I really wish that there were a way I could become engaged intellectually with a community without getting involved in the political dissonance that paradoxically arises when people become too politically and intellectually engaged. I have always enjoyed sort of anything goes spaces, where someone could get offended by what someone says but there's really no rules, so anyone can just say whatever they want without worrying about someone saying something that might offend them. I've spent a lot of time posting on websites like 4chan, or random facebook groups, chat rooms, websites that don't really have rules, etc.
To me it has always been difficult, because I don't like offending people, but I also like saying what I think honestly without mitigation. I feel like when you're in a group that has political cohesion there is inevitably going to be a sort of conforming that becomes necessary in that group. I've been experiencing that pretty hardcore lately, and yeah I like the people who have a problem with me and I respect their opinions, but they don't respect mine. I don't want to live in a world like that where I have to conform to what everyone else thinks, I want to have an interesting discussion where many views are expressed and many interesting conversations can take place.
The problem is that even that can turn into something toxic, and it often does. I sort of feel like I'm at a loss for anywhere I can go that isn't either belligerent or so politically correct that I feel like I am under threat if I express something that might offend people. It's sort of like being trapped in a purgatory. Because I care about queer issues, anti capitalism, issues regarding race and gender, etc. That puts me in a very left wing camp. However, I don't experience much cohesion with people on the left regardless of this. I experience the same thing with people on the right, a lot of them have their own sort of safe space, where any opposing views get shut down and derided.
Is there no truly neutral place where you can have interesting discussions and it doesn't devolve into a total shit storm? Because I would love to know. It makes me so uncomfortable now a days with things being so political, and I have always had a problem where I don't care whatsoever if someone finds what I say offensive if I believe what I say, beyond simply feeling pity, and sorry that they feel the need to be upset by me. I don't feel sorry for saying things I believe in, and I have stood up vehemently for unpopular positions since I was very, very young. I just wish there were a place I could go where I wasn't trapped in this schism.
I wish that I could find a place to belong without some bullshit decorum