to think society has lost the ability to allow opposing views anymore

[allmixedup12]

there is no space left in the UK/US for opposing views anymore and any kind of debate feels totally polarizing. It seems the public has been dumbed down to understand black and white are the only two colours - i feel uncomfortable raising doubts anymore in public for the fear of being attacked

Brexit vs EU love
Trump vs Democrats
Covid vs Deniers/doubters
BLM vs I'm not racist, and no one else is either
Russia/China bad - UK/US good
NATO is innocent - Putin is Satan (neither is true)
woke vs not woke?
BBC vs RT
Indyref vs Union
Islamophobes vs Liberals

Insane how difficult it has become to voice opposing opinions without being attacked personally as a fascist/racist/insensitive/crazy

i think social media has had a huge part to play in the lack of nuance. People try and reduce complex issues into 140 characters and you lose the depth as a result.

I think it definitely does that but it doesn’t HAVE to. I find Twitter now a really good place to educate myself. It exposes me to lots of experts and opinion that I wouldn’t otherwise have heard, and forces you evaluate your sources. If I see an interesting point argued I want to know more about who has made it, can I trust it, what else have they said.

I followed loads of epidemiologists and data scientists through covid and have started following military strategists and diplomats now.

Ive always been told two sides to every story and normally the truth lies somewhere in the middle , thats how i approach most articles etc these days

@worriedatthistime

Ive always been told two sides to every story and normally the truth lies somewhere in the middle , thats how i approach most articles etc these days

This is what I teach my children. However it's enough to get you called "racist" or "bigot" or "full of hate!" these days.

@Allsorts1

Although OP I thought that NATO expansion was a pretty well accepted “motive” behind what Putin has done? No one is saying it is an acceptable motive but I thought it was standard news that NATO had expanded further than agreed and this is something that contributed to Putin’s actions? It’s sad that you feel unable to bring that up, but it is a sign of the times eg people calling you a “putin apologist” for even mentioning a well known fact!

NATO didn't "expand" of its own accord. Sovereign countries in eastern Europe applied to join NATO because they had been under the Russian boot from 1945 until 1990, and they didn't want to fall back under it.

Also, nothing was "agreed" in terms of expanding or not, because Russia has no veto over the foreign policy of those aforementioned sovereign countries.

We should cancel cancel culture and replace it with impartial education across the board, from school to plaques on buildings. We need the intellectual tools to counter idiots and bots with an agenda with educated analysis. Make the dark underbelly of history known and explained. We need to be able to put things into context.
By the way, if we cancel Tschaikovski, how about Wagner?
It's ludicrous.
Knowledge is power. What we need more of is awareness of the full complexity (and sadly the awfulness) of human history. We are being infantilised currently.

No it hasn’t