My approach when someone is ranting about religion or politics, I listen and remain silent. They are not looking for a different point of view, a new approach to a problem or change of heart. They just want to rant, I let ‘em. I’m not interested in changing anyone’s mind, I have my own point of view and don’t feel the need to share it. Sometimes being silent is the most powerful thing you can do.
Yes, I have been enjoying your content, as I am a man 'of that age'. Despite your past with (print ?) journalism, I thought you were doing a relatively good job of maintaining a certain amount of neutrality on political subjects (with the occasional nuanced barb). The comment you inserted regarding comedians' take on the president, which I was making reference to in my reply, is an obvious slight on the current administration, unless I misunderstood the point. If that's the way you feel, fine- I doubt anyone benefitting from your content cares or wants to know, and I am one who would rather not. I don't recall seeing any snide remarks regarding the former 'administration' in your past posts (objectively the most incompetent in my forty years of voting); In any event, why would anyone who is trying to appeal to a large number of people using social media want to risk alienating roughly half of them?
Rob, thanks for explaining where you're coming from. You seem earnest in your dismay at my comment, so I'll give you an earnest if blunt answer to your question.
I'm not seeking to be political. There's plenty other Substacks that are, and no one needs me to gratuitously offer my opinions about topics that don't concern aging with strength. So I hear you on that loud and clear. I also don't believe any political regime deserves either a free pass or baseless partisan condemnation.
If you go through everything I've written, on AGING with STRENGTH and the other Substack I write (far less frequently), you'll see that I don't play sides re political parties — they have each spectacularly failed the electorate. No one wants a senile president any more than they want a malignantly narcissistic president.
That said, what we're seeing now isn't a political disagreement. It's corruption (yes, all administrations are corrupt to some extent) that is existential. The bald-faced, self-dealing corruption from the current administration isn't just incompetence and condescension, which were evident in spades in the previous administration. What we're witnessing now is a level of self-aggrandizing, intentional corruption and cruelty toward everyday people who have less than almost everyone else, and makes our country exponentially weaker and more vulnerable to global threats. It's weakness and slime masquerading as courage and purity. Look at the DoD. Look at pardoning a convicted drug trafficker out of sympathy that he, the trafficker was treated "unfairly" while he was president of Honduras. If I was making this up, it would be trash pulp fiction. But this now just an ordinary week in D.C.
I could spend another 1,000 words here giving you specific example after specific example, based on facts that are not in dispute *even by the administration itself.*
I could remain quiet about that. But I have a young daughter. Not a son, but a girl who will become a woman in this country. Why in hell would I want to stay quiet about the current administration's Mob-like intolerance of peaceful dissent, and its gleeful habit of putting people down based solely on who they are, what they look like, what they believe and what they say publicly?
Sure, I want my writing on AGING with STRENGTH to appeal to as many people as possible. I'm not going out of my way to be political. I don't want to be political, to be honest. But I'm not the one making every word and deed political in this country now. Someone else is. It's a mob-boss mentality, and I'm not capitulating to that. So you'll hear me speak up at times when this demonstrably corrupt administration, that maintains different standards for its own people than it puts on everyone else, gives me yet another reason to speak up. I'd rather not. I hope I won't need to. But I'll be damned if I'll play the equivalency charade between what's happening now and what was happening in the previous administration. They are not equivalent. You may disagree, but that's my honest reply, written most respectfully, so I hope you'll take it at face value.
What a wonderfully written, fresh perspective, caring reminder and disarming advice on a subject we all deal with no matter our beliefs. There is comfort to know there are people willing to value relationships over political views. Your words are a reminder to decide in advance to care for and show respect.
My approach when someone is ranting about religion or politics, I listen and remain silent. They are not looking for a different point of view, a new approach to a problem or change of heart. They just want to rant, I let ‘em. I’m not interested in changing anyone’s mind, I have my own point of view and don’t feel the need to share it. Sometimes being silent is the most powerful thing you can do.
Wise words.
Really Paul?!?:
“When the comedians who earn
their livings pillorying one of ‘most corrupt presidential administrations in American
history’ are asking Americans to tone it down and be nicer to one anther this holiday season, you know it's bad.”
Wow. I was really hoping you were different 🥲
Sorry to disappoint you. Did I misspell pillorying? Maybe you can clarify the cause of your dismay and the need for a tearful emoji.
Yes, I have been enjoying your content, as I am a man 'of that age'. Despite your past with (print ?) journalism, I thought you were doing a relatively good job of maintaining a certain amount of neutrality on political subjects (with the occasional nuanced barb). The comment you inserted regarding comedians' take on the president, which I was making reference to in my reply, is an obvious slight on the current administration, unless I misunderstood the point. If that's the way you feel, fine- I doubt anyone benefitting from your content cares or wants to know, and I am one who would rather not. I don't recall seeing any snide remarks regarding the former 'administration' in your past posts (objectively the most incompetent in my forty years of voting); In any event, why would anyone who is trying to appeal to a large number of people using social media want to risk alienating roughly half of them?
Rob, thanks for explaining where you're coming from. You seem earnest in your dismay at my comment, so I'll give you an earnest if blunt answer to your question.
I'm not seeking to be political. There's plenty other Substacks that are, and no one needs me to gratuitously offer my opinions about topics that don't concern aging with strength. So I hear you on that loud and clear. I also don't believe any political regime deserves either a free pass or baseless partisan condemnation.
If you go through everything I've written, on AGING with STRENGTH and the other Substack I write (far less frequently), you'll see that I don't play sides re political parties — they have each spectacularly failed the electorate. No one wants a senile president any more than they want a malignantly narcissistic president.
That said, what we're seeing now isn't a political disagreement. It's corruption (yes, all administrations are corrupt to some extent) that is existential. The bald-faced, self-dealing corruption from the current administration isn't just incompetence and condescension, which were evident in spades in the previous administration. What we're witnessing now is a level of self-aggrandizing, intentional corruption and cruelty toward everyday people who have less than almost everyone else, and makes our country exponentially weaker and more vulnerable to global threats. It's weakness and slime masquerading as courage and purity. Look at the DoD. Look at pardoning a convicted drug trafficker out of sympathy that he, the trafficker was treated "unfairly" while he was president of Honduras. If I was making this up, it would be trash pulp fiction. But this now just an ordinary week in D.C.
I could spend another 1,000 words here giving you specific example after specific example, based on facts that are not in dispute *even by the administration itself.*
I could remain quiet about that. But I have a young daughter. Not a son, but a girl who will become a woman in this country. Why in hell would I want to stay quiet about the current administration's Mob-like intolerance of peaceful dissent, and its gleeful habit of putting people down based solely on who they are, what they look like, what they believe and what they say publicly?
Sure, I want my writing on AGING with STRENGTH to appeal to as many people as possible. I'm not going out of my way to be political. I don't want to be political, to be honest. But I'm not the one making every word and deed political in this country now. Someone else is. It's a mob-boss mentality, and I'm not capitulating to that. So you'll hear me speak up at times when this demonstrably corrupt administration, that maintains different standards for its own people than it puts on everyone else, gives me yet another reason to speak up. I'd rather not. I hope I won't need to. But I'll be damned if I'll play the equivalency charade between what's happening now and what was happening in the previous administration. They are not equivalent. You may disagree, but that's my honest reply, written most respectfully, so I hope you'll take it at face value.
Paul,
What a wonderfully written, fresh perspective, caring reminder and disarming advice on a subject we all deal with no matter our beliefs. There is comfort to know there are people willing to value relationships over political views. Your words are a reminder to decide in advance to care for and show respect.
Tom, sometimes it's harder than other times to do it, but remaining curious and calm cannot steer you wrong, I think.
Continuous learning 😊