America has an issue with listening.
This surprises no one, right? You see a hot take and then you fire in with your agreement or to try your hand at dunking on the original hot take artist. This is what most of our dialogue consists of these days. What’s the damn point?
I’m not old like Acadia so I won’t say, what happened to listening? But, for f***s sake, let’s try it occasionally.
Two things this week…
First, ESPN broadcaster Jemele Hill tweeted that Trump was a white supremacist. Conservatives freaked the hell out.
Second, I see tonight that Ben Shapiro, conservative writer and likely purveyor of a website somewhere, was giving a speech at Cal-Berkeley. And, folks on the far left are freaking the hell out.
Why?
On Hill, look, everyone says they’re against racism. But, then, when someone comes out and says, I feel like such and such is racist…everyone responds saying, “fu** you.”
Really? I don’t think Trump is a white supremacist. He takes advantage of those with white supremacist tendencies, to be sure…wait, my opinion on that is irrelevant…because if we want people to speak about when they feel racism around us (and we should…do I actually need to explain why? Please answer no in your head) then we should listen to the point they are trying to make. To listen to their experiences and take away from them, hopefully, a broader understanding of what others experience.
Instead of engaging with Hill and asking her to expand on her initial comments, we attempt to shut her up.
The same bullshit happened with Colin Kaepernick. The same bullshit happened after Charlottesville. The same bullshit happens every time someone bothers to say, “I don’t think that cop should have shot that unarmed black kid.”
I get it. It sucks to be called a racist. Or, a white supremacist.
But, it’s white supremacist as f*** to completely write off a black persons point of view just because your feelings are hurt. Just because you’re angry at someone doesn’t mean bury their take under a barrage of bullshit. Feel free to counter their point in due time. I mean, I’ve typed too many words here to advocate for listening forever.
Just, you know, give it a chance before you rip it to shreds. Encourage them to support their argument if you disagree. Google “conversation”, take that definition under advisement, basically.
Now, Ben Shapiro.
How does Ben Shapiro register on the protest scale? He’s a conservative writer. I disagree with most everything that Shapiro writes. But, damn, disagreement isn’t something we need to dead.
How do points of disagreement with Shapiro have any credibility if he’s viciously dismissed out of hand simply because you likely won’t agree with the guy? You dull your own arguments by dismissing reasonable arguments from, the other side.
How do we end this nonsense from both sides? No clue. I mean, obviously I have the answer, it’s right in the subject of the blog post, but, no one is going to bother with that, they’ll just type “f*** you” in the comment box and move on to their next tweet of rage.
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