Samaiya Ewing Anytime you ask a question that you believe you already know the answer to you are not in any way, shape or form going to facilitate honest discussion. Why? Because you started the conversation with, lets say, less than clean hands. Everything about this post (from the incident chosen to the question asked on down) screams Im trying to create evidence to prove a point that I already regard as an immutable truth. Thats not how you start or facilitate a discussion. For a discussion, at the very least, the person who styles themselves as the discussion leader should begin from a place of genuine curiosity, not a list of questions clearly constructed to elicit responses theyve already thought of. Basically, whats happened here is the creation of a delightful little feedback loop. Heres how it worked: 1) call out people whose ideas are different from yours in a manner unlikely to facilitate genuine discussion while simultaneously stating that genuine discussion is your goal. 2) ask them to watch a carefully chosen video and respond to a series of questions constructed to elicit responses that align with your views or that are so out of step with basic humanity as to be easily dismissed out of hand. 3) shut down anyone who attempts to broaden the conversation beyond your carefully chosen, specific scenario. 4) Accuse those whose viewpoints different from yours of supporting violence and destruction or of being the brainwashed constituents of social leaders who share their views. 5) shake your head sadly and call out prominent social leaders from the opposition and blame them for making it impossible to have an honest conversation about (insert discussion topic here). 6) gather with those whose views align with yours to cluck condescendingly about how you expected this. 7) repeat until your own views are so entrenched that they feel like fundamental truths rather than opinions. To be clear, thats whats happening here and I commented because its a near perfect microcosm of something that occurs on a larger, national scale. This PSA is for both sides of the political aisle, because Ive seen both liberals and conservatives enact this loop in the name of honest discussion.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 17:36:06 +0000
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