with indifference, mockery or even aggression?

Is it better perhaps to

a) Speak with individuals, giving them the opportunity to ask questions, challenging them where appropriate to think about their viewpoint

b) (and I am aware of the irony given the length of this thread) Keep our message short, concise, succinct. Bitesize chunks of information.

c) remember the *person* we are addressing has feelings just like we do

d) act out of love, first and foremost

We should ALWAYS call out unacceptable behaviour and attitudes of course but...

What if we do that on an individual basis instead of standing on our street corner, book of the law in hand with almost nobody really listening to us?

How about we try that?

It might just change a lot of things for the better.

Peace. Out. ❤️❤️

@stueytheround
I think I may have seen parts of what you're referring to Stuey. I've so many filters that I miss a lot of what goes on here, even when I'm following a convo, parts go missing.
That's for a reason, I was really nasty elsewhere 🙄 and have changed my ways, don't want to go back.
It isn't about the topic, nor subject matter. I'll discuss anything calmly and rationally.
It's the insistence that "this is the right way to do it" attitude.
I filter & block that because I have to.😳 😢

@Krysdammit @stueytheround For people to disregard others safety measures and filters is something that really bugs the fuck out of me. I don't care about the race if that person, I care about the fact they are coming across in full on attack mode and no one here wants to deal with it. We get it, life fucking sucks for the poor and the minorities both, we don't need constant reminders of that in this online space. If the person can't stop being abusive or hateful, well, block it is.

@PaganMother
I had that attitude on twitter. You know how hard I struggled with it one night when you talked me down from the ceiling.😂
Some people don't want to listen to anyone. They choose to unload on line. I know that I'll never understand the struggles, fears and discrimination that people of colour experience daily. I'll listen to them tell us about it. I'll keep quiet and learn from them.
Don't need a preachy white person telling me I'm not doing it right.
@stueytheround

@Krysdammit @stueytheround Exactly where I'm concerned. I do not unload on here as often as I wish I could, there's some aspects of my life I'm still processing and undoing the harm of, and that in itself takes a lot of work to heal from. Just being able to communicate at all is a gift that I don't think I could ever fully repay.

@Krysdammit @stueytheround To coin a phrase, I don't expect them to put on my shoes and walk a mile in them without having some kind of remark on how "privileged" I was as an abused, molested and brutally traumatized child in a "white" mutt military family. Nor understand the experience dysphoria has had on my entire life, or the mental conditions I live with. I get they are at risk, I try to secure space as best as I can but the white painting of all of us is intolerance. Period.

@PaganMother
I was an immigrant with 0 English when I went to school. Was beaten up, threatened, death threats. Spat upon. Had things stolen from my desk and punished by teachers for losing those things.
There were no ESL classes back then. Imagine having an enraged teacher "teaching" you all alone every recess. Yup, they lost their recesses too to teach me a little extra. Grade one teacher was brutal, and I mean that literally.
So I understand a little.

@stueytheround

@Krysdammit @stueytheround I had a lot of friends growing up from a multitude of different cultures, my mother and my siblings and I advocate for a few of them to get good tutoring for ESL in the schools we attended and most of my siblings and I ended up fighting with older teachers unwilling to change their schedules and adapt to be learning materials. I'm sorry how the system treated you, Krys.