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Scottie J's avatar

Dean Martinez's comments really connected with me because one thing I notice among my fellow left-of-center brethren is we've gotten pretty bad at debating. Early in college, I would get internally outraged when people argued against egalitarian economic policies. Basically in my head I was thinking, "Goddamnit, we are just trying to help people! Stop being so damn selfish!" As I got more exposed to different ideas (I went to a state school in purple Wisconsin) and got to know certain people better, it helped me become a better debater. Echo chambers hurt those in them more than anyone else. I just think that we have to try and figure out a way to reach woke people. While I agree with basic everything in Josh's article, this type of argument is only going to appeal to people that are already skeptical of wokeness. DeBoer has a similar problem where he just so clearly hates these people, that he's just not going to reach any wokesters. The approach to wokesters has to be the same as the approach to Trump supporters: acknowledging there is a human there capable of thought and persuasion. We aren't going to lessen woke influence by just constantly making fun of them. We have to listen to their concerns, calmly tell them that their rhetoric is alienating (actually we should try to educate! That is our job!), and patiently persuade. OK. I'll step off my earnest box!

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Chris's avatar

Over the past several years - but undeniable now for three - way too many people have selfishly decided to borrow their employers’ microphones. It’s always about self-aggrandizement, even when rationalized as “we have an obligation to...”.

Next to zero regard for the customers of these institutions - unless you consider know-it-all parochialism “regard.”

The worst part is that now the Desantis crowd has decided that the solution is to do the same in reverse. Meanwhile, most of us are stuck in the middle of the food fight.

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