[Neurons] 2021 Neurons #45 SHUTTING DOWN DIFFERENCES --- A BAD IDEA

[Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

2021 Neurons #45

July 23, 2021

How Self-Actualization 

Can Save Politics #7

 

SHUTTING DOWN DIFFERENCES

Another Really Bad Idea

 

Who likes disagreements?  Hardly anyone.  But it happens and it happens all
the time.  It is part and parcel of life.  It happens also at the highest
levels among the most intelligent- after all, that's how science works.  We
propose a hypothesis, we design and run tests, we give a detail account of
the protocol that we used so others can also test it.  If they get similar
results, that helps to confirm the hypothesis.  If not, it helps us figure
out what made the difference so we can tighten up the protocol, change the
hypothesis, refine the model, etc.  Presenting your idea about how you think
it is valid is how knowledge grows. 

 

But today the far left of the Democratic party has become highly
authoritarian and have adopted policies that are designed to shut down
debate and differences.  All around the US, college campuses forbid
conservative speakers, boycott them, conduct protests against them.  What is
this?  What is so scary about having an open discussion so people can hear
all sides?

 

Now the social media tech. giants have gotten into the game.  Facebook,
Google, and Twitter are now monitoring your speech and shutting it down if
it disagrees with their opinions.  They use so-called fact-checkers, but
they are checking if your presentation fits their favored facts.  And
because they even shut down the former President, nobody is protected from
their authoritarian approach.

 

This past week, current President Biden became the latest person to jump on
the bandwagon of killing free speech.  He justified it by calling anyone or
anything that he disagrees with "misinformation."  Then he condemned it in
the strongest language saying "it is killing people."  As if that was not
enough exaggeration and awfulizing, he said it was the worst thing since the
Civil War.   Now, yes, perhaps all of this is dementia eating away at his
brain.  But if not, then he has become the first President to stand a stand
against the First Amendment of the Constitution which protects free speech.

 

In a democracy where there is free speech and where we trust that in the
marketplace of ideas, the best ideas will - over time- win out, we are
willing to hear each other out.  We are willing to listen to all sides and
let critical thinking have its day.  But the post-modernists and the
socialists have a better idea- Crush those who disagree; Prevent their
voices from being heard; and Pass laws to prevent them from having free
access to social media.

 

But that "better idea" is actually a really, really bad idea.  It stems,
first of all, from the arrogance that they know better.  They label anything
they disagree with "misinformation" so that they can cut off open debate and
conversation.  They then over-exaggerate and catastrophize that it is
"killing people" and "the worst thing since the Civil War"- Is anyone else
hearing a lot of cognitive distortions in any of this?

 

I have a question: Who is afraid of differences and open debate?  Those who
have ideas which cannot stand up to scrutiny, that's who!  Those who do not
know how to use critical thinking to test the validity of ideas.  Those who
easily get their feelings hurt and consider disagreement with their precious
ideas a form of abuse or attack or insult.  They even talk that way.  They
use such phrases as "verbal abuse."  And many of them actually believe that
words can hurt them! 

 

Now if they knew even a tiny bit about NLP, they would know that words are
just words, symbols by which we convey meanings, and the each person is the
meaning-maker.  The meaning that arises is the meaning that any given person
creates.  So actually, these over-sensitive ones are abusing themselves with
the words.  But, of course, by projecting this out onto others, they play
the victim game (more cognitive distortions).

 

When you know that "the map is not the territory" then any map - any word,
phrase, or idea- is just that.  It is someone's mental map.  It may
accurately describe things; it may not.  But it is just a thought, just an
idea.  And because we all operate from different maps, there will always be
differences - differences you cannot legislate away, try though you may.
And that's why it is a really, really bad idea to try to shut down
conversations about differences.  For that social media, colleges,
universities, and even the president ought to be ashamed.  

 

A really, really good idea, and the one that fits for intelligent people in
an open democracy, is to let the differences among us be heard and debated
in open forums.  Let there be freedom of speech for all.

 

 

 

 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Executive Director, Neuro-Semantics

P.O. Box 8

Clifton CO. 81520 USA

www.neurosemantics.com 

 

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Executive Thinking is clear and accurate thinking--- the basis for critical
and creative thinking.

 



 

 

 

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