I noticed that I have become very sensitive to violence in
communication. It may be because I have distanced myself from the
social media river of filth. Yesterday a collegue forwarded me
a video that to her was nothing special, but from my point of
view it was basically an assault. I am still having problem
focusing today because of the video.
It was a panel discussion about something the participants felt
quite strongly about. In the beginning a safe space was evoked
but that didn't seem to stop any of the abuse coming up.
The first panelists were just fine, expressing concerns about
their particular areas of expertise. The third panelist, though,
was something else. I dare not go watch this again for my own
sanity, but it went sort of like this:
1) The panelist defined everything as
an attact towards themselves and
people like them.
2) They defined "the other" as
basically unworthy people.
3) They claimed that the panelists
already know everything there is
to know about the topic under
discussion.
4) They claimed that the discussion
was actually just to tell "the other"
about the problems unique to the
group the panelist belonged.
5) Based on the point 3 and 4 it was
a waste of time for the panel
to have come together. It was
a futile attempt to explain to
"the other".
6) If their group is not elevated now
in this sector, the sector should
burn down.
At this point I couldn't watch further. Today I reminded myself
of the principles of nonviolent communication and I am quite
sure the panelist broke 90% of them.
I am starting to feel like I am mentally handicapped or something.
So many things that are seen as normal these days are
profoundly disgusting to me. I am willing to discuss anything
with anybody, but my range of input is becoming more limited
day by day as I see more and more of normalcy being either an
attack or a manipulation, neither which I will allow.
As the range of input may reduce in how many randomly picked
messages I will allow in, this may not decrease the quality of
input as a whole. I keep finding good, thoughtful conversations
about the same topics. It does scare me, though, that violence
in communications is so prevalent and accepted as normal.
