Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Prove Me Wrong: Civil Debate Not Hate


Royalty clashed all over TV and social media last week. It started with Meghan and Harry and our queen of TV, Oprah. Then it bounced back over the pond and exploded with Piers Morgan (often considered a royal PITA 👑).

This exchange led to Piers leaving the show:


The attempt for Alex (GMB's weatherman) to try to explain things from Harry and Meghan's perspective could have led into a fruitful dialogue- but it didn't. When asked about Piers' departure from the show Alex said he hadn't wanted him to leave just to listen.

I disagree with Piers' take on many many things but it does no good to have him go off and echo to his supporters when it just divides us more and nothing gets accomplished. He's a powerful voice and I've appreciated it when used to support gun control, which he strongly advocates for, or when he's called on politicians to be open to the urgency of the climate crisis

Ignorance needs to be called out, people do need to be held accountable for their words and actions and I'm all for ostracizing truly evil people so they can do less harm if necessary. This is not that. 

Of course we all love to think we're right (myself, very much included) but if we're not simply open to being proven wrong that doesn't make us smart and superior it makes us uninformed and ideologically stuck. 

And, if we keep dividing ourselves into pools of only people we agree with we will have a hard time uniting to fight real battles to come. If we can't civilly discuss royalty and race how are we ever going to get to the even touchier topic of religion and our environmental crisis

Truly strong people and ideas do not fear scrutiny and challenges- that's how things can be proven solid and correct. We need to be able to talk about politics, princesses and problem solving without righteousness but instead a resolve to listen and consider what others are saying. If not, things will get even more tribal and more toxic and we'll be in real trouble. 


So above is my attempt to come up with a solution 💡
📺

Because what our world needs now is less bullying and bravado and more honest debate without all the hate 
🤓... 🧐



[btw: I'm pro-Queen, pro-Meghan & Harry and think the main problem is Rupert Murdoch (and the likes) and money-grubbing tabloids that use race as a way to stir things up and make profits. But who knows, maybe I'm wrong 😬]