Source: The state of the wider American "community" under Trump
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BenSibelman
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''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