I've long complained that the desire to treat politics as a sports rivalry is destructive and impedes our progress as a society. You shouldn't really have a favorite team (let alone a favorite guy, especially if he's an autocratic fascist). Binary thinking, taking a side, seems like a cultural requirement. Granted, as I've also declared, there is not always moral equivalence between sides. Even in politics, I'm less worried about the side that wants to give people free college than I am the side that thinks white supremacists include "fine people." Regardless, I don't think our reality is all that binary.
Simone Biles is in just such a place right now. Widely accepted as the "greatest of all time" among gymnasts, she bailed on the rest of her Olympic competition, citing the pressure and the mental place she's in. It seems like everyone seems to think they can walk in her shoes and declare what is right for her, but come on, I'm not the best at anything, and you probably aren't either. What I do know, is that Biles can still be the greatest of all time, and the woman who quit the Olympics on her terms.
Non-binary thinking can be applied to far more serious things than athlete performance, too. Look no further than the completely strange issues around education, and indeed the historical facts around the United States. There's a completely bizarre movement to avoid teaching kids about just how vile and terrible American history really is, and worse, because it might make (white) people uncomfortable. But at the end of the day, the truth is that the American experience began with the slaughter and mistreatment of the people who already lived here, not to mention slavery, inequality for women and a long list of minorities, and racism so systematically embedded in our institutions that it may take another 200 years to undo it all. It's also true that this is a nation founded by brilliant men, most of whom were slave owners, who created a novel form of government that is imperfect but exceptional, with extraordinary innovation in the industrial and electronic revolutions, full of inventors, scientists and teachers who collectively built a nation that has had widespread positive impact on the world. The United States does in fact have a history that is both wonderful and terrible.
These seemingly contradictory stances can apply to virtually everything. You can support Israel but be against its policy of occupation. You can be against abortion but favor the rights of women. You can support police while wanting them to be held accountable. You can be for capitalism but advocate for a single-payer healthcare system. You can be a Republican and still reject the lie that the election was not legitimate.
I'm not suggesting that everything in life is a gray area, but I am saying that beyond nuance or a spectrum of conditions, many things can be two things at once.
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