Context Changes Meaning

Context changes the meaning of statements - it’s the biggest reason i don’t subscribe to a “one rule for everything” mindset, especially when that “rule” is just some vague emotionally charged statement.

Perhaps “people should mind their own business and don’t meddle with other’s affairs” works when dealing with nosy, malicious gossips. But when it’s said by fascists and racists, towards those talking about their own experiences and systemic problems, it changes from a proclamation of personal boundaries into a condemnation of activism, solidarity, and compassion. By falsely relating movements for justice to petty gossip, they twist the need to have privacy and good reputation into a way of shutting off critical thinking and compassion.

It’s a very effective tactic for creating an “us vs them” mentality. There are those who see whole communities carrying generations-long preventable grief as their enemies, as just petty people who want to “pull others (the Good and Successful Ones) down to their (Petty, Malicious, Destructive) level”, and believe that these people “deserve” their history and current conditions.

Context changes meaning. What is alright in one situation isn’t ok for a different one. Pay attention to the underlying assumptions and question it. Trace where the line of thinking comes from and follow where it leads to. And most of all, do not mix up personal with important.

The "One Truth" paradigm is also the biggest reason I left Christianity, but also i hate those annoying ones who go "therefore there is no truth, therefore everything is permissible'. I also hate this other demographic who go "therefore ALL is True, therefore ALL actions & ideas are Equally Right". "No One Truth Therefore All or Nothing is Truth" is just the same "Only One Truth" tilted by two degrees.