It's one of the rules that makes a lot of intuitive sense.
Mothers have been around.
They know you.
They love you.
They want you to get it right.
So I realize now that when I last forayed into foreign territory and attempted to post a progressive posting , albiet in a modified format, on a right wing blogsite I should have asked my mother to comment first.
Instead, I went ahead and posted only to get slapped down in a matter of minutes.
As an excuse, my mother was on vacation, away from her computer, so I only sent her the link. Which brings me to the point of this posting, my mother's comments upon return from her vacation:
I have learned that it is useless to try to influence those whom you are sure are in direct opposition to you.
What is far more important is to encourage supporters to remain so, especially in face of disappointments.
Those who are non-committal are the ones who can be pulled in either direction. They are likely to go along with the winner, the anticipated winner, and not the one with the most persuasive arguments.
In dealing with bigots or fanatics in a reasonable fashion, you give them an opportunity to divert the issue at hand and spew their own line.
My advice is to ignore them.
In attending a lecture, for example, where two strong oppositional views are presented, members of the audience should address questions to the one whom they support in order to give that person an opportunity to have more time to reinforce his or her position. Those untrained in countering propaganda will ask a question of the opponent, who will not be embarrassed by having ideas questioned nor will be amenable to having mistakes corrected.
I am particularly committed to fighting for universal health care and am convinced that a single payer approach is the only way that will work but I know we are up against powerful opposition and a huge additional group of indifferent bystanders. I want to reach out, to try to convince others to join in this struggle. I would be interested in hearing from those who are, like me, interested in engaging the opposition to consider ideas they may not have previously considered and wish to hear ideas of how and where to engage those who disagree.
Advice from mothers is particularly welcome...