{"id":2670,"date":"2024-09-10T17:31:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-10T17:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/?p=2670"},"modified":"2025-03-11T13:27:56","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T13:27:56","slug":"liberal-unsubscribes-criticizing-us-for-bothsides-ism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/2024\/09\/10\/liberal-unsubscribes-criticizing-us-for-bothsides-ism\/","title":{"rendered":"A Liberal Reader Criticizes Us for \u201cBoth-sides\u201d-ism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently we wrote about a <\/span>PBS reporter who shared false information about Donald Trump<\/span><\/a>. Some of our liberal readers were angry with us. This email is a good example of the criticism we received (slightly edited):\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You seem to equate Trump and his campaign as being the same as Democrats. Why do you focus on Woodruff\u2019s mistake but you don\u2019t mention the constant barrage of mistakes or blatant lies on the right? Do you think pro-Trump and anti-Trump are equal in their threats to our democracy? Why not show all the lies of Fox News journalists?\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

If I didn\u2019t know better I would say the Heritage Foundation put you up to this. I will be unsubscribing.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

This reader saw us as making a <\/span>false equivalency<\/span><\/i> \u2014 also known as \u201cboth sides\u201d-ism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a common objection we get from people on the left and the right. The language will differ but the underlying objection is the same: \u201cThe other side is so bad; why aren\u2019t you focusing more on them?\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Many people view us as \u201chelping the bad guys\u201d \u2014 or even as just \u201cthe bad guys.\u201d This is a dynamic anyone involved in conflict resolution will recognize. We get it; fears and emotions are high. When you perceive yourself and the things you care about under threat, a focus on seemingly trivial things on \u201cyour side\u201d can seem clueless \u2014 an insult to your intelligence. You might start to wonder if we have a hidden agenda.<\/span><\/p>\n

Toxic polarization is a <\/span>complex problem<\/span><\/a> and many people contribute to it. People <\/span>on the left<\/span><\/a> contribute and people <\/span>on the right<\/span><\/a> contribute \u2014 and, due to our <\/span>distorted views<\/span><\/a> of each other, it\u2019s easy for us to contribute without even knowing it.<\/span><\/p>\n

We can see that many people contribute to our divides even as we think, \u201cMy political opponents contribute more.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

We believe it\u2019s vitally important to create persuasive messages to people across the political spectrum about why they should care about reducing our political division.<\/span> It won\u2019t help if only one side does the work. <\/b>Everyone has to roll up their sleeves in order to change this toxic dynamic. So, we must examine polarizing behaviors from people across the political spectrum. Doing that helps all people with any political belief see that they have an important role in healing division \u2014 and ultimately solving problems.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s imagine we focused only on examining the polarizing behaviors of one political group. If we did that, we\u2019d no longer be persuasive to people in that group. They\u2019d see us as entirely partisan \u2014 and they\u2019d be right. We\u2019d simply be preaching to the choir. We\u2019d be another cog in the engine of polarization.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Consider: if you\u2019re politically liberal, we think you\u2019d like it if more Trump voters embraced the cause of reducing political toxicity. We think you\u2019d wish that more conservatives would do that even as they continued to be highly critical of liberals<\/em>. And vice versa: Conservatives who want to reduce toxicity hope that liberals could agree with them on that \u2014 even as they remain highly critical of conservatives.<\/span><\/p>\n

Conflict has a way of blinding us to the myriad of ways that we and others amplify the conflict. We must try to<\/em> <\/span>keep<\/span><\/i> our anger and fear from getting in the way of reducing toxicity and improving the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Science and common sense tell us that we have <\/span>a lot of influence on people similar to us<\/span><\/a>, our \u201cin-group\u201d \u2014 but little influence on the \u201cother side.\u201d This change <\/span>starts with us <\/span><\/i>(hence <\/span>the name<\/span><\/a>) \u2014 and then radiates outward.<\/span><\/p>\n

We hope you won\u2019t give up on this work. We hope you won\u2019t walk away.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more about how this work can unintentionally trigger people<\/a> and drive them away.<\/em><\/p>\n

Want to stay in the loop on efforts to reduce our toxic divisions? <\/span><\/i>Sign up for our newsletter<\/span><\/i><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently we wrote about a PBS reporter who shared false information about Donald Trump. Some of our liberal readers were angry with us. This email is a good example of the criticism we received (slightly edited):\u00a0 You seem to equate Trump and his campaign as being the same as Democrats. Why do you focus on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":2676,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"collection_feed":[],"type_feed":[77],"class_list":["post-2670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA Liberal Reader Criticizes Us for \u201cBoth-sides\u201d-ism - Builders<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/2024\/09\/10\/liberal-unsubscribes-criticizing-us-for-bothsides-ism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Liberal Reader Criticizes Us for \u201cBoth-sides\u201d-ism - Builders\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Recently we wrote about a PBS reporter who shared false information about Donald Trump. 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