Yes! Americans should do what your father demonstrated here: Seek, listen, hear, and think about what someone is saying that you don’t understand or disagree with. People also are losing their ability to express dissenting ideas without resorting to hysterics or aggression, and we have to teach this to people of all ages. As Bill Maher said recently about the latest spike of nasty intolerance on college campuses, “if it’s really a microaggression, shouldn’t people just be microangry?”) And, follow the money and power: how does media, corporate entities, and offending politicians reinforce this cycle? Thank you for adding to what I hope is a rising chorus of compelling pleas for more dialog and deliberation, which starts with listening. We need some kind of collective, easy to use recipe. 1) Listening-We have two ears and one mouth for a reason, 2) Think and Ask Honest Questions-Gasp!, 3) Seek Facts, 4) Have Your Say, and 5) Go Back to 1 and Repeat.
If you can’t stand to listen to an idea, it does not prove that you oppose it. Refusing to show interest in a different perspective should not serve as a badge of pride in your own ideas. It actually serves the exact opposite function. It proves that you don’t even understand your own opinion. If you can’t understand the argument you disagree with, then you don’t have the right to disagree with it with any authority, nor do you really have a grasp on what your own idea means in its context.
It’s Stupid That My Actor Dad Is The One Who Has To Teach Us Not To Be Dumb
Harry Dreyfuss
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