Great interview! I feel so seen in your experience.
Your wake-up call came at the same time as mine, and I’m glad you weren’t canceled and shielded from all of it.
It’s still so bitter in my family that my cousin gave me an ugly scowl at her wedding. My three closest friends of 20 years still refuse to speak to me. One of them even had a child 4 years ago and didn’t tell me. All because I said the protesters shouldn’t resort to violence, pointed out that a member of the Weather Underground was on the BLM board, and argued that White Fragility is racist.
Thank you Emma! I'm glad we can at least feel less crazy in our shared experience of how these bad ideas took over so many people.
All those instances you described are such heartbreaking reminders of how difficult it can be to go against the orthodoxy of the day. The points you would've been considered completely run-of-the-mill less than 20 years ago, yet now can make you a pariah.
That was always the part that really drove me crazy: the implicit denial that these were new ideas that people had adopted, not natural laws everyone has always recognized. That's perhaps one of the more pernicious aspects of groupthink: it creates the illusion that whatever the group believes is completely normal to the point of making questioners the absurd ones. It's still a hard position to be in as the questioner because there's a concerted effort to make you feel like you're the problem!
It's exactly why I started The Black Sheep. Once you see through the pattern, it makes you feel a little less crazy.
Thank you Noah! Glad you enjoyed the interview. She was a great interviewer! The criticism's you shared of policing in America are largely also my criticisms. I also agree that most officers aren't bad people. People tend to fall to the standards of whatever system/community they're in, so that's often the problem when officers are corrupt or unethical.
And thanks for elaborating on these other important points!
Great interview! I feel so seen in your experience.
Your wake-up call came at the same time as mine, and I’m glad you weren’t canceled and shielded from all of it.
It’s still so bitter in my family that my cousin gave me an ugly scowl at her wedding. My three closest friends of 20 years still refuse to speak to me. One of them even had a child 4 years ago and didn’t tell me. All because I said the protesters shouldn’t resort to violence, pointed out that a member of the Weather Underground was on the BLM board, and argued that White Fragility is racist.
Some people just can’t handle the truth.
Thank you Emma! I'm glad we can at least feel less crazy in our shared experience of how these bad ideas took over so many people.
All those instances you described are such heartbreaking reminders of how difficult it can be to go against the orthodoxy of the day. The points you would've been considered completely run-of-the-mill less than 20 years ago, yet now can make you a pariah.
That was always the part that really drove me crazy: the implicit denial that these were new ideas that people had adopted, not natural laws everyone has always recognized. That's perhaps one of the more pernicious aspects of groupthink: it creates the illusion that whatever the group believes is completely normal to the point of making questioners the absurd ones. It's still a hard position to be in as the questioner because there's a concerted effort to make you feel like you're the problem!
It's exactly why I started The Black Sheep. Once you see through the pattern, it makes you feel a little less crazy.
Thank you Noah! Glad you enjoyed the interview. She was a great interviewer! The criticism's you shared of policing in America are largely also my criticisms. I also agree that most officers aren't bad people. People tend to fall to the standards of whatever system/community they're in, so that's often the problem when officers are corrupt or unethical.
And thanks for elaborating on these other important points!