The following is a guest submission from Andres Sellitto Ferrari, founder of No Labels at Cornell University. He is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, and can be reached at as2747@cornell.edu.
To the reader, this will seem more like a questionnaire than an article, but bear with me. I want to ask you the following, I want you to be true to yourself, and I want you for once to make it all the way to the end. I will divide this test in three parts (and yes, it will be controversial, so be ready):
For everyone:
Can you be critical of yourself and your beliefs?
When was the last time you spoke to someone who disagreed with you, and actually listened to him/her?
For conservatives:
Do you actually believe that African-Americans are not a singled-out group in American society?
Why cling on and oppose issues that most Americans support, and bring religion into public policy (Planned Parenthood, gay rights, health care, legalization of illegal immigrants who besides that offense have been law-abiding, minimum wage)?
Should freedom of speech cover hateful ideas?
Can you agree with liberals when a reasonable point is made by them and not englobe a group of people into a set of stereotypes?
How can young people support a movement that seems to be against their causes, demands and needs for the future?
Do you think the media you follow is objective and not biased?
For liberals:
Can anyone make a conservative case in a lecture in any class in Cornell without being shunned out (even by the professor), given dirty looks or just plain ostracized?
Can conservatives rally in Ho Plaza, or even criticize rallies without anyone assuming a racist ulterior motive for the protest, or instantly disregarding it and labeling conservatives “stupid” and “backwards”, grouping people into a set of stereotypes?
Can conservatives write about their ideas without being attacked, censored, shamed and denigrated?
Do you think that feminists protecting and protesting next to fundamentalists is, to say the least, ironic?
What will happen when there is no more safe spaces after leaving college?
Do you think that you could stand for the same causes you stand here in America, and speak, and behave the same way you do here somewhere else? (In Israel? In Palestine? In Syria? In Venezuela? In Saudi Arabia? In Sudan?)
Do you think the media you follow is objective and not biased?
If you honestly answered everything, congratulations! You are a pragmatic person, and can draw your own conclusions and do your own critical thinking.
This test is obviously incomplete in substance but accomplishes its goal; to show that there is a Big Middle, the ones who want to talk, to agree to disagree without hate. Let’s stop preaching to each other’s choirs.
We can be pragmatic, we can think about solving the problems we have now and stop creating new ones.
More people agree with you than you think. It is time to drop the labels and speak to each other. More can be done, and more will be done this way.
Position: VERY conservative.
> Can you be critical of yourself and your beliefs?
I change my beliefs all the time, especially when new information comes in. I want my beliefs to coincide with reality, and to be as simple and elegant as possible.
> When was the last time you spoke to someone who disagreed with you, and actually listened to him/her?
Quite recently. I realized that these people don’t care about actually fixing problems; they just want to APPEAR righteous.
> Do you actually believe that African-Americans are not a singled-out group in American society?
They’re naturally singled out because they have a distinctive look to them — hair and skin tone, two things that you really have trouble covering up.
At the same time, there IS a wasted potential for change. Immigrants from Africa have actually a significantly higher standard of living compared to Black Americans (those that arrived before 1850), and it’s relatively difficult to tell the two apart. There’s hope for change by expectations of achievement, if the black community so chooses to support it.
Why cling on and oppose issues that most Americans support, and bring religion into public policy (Planned Parenthood, gay rights, health care, legalization of illegal immigrants who besides that offense have been law-abiding, minimum wage)?
The separation of church and state requires that the church has enough influence over society to hold its own and effectively counter the state. However, instead, in current America, by suppressing the power of the church, we are instead creating a power vacuum of moral guidance, which is taken over quickly by the state. Therefore, while we do not want the state to support one religion or another, the religious establishment, whatever it is, must establish its INDEPENDENT infleunce over social policy discourse, since they are as interested in societal welfare as the government is (albeit in a different way).
Should freedom of speech cover hateful ideas?
Yes. Freedom of speech is that the government does not interfere with what you say. The responsibility for your speech is on you at the same time, however — freedom of speech also protects any potential vitriol that you receive in return from GOVERNMENTAL prosecution.
Can you agree with liberals when a reasonable point is made by them and not englobe a group of people into a set of stereotypes?
Stereotypes serve a purpose in that it gives us a basis on which we can thus enter to build our own perception of character. However, as we gain more experience in this world, we learn to refine our stereotypes in different ways, reflecting our experiences with people similar. Therefore, if you say that you don’t stereotype, you’re either a liar or lucky to be alive… or dead.
How can young people support a movement that seems to be against their causes, demands and needs for the future?
There are a couple of factors that come into play here:
– Idealism: Youth have less experience of the real world than older people, and are easily deceived by the idealist rhetoric of crusaders.
– Naivete: Most of us fail to learn the true nature of humanity before coming to college, and they don’t teach it in college (and you don’t learn the hard way until it’s too late).
– Lack of empathy: They believe that everyone thinks similarly. Obviously, that’s not correct.
– Appearances: For an increasingly narcissistic generation, it’s not the actual results that matter but rather the appearance of results. So therefore, they will say anything that makes them look good, but not necessarily work.
– The saturation of credit in society: Immediate results, and a delayed cost. But we forget about the cost, and when it comes due *ahem* student loans… Although maybe they’re going to double down and become lifelong social justice warriors.
Do you think the media you follow is objective and not biased?
Of course not. But I’d rather read something with a consistent bias because then I can learn to normalize the bias and get the accurate story.
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I’ll play with the Liberal side just for the fun of it too.
Can anyone make a conservative case in a lecture in any class in Cornell without being shunned out (even by the professor), given dirty looks or just plain ostracized?
I wrote my final paper in Networks I about the necessity of discrimination (freedom of association) to maintain the stability of a community. I got a 9/10, that my arguments were not convincing enough.
Can conservatives rally in Ho Plaza, or even criticize rallies without anyone assuming a racist ulterior motive for the protest, or instantly disregarding it and labeling conservatives “stupid” and “backwards”, grouping people into a set of stereotypes?
If we rally, we’ll just get drowned out. Partially because any liberal protest is a freak show, which is more interesting to watch.
Can conservatives write about their ideas without being attacked, censored, shamed and denigrated?
Nope!
Do you think that feminists protecting and protesting next to fundamentalists is, to say the least, ironic?
Nope. They deserve each other. Both of them can only survive in a world where testing their ideology is optional and where there must be a perpetual enemy. They fuel each other’s flames, with fundamentalists having an easy punching bag (feminists), and feminists also have an easy punching bag (fundamentalists).
What will happen when there is no more safe spaces after leaving college?
They’ll just end up creating one for themselves.
Do you think that you could stand for the same causes you stand here in America, and speak, and behave the same way you do here somewhere else? (In Israel? In Palestine? In Syria? In Venezuela? In Saudi Arabia? In Sudan?)
I won’t answer this question on behalf of liberals.
Do you think the media you follow is objective and not biased?
I won’t answer this question on behalf of liberals.