There is this old friend of mine whom I have lenghty and bumpy past with. We frequently discuss various topics of interest and there are many moments where I really enjoy our conversations. I like spending time with his him and he’s one of the few friends I have a left.
Occasionally though, I can’t shake the feeling that he’s not really engaging with my thoughts and ideas in-depth, seemingly preferring to use the topics I bring up to vent his frustrations with certain groups of people (it’s mostly Muslims, basically).
I get that he is right in certain aspects and even acknowledges the systems (media, states, NGOs, advertising, etc) driving a certain narrative around them to further the goal of replacing Whites. His experiences with most people belonging to this group were mostly negative and I suspect that some (maybe a quarter or so, pure guesstimate) if that stems from his demeanour towards them as well. Of course there’s a huge amount of aggressive, bored and often underdeveloped/uneducated young boys/men among them who are just looking for trouble.
While all that may be true and apply to various clusters of these people, I’m starting to feel as if I no longer feel the need to reach out, because I’m tired of hearing the same divide and conquer rhetoric all the time. I don’t get anything out of a short rant repeating various clichees about Arabs.
He never had the money to travel as much as I did so he didn’t have as many opportunities to meet actual Arabs or Muslims, never getting a chance to experience their hospitaly, kindness and acceptance of basically whomever they encountered. I’ve always been the long haired dude who wears shirts with symbols and creatures their faith deemed demonic and we still got along well.
Parts of my education also involved being around lots of immigrated Muslims. I was kicked off of so many schools during my teens which landed me at a secondary school with about 75% of immigrant kids. Most of them were just stupid kids hitting puberty with barely any parenting and the same went for about the remaining 20% of the Whites on that school.
The second you didn’t fall for their provocations and didn’t respond to their insults it was quite easy to talk to them and build up some respect. Once they don’t get a reaction out of you (which would enforce their warped perception that everyone’s out to get them, maybe?) you could basically talk to them and discover that most were harmless and minded their own business when they were around you.
Perhaps it is this experience that makes it difficult for me to listen to rage-fueled nothingburgers about some cultures just being incompatible with civilized life.
I don’t know how to deal with him right now.
