It's fine, Hades. I went on a tangent as well and will probably do it again.
I'm glad you think they were good people. I suppose I assumed you would find them hateful, given those opinions they have about people like us. My ex-, the only real long term relationship I had before Jack, thought they were. Not that he'd had a chance to meet them more than once before everything exploded between us, but once was enough.
Liam had been a very active part of the 'No On 8' Campaign... ah, Proposition 8 was the one that took away our short-lived right to marry (although I think it got struck down while I was gone.) I couldn't take as much of an active role in it as I wanted to, because I was very busy with covering the election season for the TV station I worked for. I'd just made newscaster at that point. He'd wanted me to come out and publicly put my weight behind it, since I'd achieved a small amount of local popularity--and I didn't want to jeopardize my career.
Anyway, I remember him telling me during that terrible fight that ensued the day after--when I was too tired and heartsick from Prop 8 passing to pretend I was that better self I'd always tried to be for him--that it was people like Abuelito who got Prop 8 passed--people in minority communities who were socially conservative--and I shouted back at him that if it was, it was because *his* people had never bothered to try to reach *out* to them. Which they *hadn't*. The minority outreach for 'No On 8' was awful.
(I don't actually know how Abuelita and Abuelito voted on Prop 8. I've purposely never asked.)
Anyway. I'm glad you agree with me about them, especially... well. After that slip of the tongue back on Dia, I don't think it'll come as a surprise that as I've come to know *you* (as opposed to that asshole Emperor Solus), you've come to remind me a bit of Abuelito--and more in a good way than not.
I suppose I have a tendency to say 'selfish' rather than 'irrational' because... well, there are certain schools of thought back home, unfortunately popular, that see trying to help other people *as* irrational and prioritizing one's self-interest as the height of 'rational egoism.' I mean, a perfect would, people *would* understand that it *is* for everyone's self-interest for everyone to be provided for--but my world isn't that kind of place, I'm afraid.
But you *are* right that it really is the difference between rationality and irrationality, not selfishness and selflessness. *Kindness* is a rational choice. *Helping people* is a rational choice. I'm as self-serving is all hell, but I can and often enough *do* chose to be kind to people, to help them, because in the long run it makes things better for *me*. (And, well, usually they owe me for it, which is also nice.)
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fingersandteeth) wrote2022-02-21 05:11 pm
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I'm glad you think they were good people. I suppose I assumed you would find them hateful, given those opinions they have about people like us. My ex-, the only real long term relationship I had before Jack, thought they were. Not that he'd had a chance to meet them more than once before everything exploded between us, but once was enough.
Liam had been a very active part of the 'No On 8' Campaign... ah, Proposition 8 was the one that took away our short-lived right to marry (although I think it got struck down while I was gone.) I couldn't take as much of an active role in it as I wanted to, because I was very busy with covering the election season for the TV station I worked for. I'd just made newscaster at that point. He'd wanted me to come out and publicly put my weight behind it, since I'd achieved a small amount of local popularity--and I didn't want to jeopardize my career.
Anyway, I remember him telling me during that terrible fight that ensued the day after--when I was too tired and heartsick from Prop 8 passing to pretend I was that better self I'd always tried to be for him--that it was people like Abuelito who got Prop 8 passed--people in minority communities who were socially conservative--and I shouted back at him that if it was, it was because *his* people had never bothered to try to reach *out* to them. Which they *hadn't*. The minority outreach for 'No On 8' was awful.
(I don't actually know how Abuelita and Abuelito voted on Prop 8. I've purposely never asked.)
Anyway. I'm glad you agree with me about them, especially... well. After that slip of the tongue back on Dia, I don't think it'll come as a surprise that as I've come to know *you* (as opposed to that asshole Emperor Solus), you've come to remind me a bit of Abuelito--and more in a good way than not.
I suppose I have a tendency to say 'selfish' rather than 'irrational' because... well, there are certain schools of thought back home, unfortunately popular, that see trying to help other people *as* irrational and prioritizing one's self-interest as the height of 'rational egoism.' I mean, a perfect would, people *would* understand that it *is* for everyone's self-interest for everyone to be provided for--but my world isn't that kind of place, I'm afraid.
But you *are* right that it really is the difference between rationality and irrationality, not selfishness and selflessness. *Kindness* is a rational choice. *Helping people* is a rational choice. I'm as self-serving is all hell, but I can and often enough *do* chose to be kind to people, to help them, because in the long run it makes things better for *me*. (And, well, usually they owe me for it, which is also nice.)