The ugly reality is that in human society presentation and rather superficial comportment and demeanor do matter.
During the Vietnam War, John Kerry had far more impact in swaying people that the Vietnam War was wrong and we needed to get out ASAP than "hippies" even within the same Veterans Against the War group did.
Why?
Was his reasoning superior to other ant-war activists? Was his conviction deeper?
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No, it was because of his background, because of his demeanor, because of his approach, because of they way he presents.
That is why Nixon went ape-shit and had Colson hire John O'Neil to push-back because he realized how "dangerous" someone that the average American could relate to, respect, and calmly identify with, who was not "different" "scary" or threatening.
The reality is, no matter how genuine and legitimate you are, not dressing like most people, screaming into a bullhorn on a street corner gets you dismissed by most people as scary, a freak, unbalanced, etc.
That is simply reality.
Sometimes it is good to "be yourself" and shock, to differentiate, to have the "will to be weird". The rattle peopel's sense of propriey or superfolious attidues about style, decorum, etc.
As someone whos hair has at times been every color you can imagine, being male and having peirced ears, or at times having hair to the middle of my back, I understand the dynamics of self-expesion vs. that of herd mentality of society about the way one looks and or acts.
But the crucial qustion will always boil down to whether or not you want your valid point or issue heard and possibly embraced, or dismissed out of hand?
If you want it dismissed, then by all means present as some "other" out of the mainstream, "weird"... "touchy-feely hippy" with dogmatic arguments that are easy to counter (i.e. war is always wrong, therefore stopping Hitler was wrong... ) is never going to advance your cause or bring the public to your point of view.
Does that mean Kos is disingenuous to say hey, if you want me to be a pacifist in the mold of a cliched stereotype, then you got he wrong person because I (kos) am not a pacifist nor am I going to bang on pans and block traffic to argue that "war is always wrong"?
I don't think so.