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HUMANS 101
The ‘Other Side’ Is Not Dumb
Is it possible we’re not right about everything?
Sean Blanda · Follow
Published in Human Parts · 7 min read · Jan 7, 2016
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Photo: beastfromeast/Getty Images
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This story is part of the Internet Time Machine, a collection about life online in the
2010s.
here’s a fun game I like to play in a group of trusted friends called
“Controversial Opinion.” The rules are simple: Don’t talk about what
was shared during Controversial Opinion afterward and you aren’t
allowed to “argue” — only to ask questions about why that person feels that
way. Opinions can range from, “I think James Bond movies are overrated,”
to, “I think Donald Trump would make an excellent president.”
Usually, someone responds to an opinion with, “Oh my god! I had no idea
you were one of those people!” Which is really another way of saying “I
thought you were on my team!”
In psychology, the idea that everyone is like us is called the “false-consensus
bias.” This bias often manifests itself when we see TV ratings (“Who the hell
are all these people that watch NCIS?”) or in politics (“Everyone I know is for
stricter gun control! Who are these backward
Respond rubes who disagree?!”) or polls
(“Who are these people voting for Ben Carson?”).
Online it means we can be blindsided by the opinions of our friends or, more
broadly, America. Over time, this morphs into a subconscious belief that we
and our friends are the sane ones and that there’s a crazy “Other Side” that
must be laughed at — an Other Side that just doesn’t “get it,” and is clearly not
as intelligent as “us.” But this holier-than-thou social media behavior is
counterproductive, it’s self-aggrandizement at the cost of actual nuanced
discourse and if we want to consider online discourse productive, we need to
move past this.
Illustration: Tom Gauld/TwitterSource
What is emerging is the worst kind of echo chamber, one where those inside
are increasingly convinced that everyone shares their worldview, that their
ranks are growing when they aren’t. It’s like clockwork: An event happens
and then your social media circle is shocked when a non-social media peer
group public reacts to news in an unexpected way. They then mock the Other
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Side for being “out of touch” or “dumb.”
Fredrik deBoer, one of my favorite writers around, touched on this in his
Essay “Getting Past the Coalition of the Cool.” He writes:
[The Internet] encourages people to collapse any distinction between their work
life, their social life, and their political life. “Hey, that person who tweets about
the TV shows I like also dislikes injustice,” which over time becomes “I can identify
an ally by the TV shows they like.” The fact that you can mine a Rihanna video for
political content becomes, in that vague internety way, the sense that people who
don’t see political content in Rihanna’s music aren’t on your side.
When someone communicates that they are not “on our side” our first
reaction is to run away or dismiss them as stupid. To be sure, there are
hateful, racist, people not worthy of the small amount of electricity it takes
just one of your synapses to fire. I’m instead referencing those who actually
believe in an opposing viewpoint of a complicated issue, and do so for
genuine, considered reasons. Or at least, for reasons just as good as yours.
Illustration: Esquire/NBC News poll
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This is not a “political correctness” issue. It’s a fundamental rejection of the
possibility to consider that the people who don’t feel the same way you do
might be right. It’s a preference to see the Other Side as a cardboard cut out,
and not the complicated individual human beings that they actually are.
What happens instead of genuine intellectual curiosity is the sharing of Slate
or Daily Kos or Fox News or Red State links. Sites that exist almost solely to
produce content to be shared so friends can pat each other on the back and
mock the Other Side. Look at the Other Side! So dumb and unable to see this
the way I do!
It’s a preference to see the Other Side as a cardboard
cut out, and not the complicated individual human
beings that they actually are.
Sharing links that mock a caricature of the Other Side isn’t signaling that
we’re somehow more informed. It signals that we’d rather be smug assholes
than consider alternative views. It signals that we’d much rather show our
friends that we’re like them than try to understand those who are not.
It’s impossible to consider yourself a curious person and participate in social
media in this way. We cannot consider ourselves “empathetic” only to turn
around and belittle those who don’t agree with us.
On Twitter and Facebook, this means we prioritize by sharing stuff that will
garner the approval of our peers over stuff that’s actually, you know, true. We
share stuff that ignores wider realities, selectively shares information, or is
just an outright falsehood. The misinformation is so rampant that the
Washington Post stopped publishing its internet fact-checking column
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because people didn’t seem to care if stuff was true.
Where debunking an Internet fake once involved some research, it’s now often as
simple as clicking around for an “about” or “disclaimer” page. And where a
willingness to believe hoaxes once seemed to come from a place of honest ignorance
or misunderstanding, that’s frequently no longer the case. Headlines like “Casey
Anthony found dismembered in truck” go viral via old-fashioned schadenfreude —
even hate.
…
Institutional distrust is so high right now, and cognitive bias so strong always,
that the people who fall for hoax news stories are frequently only interested in
consuming information that conforms with their views — even when it’s
demonstrably fake.
The solution is, as deBoer says, “You have to be willing to sacrifice your
carefully curated social performance and be willing to work with people who
are not like you.” In other words, you have to recognize that the Other Side is
made of actual people.
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But I’d like to go a step further. We should all enter every issue with the very
real possibility that we might be wrong this time.
Isn’t it possible that you, reader of Medium and Twitter power user, like me,
suffer from this from time to time? Isn’t it possible that we’re not right about
everything? That those who live in places not where you live, watch shows
that you don’t watch and read books that you don’t read, have opinions and
belief systems just as valid as yours? That maybe you don’t see the entire
picture?
Think political correctness has gotten out of control? Follow the many great
social activists on Twitter. Think America’s stance on guns is puzzling? Read
the stories of the 31% of Americans that own a firearm. This is not to say the
Other Side is “right” but that they likely have real reasons to feel that way.
And only after understanding those reasons can a real discussion take place.
Isn’t it possible that you, reader of Medium and
Twitter power user, like me, suffer from this from time
to time? Isn’t it possible that we’re not right about
everything?
As any debate club veteran knows, if you can’t make your opponent’s point
for them, you don’t truly grasp the issue. We can bemoan political gridlock
and a divisive media all we want. But we won’t truly progress as individuals
until we make an honest effort to understand
Respond those that are not like us. And
you won’t convince anyone to feel the way you do if you don’t respect their
position and opinions.
A dare for the next time you’re in discussion with someone you disagree
with: Don’t try to “win.” Don’t try to “convince” anyone of your viewpoint.
Don’t score points by mocking them to your peers. Instead, try to “lose.”
Hear them out. Ask them to convince you and mean it. No one is going to tell
your environmentalist friends that you merely asked follow-up questions
after your brother made his pro-fracking case.
Or, the next time you feel compelled to share a link on social media about
current events, ask yourself why you are doing it. Is it because that link
brings to light information you hadn’t considered? Or does it confirm your
world view, reminding your circle of intellectual teammates that you’re not
on the Other Side?
I implore you to seek out your opposite. When you hear someone cite “facts”
that don’t support your viewpoint don’t think “that can’t be true!” Instead
consider, “Hm, maybe that person is right? I should look into this.”
Because refusing to truly understand those who disagree with you is
intellectual laziness and worse, is usually worse than what you’re accusing
the Other Side of doing.
Keep exploring the Internet Time Machine.
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Politics
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Written by Sean Blanda
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9.6K Followers · Writer for Human Parts
Founder, Pilcrow House. Editorial at @Invisionapp Before: @99u / Co-founder of
@TechnicallyM.
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