Curious About Why So Many People Think Their Way of Looking at the World Should be Everyone's Way of Looking at the World

I started a new podcast last week, White Flag with Joe Walsh.

Joe Walsh is a former Congressman, a Tea Party Conservative, and a rightwing radio host. In other words, he stands for pretty much everything I disagree with. He looks like this:

He looks kind of angry in that picture, doesn't he?

I've listened to Joe Walsh before. When I worked as a teacher consultant back in 2016 I traveled a lot and did a fair amount of driving. After awhile I would get tired of listening to music and search around for something different and I discovered his radio show. 

Back then he was fire and brimstone about how horrible Obama was and how we should all have guns and the rich shouldn't pay any taxes ever and the oil companies can loot and pillage and destroy the environment as much as they want and Democrats and all liberals were horrible people who ate babies. He yelled a lot.

Or something like that. I'm quite sure he would disagree with my assessment, but that's how he sounded to me at the time.

Despite the fact that I disagreed with almost everything he said, I still listened to him. I told myself then that I just wanted to get a different perspective from my own and that is true. However, I also found him entertaining.

The man is good at his job.

Also as it turns out, I was wrong in my initial assessment of him. He is a man of integrity and honor.

While he did vote for Trump in 2016, he recognized fairly quickly that Donald Trump is a dangerous demagogue, and is one of the very few hard right Republicans who has stood up forcefully against Trump and all he stands for. Because of his stand against Trump he lost his radio show and, well, pretty much everything.

When I listen to his podcast now, I don't hear hate. I hear a man who is trying his best to understand others. He listens to people with very different views than him and while he doesn't agree with them, he also doesn't demonize and treats everyone with respect.

Which leads me to what I'm curious about.

On one of his podcasts he interviewed former Senator Rick Santorum.

This guy:

Looks friendly, doesn't he?

Here's the thing.

As I listened to his interview with Joe Walsh, he kept talking about what I, as a liberal, believe. According to what he said on this podcast, I don't believe in equality, I don't believe in family values, and I don't believe in capitalism. Liberals and others like me are destroying the country. 

I found myself getting angry, listening to him. How dare he tell me what I think and believe? And I know, I know. Democrats can do the same thing to Republicans. It isn't okay no matter who does it.

However, Republicans seem intent on telling certain people that they should not live their truth. He and his fellow conservatives seem to want to go back to the 1950's when white people were in complete control, LGBTQ+ people lived in hiding, and men worked and women stayed at home with the kids. 

But guess what? They don't get to decide that for the rest of us. They don't. They can try, and they will do everything they can to take us back there, but I hope and pray that they won't succeed. Because if they do succeed, we're going to become Gilead. Or worse. 

I fervently hope that there will be more Joe Walsh's out there--a conservative who listens respectfully to people with views he disagrees with, and fewer Rick Santorum's--a conservative who believes that everyone needs to live their lives the way he believes they should.