The state of the wider American "community" under Trump

''This was a series of discussions at the August 2018 [[Resilient Communities Mini-Unconference]].'' == Participants == * Judy * Steve * [[Brandon]] * [[Shawn]] * [[Eric]] * [[Ben]] (intermittent note-taker) == Discussions == During the combined Saturday morning session: * Shawn: I'm working with Better Angels to bring Democrats and Republicans together to do a workshop; another similar group is having them share meals * Argument over The Righteous Mind and the morality of Republicans * Judy: See also the Oregon Conversation Project ** Unfortunately, not many conservatives show up ** Shawn: This may be because conservatives are more likely to be low on the personality trait of openness to new experiences * Judy: Critical thinking and decency has been sacrificed ** Shawn: When things break down and survival becomes more important, political differences fall away ** Judy: My faith that humans rise above was shattered by the election * Judy: The idea that there is objective truth has been lost ** I agree that truth is subjective in some ways, but if an event happens and you say “that didn't just happen...” Saturday afternoon at the kitchen table * Argument between Judy, Shawn, and Brandon, with a couple of interjections from Eric, about whether to treat Trump voters with respect or consider them "deplorables" for putting a sexual predator in office ** Judy agreed that we should try to find common ground with them, but it's hard because she feels afraid of them ** Brandon used a metaphor with the conflict between windsurfers and inner-tubers During [[Who are we? part 1]] * Ben: I feel urgency that sometimes makes me want SolSeed to do more activism ** Shawn: I see a different path for problem-solving than activism: A resilient community can help many other people after the system collapses ** Argument with Judy about whether we're also obligated to work to prevent collapse, or [[Can we make resilience look more smooth and avoid collapses?|whether collapse is inevitable]] *** Shawn: I prefer going orthogonal to head-butting conflicts *** Judy: I believe in making personal responsibility for working toward good in the world **** E.g. helping create a market for electric cars **** It feels like people who don't take responsibility, e.g. for struggling to change the political paradigm that gave us Trump, are putting that burden on my shoulders *** Judy and Ben: The hopelessness of realizing that despite all efforts and progress, not enough people are struggling to keep things getting better, and in fact all the progress will be undone