In the movement towards progression we have actually regressed. In our haste to be progressive we ushered in a new era of binary and dichotomous thinking where balck and white thinking is the norm, and asking questions within the grey is forbidden. Humans are increasingly divided because many are incapable of nuanced conversation. 

 

This isn’t about woke vs anti woke 

This isn’t about vax vs anti vax 

This isn’t about right vs left 

This is about identity politics being used to create division 

It’s about human beings not being able to listen to one another because of labels and the identity they associate with. This is about one side thinking they are morally righteous because they identify with a certain political or ideological stance. 

 

It’s an illusion. 

 

This is why people get so angry. 

This is why people can’t think outside of binary principles. 

This is why you can’t ask honest questions or have conversations at all with many people. 

 

They have associated themselves with an identity. And their identity is morally superior. Everything is black and white and your identity politics say everything about you. 

 

If you are left it means this 

If you are right it means this 

If you support the freedom movement you support white supremacy 

If you got vaccinated it means you understand science

If you are unvaccinated it means you’re a conspiracy theorist 

 

And because everything is black and white you are met with aggression and conflict often. Because everyone is an extremist under dichotomous thinking. 

 

How dare you ask questions about the science, my social justice stance or my organisations that I support because you are attacking my identity. 

 

And we’re talking honest questions here. We’re not talking about someone coming AT you aggressively, or rudely, that is something entirely different. We’re talking about the inability to answer questions from someone that genuinely doesn’t know and wants to understand. Rudeness is rudeness. No one needs to entertain someone who is attacking them. 

 

And honest questions about existing problems SHOULD be where we all go. The “other” side needs to exist so we don’t get trapped in our own echo chambers. We need to see things how others see them. Then we create solutions for the world. 

 

But in a no-questions allowed binary thinking situation you get extremes like this:

 

If you ask questions about Universal basic income it means you hate the homeless 

If you ask questions about vaccinations it makes you an anti vaxxer 

If you ask questions about race politics  it means you are racist 

If you ask questions about health policies, or social policies or religion it means _____about you. 

 

This is ridiculous right? And it happens all the time.

Because it triggers people and their identity they’ve associated themselves with.

 

What if you are not that?

You are just I am?

 

People that are rooted in their I am can have conversations. 

People who have their identity latched to their ideology can’t articulate arguments or answer questions without attack because they feel that their identity is under attack. 

 

When really, it’s usually a practical question worth discussing. And it’s not about you. 

 

Most of us live in the grey in between 

We believe in some left principles and some right principles 

We got vaccinated and hate that we did it 

We are christian yogis

Black conservatives 

Vaccinated yogis 

Unvaccinated nurses 

Conservatives who believe in helping the homeless

Liberals who believe in authoritarianism 

 

And we can own our own decisions and ideas without making it our identity. Or at least over identify with it.. 

 

Because when we know who we really are 

We can step outside of identity politics 

 

I can be friends with an atheist, a christain,a muslim, a liberal, a conservative, a libertarian, a hunter, a feminist, a vegan, a progressive, a mennonite, conservative ceo.

 

IF they stand stronger in their I am than their identity politics. 

Because they’ll be able to have conversations 

Instead of be in conflict. 

 

Those who identify with their ideology are always on the defensive. They are looking to be offended. They can’t just exist in their “I am.” They won’t be able to put together well thought out arguments and eventually you’ll just hit a wall with them where they say “yeah well it is just this way because “insert ideology.” 

 

It’s regurgitated principles. 

 

And that’s when you’ll know that you’re spinning your wheels.

 

Because at the end of the day we can disagree and see where the other person is coming from.

We can adhere to a political stance and see value in the other one.

We can live in the in between, in the grey zone.

We can change our minds.

We can start fresh.

 

If we are willing to sit in I AM.

 

I AM unites us 

 

With grace and grit,

Karla Joy Treadway