I’m a Midwestern progressive. I’m pretty conservative/boring in my personal life and views, but have often wished my country were radically different in ways that might surprise my neighbors. And there have been plenty of events from the past decade that have made me feel deep distress over my country and thought, “Wow, America isn’t America anymore and I want some way of expressing that to people.”
But I would never, ever fly the American flag upside down. Don’t get me wrong, there are days when I would like to, but a combination of social norms, upbringing, and lingering symbolic respect combine to make it a thing that’s just impossible for me to do, no matter how I feel.
How the hell is it possible that a Justice on the Supreme Court, the most institutionalist institution, does not have these same scruples? How do they not feel ashamed of the hypocrisy? That disconnect is truly upsetting to me. #scotus
@albnelson the answer is simple: the US is a diverse country, and not everyone shares your personal upbringing and experiences.
It's so important that people realize that diversity and take caution in projecting their own upbringings on others.
@volkris I accept what you say in the abstract but not in the particular. Including link for reference. I cannot imagine that Alito was raised that differently from me. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/justice-alitos-home-flew-a-u-s-flag-upside-down-after-jan-6-a-report-says
@albnelson that you can't imagine such diversity is my entire point.
@volkris I know lots of Republicans, lots of Trump voters — most of my neighbors probably are. There are “Fuck Joe Biden” flags in our neighborhood. But if someone flew the flag upside down, they would get complaints — I think that’s true even among people who believe the election was stolen. It just makes me think this guy is operating in a very different world from even most Republicans.
@albnelson well, let me try again to lead you to where this is going :)
Over and over here you're returning to the same thing, projecting your own perspective on others and viewing others through your own lens even as they may see the world very differently.
Such projection leads to misunderstandings and confusion. It leads to faulty conclusions.
You can see it even here: once again you are "assuming that Alito and I were raised" in a certain way, and you end up "confused."
And I say YES, EXACTLY! Those assumptions are leaving you confused! So question your assumptions!
@volkris so how do you propose he sees the world? Educate me.
@albnelson I don't.
And so I'm not confused.
I'm not falling into the mistake of projecting values onto someone, making those assumptions that lead to such misunderstandings and confusion.
@volkris I don’t know if I agree it is possible to live without some degree of projection. We are social animals that live in communities of shared values. If I knew Alito, I could ask him personally. But since I don’t AND he is a powerful official in my community, isn’t it reasonable that I can follow some intermediary path to interrogate our shared values? What path would you recommend?
@albnelson here's an analogy: How much change do I have in my pocket right now?
Would you project, you have thirty five cents, so I must as well?
Or would you simply say, I don't know as there isn't enough information to guess?
Go for the latter option. We don't need to project; we don't need to guess. And then you don't need to be confused.
Your projection is leading to your confusion, so you might as well decline to do that in the first place.
@volkris I don’t agree with the metaphor, because I’m trying to make sense of one of his actions that goes against what I thought were commonly held social norms. It’s closer to if a well-dressed man came up to me on the street and asked me for a hundred bucks. I don’t need to know anything about him to notice that it’s unusual.
Now I buy that it is better for humans in general for me not to judge the guy. And if I have the chance I might say, “wow man, what led you to start asking strangers for a hundred bucks?” But lacking that opportunity here, I don’t think it’s reasonable for me to say on Mastodon, “huh, that’s weird, I can’t imagine a set of circumstances that would lead me to go around asking strangers for a hundred bucks.”
Maybe Alito is homeless and I didn’t realize. As things stand he is blaming his wife, so who knows.
@albnelson so in your position I would say the takeaway should be that you were wrong about what you thought were commonly held social norms.
Turns out they weren't.
And so hopefully this is a chance for you to reevaluate some misconceptions that you had.
It turns out your beliefs were wrong, and hopefully you can learn and not be confused in the future.
@volkris great, thanks
@volkris not really sure where this is going but I’m going to try. This country includes all sorts of people with all sorts of values. But many of us were raised to respect national symbols, even when we disagreed with the nation’s leadership. I am assuming that Alito and I were raised with a similar degree of respect — if anything, I would assume he got a lot more “respect the flag” messages. So I’m really confused that he and his wife chose to fly it upside down.