I am a person and imperfect:
You cannot define a person by one action, one set of words or one moment in time. We are a culmination of experiences and are also imperfect. We are capable of making mistakes and the idea that we must always be publically correct and never say or do something that is not offensive to someone somewhere is utterly ridicules. It is important to understand that we are all capable of both good and bad sometime it just depends on the day or moment. Think about one of your bad moments where you regret your words or actions. Think about a time several years ago when you had a different thought processes. Take a few minutes and reflect on that and decide what it would be like if you were forever defined by just that period of time or moment.
Think critically and question yourself:
Think about the last debate you had about a topic with another person who had a different opinion about a topic. Was it a positive or a negative experience? Did you yell or get yelled at? Were you demonized or did you demonize someone for not agreeing with you on social media? Did you call them names or did they call you names? Were you judged or judging? These are all important questions in my opinion. Please don’t be mad, it is only an opinion so take it or leave it. See that is the wonderful thing; we don’t need to agree, I do not need to bend you to my way of thinking and I will not seek to destroy you, belittle you, judge you for thinking differently. Unfortunately, society seems to have become very judging and intolerant of those with differences of opinions.
Listen to the other side:
Healthy debate is good for us if we are respectful of each other no matter how much we don’t agree with the other side of the argument. It is important to listen to someone who has a similar opinion BUT it is more important to listen to someone with a different or opposing opinion on a topic. The echo chamber effect is a serious danger in our society and a part of our polarization problem. I define the echo chamber effect as a group of people who agree with each other and over debate a point that is mutually agreed upon without the ability to listen to the opposing argument. In essence we just keep echoing our thoughts over and over without opposition, which is completely none productive and hinders new ideas and creation. This also creates a lack of empathy for anyone with a different opinion and is the foundation of the cancel culture.
My suggestions for positivity in a cancel culture:
· Meet everyone with an intellectual curiosity of his or her perspective. Seek to understand their point of view in a respectful manner
· NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, judge; Judgment is not productive and a barrier to understanding. Do not attack someone for having a different opinion.
· Be aware of your emotions before responding to someone, take a few minutes or as long as you need to intellectually formulate a response that is not driven by emotion.
· It is not always about you so take your ego out of the picture. A strong debate on a topic is not about the person making the argument.
· Be ready to be wrong and it is ok. I have done this and have realized that being wrong is not about defeat as a matter of fact it is an opportunity to grow as a human.
· You will make mistakes and so will others; accepting people for who that are now not who they have been is important. We are all works in progress and our character is developed not installed at birth.
· Walk away from social media for a while; it is easy to go down the rabbit hole and get sucked into all the negativity.
· Most importantly, BE NICE, BE NICE, BE NICE.
Cheers,
Steve
