I often scroll Facebook to check up on what is going on with my friends. There are a lot of posts on social media that are easy to pass on by. In fact, I probably scroll right passed two-thirds of the posts. Most of these are politically-motivated posts. A lot of these contain partial or distorted views of reality. Careful editing can hide the whole story. We should use caution in forwarding our beliefs in such a way.
It is okay to have differing points of view. I think it is healthy to have differing opinions. It is not well-centered, however, to distort (intentionally or unintentionally) the facts. Personally, if you have to distort the facts to make your point, I will likely perceive your point as invalid. Certainly, intentionally making someone look bad for the purposes of stating your view lends no credibility to the message. More often than not it does not cause anyone to switch sides. It creates further division.
Bad character will reveal itself. We don’t need to help. Rather, we should begin by trying to find ways to come together and share ideas. Friendly, honest, respectful discourse is the path to unity. If our ideas can stand the scrutiny of opposition, they have merit, and we just might win others over to our side. We can neither offend with or be offended by points of view. Certainly, we cannot think that we can carry our views in a wagon full of manure and expect them not to stink.
Let’s consider how we try to make our point and consider what is fact and what is fiction. If we are fine with putting others down, we can never expect to win them over.
Carpe momento!
Image: http://www.progressivedairy.com/images/stories/2015/01/13/011315_manurespread_2.jpg