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

Date

2018-12-15T00:00:00.000Z

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SolSeed archive migration

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*This was a series of discussions at the August 2018 [Resilient Communities Mini-Unconference](/Resilient_Communities_Mini-Unconference).*

### Participants
- Judy
- Steve
- [Brandon](/Brandon)
- [Shawn](/Shawn)
- [Eric](/Eric)
- [Ben](/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](/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 [whether collapse is inevitable](/Can_we_make_resilience_look_more_smooth_and_avoid_collapses?)
    - 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