An uncomfortable experiment. Plus: the political views of incels.
Starts With Us
A movement to overcome extreme political and cultural division by practicing curiosity, compassion, & courage every day.
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An uncomfortable experiment — but one we need
Vanessa Otero is the founder of Ad Fontes Media, which analyzes bias in the news. She has a great view of the media landscape — including aspects of that landscape that are polarized and polarizing.
After such divergent responses to Trump’s verdict, Vanessa asked people to try an experiment. Her ask may make you uncomfortable — but sometimes discomfort can make us wiser.
News and views
Anthony Fauci: Hero? Villain? Neither?
We posted on Instagram about Americans’ polarized views of Fauci. A couple messages from our followers that stood out to us:
“Two things can be true at the same time: him and his team were doing the best they could at the time AND ALSO we could have done better.”
“What did Fauci do alone that the Trump or Biden administration did not approve? As far as I can remember Fauci, Trump, Pence and later Biden did press conferences together. Trump was proud of his Operation Warp Speed [...] Why is all the blame on Fauci today?”
Some happenings and writings that caught our attention:
- Abortion adversaries met in secret. An attack on abortion providers in 1994 led to two deaths. In the aftermath, pro-life and pro-choice activists met in secret to ensure violence wouldn’t happen again. A new documentary about those meetings, The Basement Talks, was called “a fair, clear, and intriguing treatment of both sides.”
- What do incels believe? DatePsychology.com reviewed existing research on incels (men who identify as “involuntarily celibate”). One thing they found was that, contrary to stereotypes, many incels are politically liberal. Read what we might learn from this.
- “Getting won over by the Builders movement.” Kentucky journalist Tommy Druen recently saw Daniel Lubetzky’s TED Talk and wrote some thoughts about it. One thing he wrote: “I look forward to not only following his work and that of the Builders Movement, but to being a builder when and where I can myself.”
Make It A Habit: Don’t seek to convert, seek to explain
We’ve been getting so many great, thoughtful messages from our community — both new members, and long-time ones. Here’s a message from Lydia Schultz:
I spent years teaching writing to college students. Whenever we discussed argumentation, I would advise them not to try to change the minds of those who disagree, but to attempt to convince them that reasonable people could hold such an opinion.
In the current world, such a goal seems naive and impossible. Civil discourse has gone the way of land lines. But for our best values to survive, we need to cultivate true listening and empathy.
Thanks for trying to encourage this goal.
Thanks for writing, Lydia!
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