![]() “…When you’re coming at something from a particular ideological perspective… you’re not gonna see certain variables.” “There are also lots of issues, especially when you’re dealing with public policy, where you just have a lot of different floating variables,” Douthat said. ![]() According to Douthat, if we engage someone in an opinionated conversation, already sure that we will rigidly adhere to our own position, the conversation is meaningless, because any new information is rendered moot by our rejection to review and analyze our own ideas and perception of the world. Civil discourse should not be thought of as a trial, whereby the validity of one claim is contested against another rather, according to Douthat, it should serve as a learning experience, wherein both sides attempt to learn more about the issue and draw better personal conclusions.ĭouthat and Goldberg went on to express the importance of open-mindedness and the suspension of bias when going into a debate. While many questions do have definitive right and wrong answers, more complicated topics, that require large-scale structured debates to resolve, are rarely fully resolved. “The point of discussions like this, in many cases, is less to sort of change your mind radically… but more to sort of get a sense of the complexity of the world,” Douthat said. While such an idea may conjure up the image of two people with scathing contempt for each other, the two are, in fact, close friends, and they enjoy discussing their disagreements with each other on their podcast entitled “The Argument.”ĭouthat went on to discuss the nature of debates, specifically those in which the topic is far-reaching and open-ended, such as political policy. However, Douthat writes from a conservative point of view, and Goldberg from a liberal perspective. Friday’s discussion proved that in maintaining civil conversation, there need be no shouting, swearing or attacks of character.ĭouthat and Goldberg are both columnists for The New York Times, where they both write about similar public opinion matters, such as policy. ![]() In the age when anyone and everyone on Twitter can achieve international praise and contempt alike for sharing their political opinions, it seems as though the credibility and usefulness of civil discourse has been shunted to the wayside, in favor of agreeing with whoever shouts the loudest. Though public opinion has always been divided to some extent, rarely have the disagreements between those who hold differing opinions been as high-profile as today, given the advent of the internet and the politicization of mainstream news media. Janet Lindman, chair of Rowan’s history department and head organizer of Friday’s event. “In the light of the debates over masking, vaccines and social distancing, due to the global pandemic, the contested 2020 election and the attack on the Capitol in January, we felt we should respond to show students that peaceful and respectful debate is possible - even between two people who vehemently disagree with one another on most issues,” said Dr. On Friday, March 26, the college of humanities and social sciences hosted an event entitled “Is Civil Discourse Dead? A Conversation Between Ross Douthat and Michelle Goldberg,” in which the eponymous duo, both accomplished writers for The New York Times, discussed the necessity - and growing scarcity - of civil discourse that is tainted by the increasing political polarization of today. ![]() The New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg discusses the importance of open mindedness and curiosity toward differing opinions when maintaining civil conversation.
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