As the society is further divided by the Marriage Equality debate. Anger is further boiling up in both camps in the news and on the social media. The fact is that whole of the Australian society have become pawns to our Right Wing Elitist Conservative politicians in the Parliament. These people they thrive on division and popularism that give them further platforms to throw out baseless rhetoric views to fuel the dividing walls of fire in our society.
I have already expressed my view and support on Marriage Equality, so there is no point further elaborating on the matter. However, I started to feel strongly that we need to be able to deal with this division triggered by the likes of Tony Abbott, who wanted to bring themselves back into relevance when the rest of the society intended to move on and continue to evolve.
So how to deal with people who are saying no?
1. Are their views relevant to you?
It is very easy to get personal about this because it is personal. However, if you look at the bigger picture, people who championing the “No” vote have their reasons and baggage too. Their baggage whether they are social, political or religious will not go away because you told them they are wrong and baseless. So there is no point trying to convince or argue with them while spoiling your good day with a nice coffee and croissant. They voting “No” and urging other people to do the same will inevitably impact on the count, but if the “Yes” camp runs a positive and active campaign, they will be able to counter the impact or minimise the impact. Yelling and condemning “No” voters will only discount your own credibility in the debate and give them ammo to attack you further.
2. Are their views evidence based?
By this stage of the debate, we all already know that most of the time the arguments are not evidence base. The “No” camp’s argument are all personal – be them social, political or religious. When being crossed examined most of the arguments will not stand. Simply taking the Bible as an example, it is a book that I studied hard and believe in but if someone wanted to put out an argument against Marriage Equality simply because a few passages in the Bible said so, I could quote many more to argue against them on a lot of basic human right issues in the Bible, including slavery, racial equality and women’s right, which we have all seen our societies evolved beyond them.
A lot of time people just want to believe what they want to believe in, evidence based or not. These views or beliefs are their anchor points and they will not let them to be rocked. While they will attempt to rock other people’s boat just like what they are doing in the Marriage Equality debate; that is because of the restless insecurity deep inside them. This insecurity stems from their full knowledge of what they believe in may not have come from as strong a foundation as they thought they were. As they were not necessarily evidence based, but rhetoric based.
3. Is there a need to corner them in the debate?
It is easy to lose ourselves in heated debate. That’s why it is always important to stay level headed. I personally have a number of “friends” on Facebook putting up their “No” vote banner on Marriage Equality. I respect them as a person but not for their views. But by understanding where they came from and knowing that they will not in their life change their views, there is no point bringing out my rocket launcher against them. They are entitled to their views and they are entitled to put out their arguments, no matter how erroneous they are from my point of view. But if we just jump on them and corner them in the debate, we are giving those in power ammo and evidence to condemn the same rights that we are fighting for, which is social equality.
Knowing someone who won’t vote for social equality is disappointing but if humanity wants to evolve we need to able to deal with differences. Otherwise we are just driving people to their corners and inevitably we will get bitten ourselves. If that happens, nobody but only the likes of the Far Right camps will win because this is what they thrive on – extreme actions to divide the society.
4. The sticky situation of unfriending
This decision is personal. If you don’t think you want to hang around or be acquainted with people whom you do not have the same social or world view, it is your right to unfriend them and cut these people out of your life. I think this is particularly personal to the LGBQTI community as they have suffered the most before and during the debate. I can totally understand why members of these communities will want to have nothing to do with the “No” voters in their lives.
For those “No” voters who noticed they got unfriended, do not take offence as this is an inevitable outcome when we feed the bait of the Far Right sector of our society in the disguise of social, political and religious responsibilities. Just need to understand that you are indeed impacting other people’s life not based on a basic human right but your personal world view. It will be completely naïve to think that there will be no repercussions to your life, whether Marriage Equality is legislated or not.
At the end of the day...
At the end of the day, Marriage Equality is both personal and social. I do not believe it should be political or religious issue, but this is the world we are living in. We gravitate toward things we know to support our world views. We just all need to know how to deal with differences and the cost our world views would bring to our lives.
I have voted “Yes” to the matter, and will not change my view. Nor would I attempt to bring down other people’s view with overzealous attacks as I want to minimise my role in this social political fiasco that was brought to us by the small sector of Far Right politicians controlling this Australian Government.
