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Similarly, never assume you know the context. I tend to apply this while driving a lot, when someone is speeding past me. "Idiot! But, maybe his wife is in the middle of birthing his son and he is rushing to the hospital?", helps me keep calm when others act like idiots.

There is also a funny video you can share with people to explain the same idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-9Gci8MuHw

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Or: always focus on the intent. People do things for different reasons, but you should only judge them based on the intent.

For example, all lives matter, sounds good, but what is the intent behind that? Is it really to signal that all lives matter?

Intentions can be very nebulous. We are not always aware of why we’re doing something and tend to come up with explanations after the fact. These can even change over time. Ultimately we can only guess at what happens in other people’s minds.

Alternatively we can look at the effects of an action. To use your example, when someone says “all lives matter” it, among other things, alienates black people. IMO makes it a lot more clear cut.

Unfortunately whatever you say you’re always going to offend someone. That’s why I think intention is what matters most, otherwise you’re just following an angry crowd into cancelling someone for no good reasons.

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