All:
Karen Store wrote:
"...particularly rural voters without much education."
That seems contemptuous to me, along the lines of: "Pity the poor ignorant fools who voted for Trump, who are not as informed or educated as I am, and who live out in the country where people just don't know any better."
And she wrote:
"...certain people wield much greater social power than others."
Being an author of a NYT article and holding faculty membership at a great University certainly qualify as having greater social power than I have. Thus by Dr. Stone's own calculus she bears a significant responsibility for what she writes.
I suspect she was being unwittingly contemptuous of those she imagines, unaware of her slip, even in the midst of writing an article about contempt. It could be that I misread her. But I suspect she was temporarily blind to herself, something that regularly happens to all of us.
My point is that we need to extend grace to each other.
Similarly, Johann's comments "The Americas seem to be behind many other countries is a troubling way..." is a remarkably unkind, contemptuous generalization with no explanation or support. And "attacked in the press by readers (whites) who are avid supporters of Donald Trump!" is a similarly sweeping and contemptuous of whites and Trump voters. Other comments in this thread suggest that it is safe to be contemptuous of President Trump. I don't think any poster attached the title to the name in the same way they might have naturally written "President Obama." They just wrote Trump. (except Gunnar?) Perhaps contributors just have not yet developed the habit of writing President Trump, if so no foul. But perhaps they don't think President and Trump deserve to be written together, that Trump doesn't deserve to be called President, something fitting the definition of contempt. The only mildly surprising thing about these expressions of contempt, if they are indeed contemptuous, is that they come in the context of a thread about contempt.
Again, the need for grace to each other arises. I can be as blind as anyone else, even when my mind is focused.
Ken started trying to rebuild a civil discourse. My offering in support of that project is to propose that for any community of imperfect people to prosper grace needs to be continually extended in recognition that our own biases, prejudices, and contempt are often showing even when we believe we are in the clear. Give your opponent a break. Let her speak. Listen and forgive offenses intentional and unintentional, knowing that with your next post you too will almost certainly need grace from someone.
Ever in need of amazing grace...
Mike Zender
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