I often forget the bubble we live in. That we ALL live in. We surround ourselves with like minded individuals, groups, reading material, news stations, ideas...you get the picture. The trap we fall into is believing this is a norm of the general population, that your view point bubble is bigger and encompasses more people than it does. I was reminded of this today.
I think of myself as fairly progressive. I try to constantly learn new things and implement them striving for a better me as a mom, as an individual, as a member of society. I take new information and I stop*
I just stop and think about it as non biased as I can and then I look it up, A LOT. I don't feel I can make a decision unless I have a plethora of reasons, ideas, opinions and, most important, FACTS. To me facts are indisputable but I was confronted by an individual today that tried to dispute facts. I don't know how to argue the point...how do you argue that a fact is indisputable? That we might have information wrong but a fact is indisputable information. That if you thought it was a fact but it was changed or debunked then it wasn't fact. There are many actual facts out there. Ones that are bolstered by other facts and so on. These are the ones I go on. Basically a fact is corroborated by science and common sense on many levels.
This is a main part of my view point and I surround myself with people that base their thinking on this general idea. Maybe they aren't as fact based as me but there general mentality is to stop and think and admit there might be a different and or better way of seeing and doing things. Progressive thinkers.
I didn't enjoy my bubble being "outed" to myself. Especially in the company I was in. I was with family, family that I would love to have a relationship with but today it was shown that this particular family member is on a different path than me ( I was too at that age) and I hope it will change. That said I don't want view points like hers tolerated as okay for my children, I don't want them learning the bigotry, the sexism, the racism, the general red neckness that is shown from her. I don't want my children thinking it's okay and I don't want to be constantly arguing against it because, let's face it, with certain people you can show them and read them and state them and live them facts but if they feel something than that's there basis, if they learned something they don't try to see it differently. They don't question things because it's tradition, it's religion, it's a personal choice, it's their decision, all this is an acceptable excuse for them from something/somebody doing something whether it's wrong or right.
I don't surround myself with ignorance but it's hard to get away from when it comes from family. Family sure knows how to make you remember we all live in our own bubble.