I have been trying to speak peacefully with people from the progressive/woke camp, and so far it's been a failure. Not because some of them are not willing to speak without epithets. Some are. But they refuse to truly engage. What is missing is.... "hm, that's an interesting point... let me think about it.... here are my maybe half-baked thoughts... let's explore." There is none of that at all. And there is utter refusal to admit "yeah, we were wrong about that." The sense of rigidity and endless egging on to detest the other side is truly dismaying.
I agree with you 💯. I couldn't have articulated it this clearly. I saw this first hand as a town councilor, even though in Amherst, MA, We're all mostly progressive. But anytime a question was asked about race or reparations or our local police, the questioner was shut down, shamed, made to feel racist - an opportunity lost to communicate, understand lived experiences from different points of view. That increased the chasm, with people holding on to their beliefs tighter than ever. I see similar politics playing out nationally only with millions of dollars being pumped into a propaganda divide that magnifies the chasm.
What to do about it? Understanding this is a first good step. I recently wrote a post that compassion is not kumbaya with strategies for deep listening and curiosity.
Excellent article, but the start of the answer is education. Not the answer to all problems, but to this polarization & inability to disagree peacefully. Education personnel.
Elite colleges should be non-partisan. They get tax exempt status for being so.
They are not, they are partisan.
Congress should require some objective measures of non-partisanship, and require colleges that get tax benefits be objectively non-partisan.
There might be other ways, but a clear possible way is to require non-partisan colleges to have at least 30% registered Republicans & 30% Democrats as professors. It's totally legal to be partisan, but not legal to lie about it claiming to be non-partisan when, for decades, Republicans & Christians & conservatives have been discriminated against in colleges.
"There is nobody to deliberate with."
I have been trying to speak peacefully with people from the progressive/woke camp, and so far it's been a failure. Not because some of them are not willing to speak without epithets. Some are. But they refuse to truly engage. What is missing is.... "hm, that's an interesting point... let me think about it.... here are my maybe half-baked thoughts... let's explore." There is none of that at all. And there is utter refusal to admit "yeah, we were wrong about that." The sense of rigidity and endless egging on to detest the other side is truly dismaying.
I find the same thing.
I agree with you 💯. I couldn't have articulated it this clearly. I saw this first hand as a town councilor, even though in Amherst, MA, We're all mostly progressive. But anytime a question was asked about race or reparations or our local police, the questioner was shut down, shamed, made to feel racist - an opportunity lost to communicate, understand lived experiences from different points of view. That increased the chasm, with people holding on to their beliefs tighter than ever. I see similar politics playing out nationally only with millions of dollars being pumped into a propaganda divide that magnifies the chasm.
What to do about it? Understanding this is a first good step. I recently wrote a post that compassion is not kumbaya with strategies for deep listening and curiosity.
Yes, and…. Americans don’t choose what to believe, we choose who to believe (*).
Most people just don’t care as much as we might believe, or, as much as they want to believe. It’s like church.
With exponential social media - all of these pictures, all of these influences, what did we expect?
(*) - https://substack.com/@arnoldkling
Excellent article, but the start of the answer is education. Not the answer to all problems, but to this polarization & inability to disagree peacefully. Education personnel.
Elite colleges should be non-partisan. They get tax exempt status for being so.
They are not, they are partisan.
Congress should require some objective measures of non-partisanship, and require colleges that get tax benefits be objectively non-partisan.
There might be other ways, but a clear possible way is to require non-partisan colleges to have at least 30% registered Republicans & 30% Democrats as professors. It's totally legal to be partisan, but not legal to lie about it claiming to be non-partisan when, for decades, Republicans & Christians & conservatives have been discriminated against in colleges.
Such clear and helpful thinking, thank you.
Brilliant. Thank you.
Well-reasoned. Former Leftist here