bethany jones
@bethanyj · 2:14
How To Have Hard or Opposing Conversations with love, kindness and respect
Okay. Hi, Swellers. I hope you're all doing great. It's almost fall. The weather is changing here in Southern California, cooling off a little bit. So recently I found out that a colleague in Pierre has ideas and beliefs that are very deeply held to this individual, that are completely diametrically opposed to what I believe. They describe trans women as predators, that they're not real women. They use what I consider to be very divisive language, very exclusionary language
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 2:50
So I think it really has to be examined deeply. Thank you for this question and I really appreciate you bringing it up because it's an age old problem I think people face all the time
Aditi Kapoor
@MyCuratedTales · 2:38
Hi, Bethany. What an interesting swell. And I completely agree with you that in our circle of people we do have family and friends who have ideas or thought process that is completely different from us. And the moment we get into a conversation with them regarding politics or any sensitive object, rather than putting it across as a conversation or just a healthy argument, it tends to get personal and it starts affecting us
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Jeremiah Myer
@Jeremiah73 · 4:12
But what I did begin to do in the workspace, or even in family gatherings when one of my workmates or one of my extended family would make outrageous claims about politics or religion, but in my circle anyway, it was almost always about politics and political belief. And they would make an outrageous comment about it. I would simply not let it stand. I wouldn't let it go unanswered. I would answer it in a short sentence
J.L. Beasley
@Her_Sisu · 4:48
So with that being said, when I think about other people in my life, family, friends, lovers, what I think about is that I engage with them from a space of acceptance. I accept them for who they are, how they are and their beliefs
Lyonides Ventures
@LVllc · 4:47
I understand that systemic bias, no matter what form that takes on, can have some pretty negative effects on people. However, if we don't have those conversations, it allows that systemic bias to persist. If there is only one viewpoint in the public eye, and we're not having those conversations out in the open, then the public only perceives that one perspective. I've grown up with kids that grew up in households where the parents taught them to hate people