I was registering as sole trader on the HMRC website so that I pay the right amount of National Insurance and taxes etc. It’s quick and easy and just lots of fields to fill in.

Then something caught my eye.

Curious, I clicked on the question mark next to the drop down list to find out more.

IS THIS QUESTION ABOUT WHETHER I’M ELIGIBLE FOR FISHING BOAT PROCEEDS? I THINK IT IS. I AM AN ADULT! I AM AN ADULT!

The most disappointing thing is when I click on the username next to a nasty comment and it’s a member of the HP fandom or a nerdfighter or something of the sort; it’s just like when you think really highly of a friend and they let you down. You know it’s not the end of the world and it doesn’t necessarily even affect you but…they could be so much better and so much kinder and they chose not to be and it’s that that is a shame and a waste.

Bit concerned about the people saying they don’t want anyone who supports Romney to be in the Nerdfighting or Harry Potter community. That’s not really how it works. Shutting people out of communities, for one, implies that the way you think is the only thing that matters, which isn’t really a community if you think about it. I understand why people are reacting in that way because I used to feel a lot like that, especially in secondary school when I was very left-wing and almost all of my friends supported the tories (who are to the left of the Democratic party in the USA, really, but at the time I just thought it was outrageous and unacceptable) and sometimes I wondered whether it wasn’t worth just walking away from those friendships with those people because I didn’t understand why they thought the things that to me seemed so unfair and objectively wrong. I tried to listen but every justification seemed flawed to me. Disagreement, however, isn’t enough of a reason to break down a community into people who agree about everything, or even just people who agree about everything politics. It’s reason to keep talking. Keep talking in a way that is larger than simply a back and forth conversation with an individual who thinks in a different way than you do, keep the larger conversation going by sharing articles and ideas with anyone who follows you and anyone you follow and above all, value good discourse. How are we going to get anywhere as a community (both smaller scale i.e. HP or NF and larger scale i.e. country/planet) if we only surround ourselves with people we agree with and don’t listen to anything else? By all means challenge it, but in order to challenge it properly, you have to listen first and the communities have to exist in which that kind of communication can be possible.