How Do You Think Of Others?
It's interesting to see people's posts on Facebook and to read commentary in the media. There are 331,000,000 people in the United States, so it's not realistic to expect to agree with everyone. Healthy debate about ideas is a good thing. It's okay to believe your view is the correct one and to disagree with other people's views, that's how most of us operate. However, it's important to remember that just as strongly as you believe your view is right, someone else believes their view is right and, it's always important to keep in mind the adage, "I could be mistaken." Knowing that I could be mistaken allows me to continue learning, reminds me I don't have all the answers and encuorages me to keep asking better questions.
What I see often, especially in social media posts, is people dismissing the message by attacking the messenger. Someone posts something you don't like? Well, that person is stupid, uninformed, idiotic, moronic, etc. It's possible to disagree with someone and still realize they are a full, complete, complex human being with needs, wants, hopes and desires. Name calling might make you feel better in the moment, but it contributes to devaluing others and when we devalue and demean others it makes it easier to mistreat them. This has long been a tactic of opposing armies. Rather than refer to combatants on the opposing side by appropriate names, they are often referred to by dehumanizing slurs. Humanity has a long and ignominious history of using slurs to refer to other groups of humans. We do this at a cultural level, at a governmental level, at the level of religious denominations, and at an indivual level.
Pay attention to your thoughts and to what comes out of your mouth. How often do you assume someone is stupid, ignorant, idiotic, evil because they disagree with you? Even if you couch their different opinion in what you think is positiver terms, it's still demeaning. Terms like misguided or confused may sound kinder, but they're not. Allow other humans to be fully human. How does it feel when someone else doesn't see the full human you are? It doesn't feel good does it? So, why do you do it to other people?
Today, become aware of the times you fail to allow others to be fully human, especially those with whom you disagree, those whose world view is diametrically opposed to yours. Your insistence that the world conform to your view, and that anyone who thinks otherwise is bad and wrong, isn't righteous, it's petulant and petty. We can never grow if we refuse to try understanding other people. Try it, you might like it, even if you don't like it, you might grow and stretch a little.
