Civil Political Conversations
Introduction:
Social Psychologist, Robb Willer in his TED Talk, “How to have better political conversations” published September 2016 addresses the topic of the political divide in America and argues that it is the worst it has ever been in anyone’s life. He supports this claim by telling the audience how divided our political parties are, then explains conservative and liberal moral values, then discusses a moral study he conducted using various types of essays, and finally discusses a solution on how our country can come back together. Willer’s purpose of this TED Talk is to help others have better conversations when it comes to politics so that we can come back together as a nation. He adopts a serious tone for his audience, the listeners of “How to have better political conversations”, and others interested in the topic of how to understand other political party ideologies and how have reasonable conversations between those with individuals who have differing beliefs than their own. Thesis: Willer uses his credibility as a social psychologist to show the audience conservative and liberal moral values and using movie references to show how both parties think they are the good guys.
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One of Willer’s main claims is that the United States of America is more divided now than in the past two decades. He supports his claim by referencing his own studies, an appeal to both logos and his own ethos as a social psychologist. In these studies, he continues to show, how and why both conservatives and liberals drift further and further apart. He discovered that over the years conservative and liberals tend to have conversations with only like-minded individuals and those who share the same ideologies as them. When Willer states, “And I think that most alarming of all of it is seeing this rising animosity on both sides,” is effective in showing the audience that this claim can be seen in today’s mainstream media, news outlets, and social media. In news outlets you can see the animosity between both sides, but how it is tearing apart families and relationships. When Willer talks about how in today’s society no one wants to date someone who says the are a different political party, no one wants their child/children to date someone who doesn’t have the same political view, and people generally find those who have a different political opinion less attractive. This is a very sad statement because no one should be judged on their opinion or political opinion
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Willer uses movie references to explain to the audience how divided our country is and who each political party think they are. One example he uses is that we are in a zombie movie and each party thinks they are the “Brad Pitt” in this situation, but both parties are more the zombies instead.
Main Point #1- Studies on Conservatives and Liberals growing further apart
Conservatives- Loyalty, Patriotism, Respect for authority, Moral purity
Liberals- Equality, Fairness, Care, Protection from harm
Essays they read- same sex-marriage & English as first language
Main Point #2- What kind of movie we are in
Zombie
Buddy Cop
Main Point #3- Solution
Moral Reframing
How to get left and right to agree
Kit-Kat 