{"id":178620,"date":"2016-08-23T12:06:35","date_gmt":"2016-08-23T18:06:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=178620"},"modified":"2016-08-24T10:24:34","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T16:24:34","slug":"we-must-commit-to-understanding-each-other-even-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/08\/we-must-commit-to-understanding-each-other-even-online\/","title":{"rendered":"We must commit to understanding each other, even online"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMENTARY:\u00a0<\/strong>Time Magazine reported last week<\/a> on the \u201conline disinhibition effect\u201d \u2013 the idea that \u201canonymity, invisibility, a lack of authority and not communicating in real time\u201d on social media \u201cstrip away the mores society spent millennia building.\u201d<\/p>\n

We call the worst offenders trolls. A 2014 study \u201cfound that the approximately 5% of Internet users who self-identified as trolls scored extremely high in the dark tetrad of personality traits: narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism and, especially, sadism,\u201d Time reported.<\/p>\n

\"Heath

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

Trolling affects all of us. Another study found that those exposed to good deeds on Facebook were more likely to report doing good deeds themselves, according to Time. \u201cBut the opposite is likely occurring as well,\u201d the article states.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people think it\u2019s increasingly O.K. to describe a group of people as subhuman or vermin, those same people are likely to think that it\u2019s O.K. to hurt those people,\u201d Time quoted Susan Benesch, founder of the Dangerous Speech Project at Harvard\u2019s Internet and Society center, as saying.<\/p>\n

As someone who runs a news website<\/a> and active Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a> pages, I work to understand how people express what they\u2019re thinking and feeling \u2013 and why. Dehumanizing comments threaten discussions. I regularly have to defend<\/a> my choice to not allow name-calling<\/a> at NMPolitics.net.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m trying to build a space where we can work together to improve society. Name-calling silences certain folks<\/a>. Some days it\u2019s immigrants, others it\u2019s Donald Trump supporters.<\/p>\n

This is personal for me. In college, the New Mexico State University community debated whether I was racist<\/a>. I\u2019ve been labeled a terrorist because of my Lebanese heritage. I was once called \u201can American nightmare\u201d in a letter to the editor.<\/p>\n

I know black men, police officers, Trump supporters and immigrants who are good people. In my experience, when people with different views engage in thoughtful, inquisitive and compassionate discussion, productive things happen<\/a>. That\u2019s as true on social media as it is in person.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s so much about others I want to better understand. I don\u2019t know what it\u2019s like to be black and stopped by police more often than I am. I don\u2019t know what it\u2019s like to be a police officer helping carry the casket of a fallen colleague.<\/p>\n

We can argue about who\u2019s a bigger thug or we can work to understand both so we can address police shootings of citizens and attacks on officers.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know what it\u2019s like to be a white person who lost a union job and pension to NAFTA and Mexico, lost a home to 2008 recession, then lost a lower-wage job with fewer benefits to an immigrant who would to work for less. I don\u2019t support the human tendency to blame immigrants, but the anger, shame and fear people carry is valid.<\/p>\n

We can marginalize and call people racist, or we can acknowledge their pain and involve them in solutions.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know what it\u2019s like to live in a dangerous nation like Mexico and try to enter the United States in the quickest way possible seeking work and a safer community.<\/p>\n

We can call people illegals, or we can admit that our economic and drug policies, broken immigration system, and decades of letting employers hire workers without legal status effectively invited people in. And we can listen to their stories as we discuss where to go from here.<\/p>\n

We all have stories. It\u2019s so important to share ours and listen to others. Seeing and empathizing with each other will help us work toward a better future for all of us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s so important to share our stories and listen to others.<\/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":[708,140,203,143,250],"class_list":["post-178620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-2016-election","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-law-enforcement","tag-race-and-ethnicity","tag-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178620","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=178620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178620\/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=178620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}