{"id":105997,"date":"2015-12-07T13:24:14","date_gmt":"2015-12-07T20:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=105997"},"modified":"2015-12-08T09:40:56","modified_gmt":"2015-12-08T16:40:56","slug":"online-discourse-should-encourage-understanding-not-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2015\/12\/online-discourse-should-encourage-understanding-not-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Online discourse should encourage understanding, not violence"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMENTARY:<\/strong> My sister works at Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino,\u00a0where terrorists\u00a0killed 14 people and injured another 21 on Wednesday<\/a>. Fortunately, she wasn’t there\u00a0at the time of the attack.<\/p>\n

\"Heath<\/a>

Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

A friend is a police officer in Colorado Springs, where a gunman killed three people, including another officer,\u00a0and injured nine, on Nov. 27<\/a>.<\/p>\n

My parents were in Paris for the first time in their lives days before terrorists killed 130 people<\/a> there.<\/p>\n

And I live in Las Cruces, where police still haven’t made any arrests related to the bombs that detonated at two Las Cruces churches on Aug. 3<\/a>, thankfully injuring nobody.<\/p>\n

Recent events have many people on edge, angry, sad, and scared. I’m among them.<\/p>\n

With emotions running high, people are debating issues including gun ownership, racism, abortion,\u00a0religion, terrorism, immigration, police shootings, and America’s role in the world.<\/p>\n

At the heart of our\u00a0problem, in my view, is the way we’re debating those issues and treating each other. I constantly moderate\u00a0debates on NMPolitics.net’s website and Facebook page<\/a>. In spite of my best efforts, too many of those conversations have recently degraded into spite-filled bomb-throwing.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0unwillingness of some to treat others with even a basic level of respect and human decency has\u00a0stunned me. It’s also made me believe that, while\u00a0we can and should debate policy\u00a0issues related to guns and shootings, there’s a deeper issue:<\/p>\n

We’re too willing to respond to\u00a0our disagreements with hate and violence.<\/p>\n

Some news organizations share\u00a0blame. Too many churn out\u00a0salacious and superficial reporting that, at best, oversimplifies issues and, at worst, intentionally\u00a0drives wedges in an already\u00a0polarized society.<\/p>\n

Social media is an incredibly powerful tool. Used for good, it can help people understand, find common ground, and organize.\u00a0Too often, we’re instead using it as an outlet for\u00a0our fears and biases. We gather into tribes and rant about and at others.<\/p>\n

Since we’re not getting to know a real human being\u00a0over a cup of coffee, it’s easier to treat the person we’re arguing with as an object.<\/p>\n

The result is that, collectively, we view\u00a0each other with greater suspicion.\u00a0In too many\u00a0instances,\u00a0the venom we spew online contributes to hatred of\u00a0people we don’t understand. We’re creating a climate that breeds extremism and can\u00a0push\u00a0fragile\u00a0people over the edge.<\/p>\n

All are welcome here<\/h3>\n

I restarted NMPolitics.net in June with a fundamental belief that the best\u00a0path\u00a0forward is together. We\u00a0realize our potential and evolve\u00a0when we work through our disagreements. Our society breaks down when we resort to fighting and demonizing each other.<\/p>\n

NMPolitics.net is founded on my deep\u00a0belief that people must do the hard work of listening and understanding each other. It’s\u00a0about tearing down walls and building bridges.<\/p>\n

This is my answer to the ills that plague our world. I choose hope<\/a>. I choose to believe we can overcome our differences and find a way forward. And I’m working with all my heart, soul, mind and strength toward that end.<\/p>\n

Everyone is welcome to participate in the NMPolitics.net community. To be more explicit, here’s a list — not exhaustive — of the people who are welcome here:<\/p>\n

Democrats, Republicans, people registered to vote as a member of a minor party, people registered to vote without any party affiliation, people who choose to not register to vote, men, women, white people, black people, brown people, people of any race or ethnic background, straight people,\u00a0LGBTQIA people,\u00a0people who don’t label themselves as straight or anything LGBTQIA encompasses, old people, young people, conservatives, liberals, progressives, Tea Party members, socialists, fascists, people who want to ban guns, people with concealed-carry permits, immigrants, people who want to see the deportation of those\u00a0living in the United States without legal status, Americans, non-Americans, people who support legalized abortion, people who oppose legalized abortion, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, people who identify as a member of any other religion, people who identify as non-religious, people who take no stance on religious belief, people who believe climate change is caused by humans, people who don’t, people who believe in evolution, people who believe in a literal reading of the creation stories in Genesis, and anyone else I might have left off this list.<\/p>\n

That list includes you. It may also include people whose beliefs make you uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

The only requirement for participating in the NMPolitics.net community is a commitment to treat everyone, regardless of their opinions, with respect.<\/p>\n

Let’s\u00a0choose to be better than this<\/h3>\n

I have personal beliefs on many hot-button issues. Sometimes I express them in commentaries<\/a>.\u00a0Deeper than any of my personal views, however, is this\u00a0core truth:\u00a0that collectively we are more capable of forging a productive path than any one person, including me, could find on our own.<\/p>\n

As long as you’re willing to treat others with respect, avoid personal attacks and name-calling, and seek to build understanding, you’re welcome in the NMPolitics.net community. Debate vigorously, but do it with respect and in a spirit of understanding.<\/p>\n

If that’s not what you’re looking for, there are lots of other communities on the Internet with different dynamics and rules.<\/p>\n

I’m not building a community\u00a0that contributes to hatred and division. We must choose the opposite if we’re to find a way out of this mess.\u00a0I really believe\u00a0the way we interact online — which is increasingly becoming the primary way we engage many\u00a0people in our daily lives — is\u00a0that important.<\/p>\n

I’m an optimist. In spite of how bad things are, I believe we can choose to be better than this. I’ll keep working to promote bridge-building discussion.<\/p>\n

I hope you’ll join me in choosing to believe we can find common ground, that our differences, rather than paralyzing us, can help\u00a0us find deeper truths and more productive ways forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The venom too many people spew online builds hatred, breeds extremism, and can push fragile people over the edge. NMPolitics.net is about choosing to move forward together instead of giving in to bias and suspicion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55852,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[142,134,250,201],"class_list":["post-105997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-crime","tag-media","tag-social-media","tag-terrorism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}