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Unpopular opinion: I stopped dodging debates on campus and it opened my eyes
In my experience, when I started joining in on talks about censored speakers, I saw both sides better. Your mileage may vary, but it made me value open discussion more.
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henry1371mo agoMost Upvoted
My cousin at Oberlin said the protest signs for some economist last year mostly quoted a dumb joke he made, not his actual argument about trade. Felt like they were mad at a cartoon version of the guy.
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emeryfox1mo ago
Did you see that piece about the speaker they tried to cancel at that liberal arts college? I read the transcript of his talk after the fact. I had assumed, based on the protests, that he'd be saying something truly awful. Honestly, a lot of it was just a different political view, poorly packaged. It made me realize I was getting my information filtered through other people's outrage. Actually listening, even to stuff I disagree with, often takes the monster out of it. It just becomes a person with a bad idea you can actually argue against. That changed my whole take on these campus fights.
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Wait, you actually READ the transcript? I never do that, I just see the headlines and get mad. That's kind of a big deal to go straight to the source.
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