Confrontations are created by a mechanism that repeats itself from one topic to another. Recognizing it is a new civic skill.
I said something on Twitter. Someone in the conversation was startled. Immediately lost.
I had gotten an instinctive emotional reaction, set out to take on the algorithms that incite confrontation in the game and the service to benefit my own business.
American psychologist Thomas Gordon has structured 12 interaction stumbling blocks. Today, some do not watch out for these stumbling blocks but, on the contrary, have copied them as tools for generating polarization.
Embarrass and prick. Make your opponent a mocking meme.
Lecture, teach and moralize.
Finally, one can demand another to choose their side: I guess this doesn’t want to be on the wrong side of history? And the quiet majority is naive. Actually, it represents the deepest evil!
The pleasure of tribalism precedes genuinely influencing others.
Disagree, sharp speech belongs to democracy. Truth is not always always found “in the midst of extremes”. Most of us just want to have a conversation and push for something important to ourselves.
Yet many even inadvertently end up not only creating a confrontation but also damaging the thing they originally wanted to pursue. A polarized debate becomes if it builds “us” and “them”. The silent majority is also stigmatized, even though it is always a diverse group.
Miriam Attias and Bart Brandsma have described the mechanism of polarization. It has its basic law and its role.
Since the topics are being copied from the United States today, I guess the next confrontation is abortion. In Finland, the issue has not been hot for decades. Abortions are few, legal and safe.
Polarization instigators may still be in their starting wells. Soon, “entrants” become active because they find it necessary and justified. The cultural war is on fire.
Median the role of bridge builder is often offered. According to Miriam Attias, the bridge builder can further reinforce the confrontation by succumbing to identity speech and building an image of two groups of people defined by individual differences of opinion.
What to do? At least everyone is good to know the polarization playbook. Then it is easier to identify the manipulation as well as the role it itself plays at any given time.
The author is an editor of HS Vision.
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