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Rethinking Anger and Peacemaking
When scrolling through social media or listening to the news, it seems lots of people are angry, for a lot of different reasons. It may be tempting to dismiss such anger as divisive. However, as a professor and student of rhetoric, I am troubled by this tendency to dismiss other people and their arguments simply because we believe those arguments are made in anger. If we are committed to peacemaking and eliminating injustice, we need to be open to discussions, even if the framing or content of those discussions makes us uncomfortable. Not all anger is equal I want to be clear: I’m not saying we should give a pass…
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MWEG Members in Action
Hot on the heels of the 68th United Nations Civil Society Conference and with voter registration in full swing, MWEGers have been busy keeping up with current political events, while doing their part to engage in civil discourse online and in person. Members were called to action regarding the lowering of refugee resettlement to an all-time low of 18,000 by the current administration, along with a call to contact their representatives to make the full copy of the whistleblower complaint available to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees (the complaint was released to the public on September 26). These calls to action keep our representatives accountable to their constituents and…
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Peacemaking on Social Media
When we enter a conversation online with the intent to try and force a change of opinion, we elicit defensiveness and frustration. But when we bring a peacemaking mindset to these interactions, we offer posts and comments that are authentic, edifying, and praiseworthy. As MWEG members have learned about the Six Principles of Peacemaking and practiced using them in our Facebook discussion group, they have been inspired to apply them in their personal social media use as well. Here are a few examples: “I have a friend who recently started sharing a lot more unkind memes about politics, ones that say ‘How dumb are you if you believe xyz??’ or…
