Hi Foxy,

Do you notice on this Forum, the hard right posters actually oppose all those, "not like them". They believe, all in society should act in ways that reflect their values only, regardless if others values impact directly on them or not. A perfect example is ttbn, he gets on here blowing up and demanding those not like him, along with their opinions be removed, and this forum be nothing more than an echo chamber for his and those of the same ilk world view.

One of ttbn's great laments is the vast majority of Australians don't agree with him, and he can't understand why. Must be the work of us "woke" people, nothing to do with the fact his world view is well and truly anchored in the 1950's, long before the vast majority were even born.

Dear Paul,

I guess a discussion forum such as this one is going
to get people with all sorts of opinions contributing to it -
Being a forum of political and social debate - the views are
going to get heated at times.

Still people can surprise us. And they have me on numerous
occasions. And it's also
a question of self-reflection as well. To me even after
all these years here, it is still a learning process
of what to do, what not to do. And how to do it better.

That's where people such as yourself, and others -
who can make me laugh out loud at times help my journey
here. So very much. Also my husband's advice also helps.

All in all I am grateful not only for my husband and family,
but for being given the privilege to exchange thoughts and
opinions. I'm grateful for the balance that's
provided on this forum by the rational people here of which there
are many.

Our opinions are based on our feelings.
davidf,
Our feelings are the result of our experiences. One may have a certain feeling of something but this feeling may or may not change our opinion once an experience is experienced !
As in 'He/she seemed like a nice person until I got to know them" & that is what changes our feelings & we change our opinion accordingly.
If someone tells you what you want to hear then you tend to think better of them than if they disagreed with you from the start.
The Woke will say everything that is good but the end result is that they're exploiting & abusing by saying one thing & doing another, exactly in the way they accuse those of doing.
The Woke are not only extremely hypocritical, they're also devoid of integrity !
Anyhow, we agreed to disagree.

indyvidual,

Facts versus feelings?

I understand that you trust your gut more than any
"experts". You said so in the past. And in today's
emotional politics reason has to fight for a seat
at the table. Misinformed people rarely change their
minds when presented with facts and often become even
more attached to their beliefs.

Winston Churchill said:

"The best argument against democracy is a five minute
conversation with the average voter".

It would be wonderful if that wasn't true.

But we have to take people's feelings seriously in today's
political world and not dismiss them as irrational.
The last federal election showed us that political issues
such as climate change mattered.

Hilary Clinton's mistake in 2016, and her unfortunate reference
to the "deplorables"(those most likely to vote for Mr Trump)
didn't help her.

indyvidual,

Not sure why you're so anti- the "woke".
We need people in our society who speak
up against injustice and try to change
things for the better for everybody.

Indyvidual wrote:

"The Woke will say everything that is good but the end result is that they're exploiting & abusing by saying one thing & doing another, exactly in the way they accuse those of doing.
The Woke are not only extremely hypocritical, they're also devoid of integrity !"

translation: Those who disagree with me are dirty dogs.