{"id":18380,"date":"2017-09-18T13:03:57","date_gmt":"2017-09-18T18:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/?p=18380"},"modified":"2017-09-20T14:33:12","modified_gmt":"2017-09-20T19:33:12","slug":"stuck-in-an-echo-chamber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/2017\/09\/18\/stuck-in-an-echo-chamber\/","title":{"rendered":"Stuck in an Echo Chamber"},"content":{"rendered":"

Acceptance and respect are not synonymous, and it took me a long time to realize that. <\/span><\/p>\n

I always hear others say \u201clet\u2019s agree to disagree,\u201d but at IMSA, I barely ever see that in practice. I lean more liberal than conservative, which is expected at I<\/span>MSA, and my beliefs at IMSA have not been seen as problematic. The trouble only comes when someone isn\u2019t liberal; immediately, they\u2019re seen in a completely different, condescending light. It is ironic, then, that while we\u2019re all about \u201caccepting different people and their identities,\u201d we won\u2019t accept other people simply because they believe something else contradictory to our beliefs.<\/p>\n

One of IMSA\u2019s pillar ideals is collaboration. Yet, we have people who are genuinely scared to share their thoughts in the classroom because of how they will be received. A student in the English course Gender Studies shared his concern by stating that he feels pressured to stay silent in the class because he might believe an unpopular opinion. \u201cI come off as looking like a terrible person who doesn\u2019t respect everyone else, but I sincerely respect their opinion, I just don\u2019t believe it myself,\u201d he said. Another IMSA senior said, \u201cIt’s hard to voice your opinions if the majority will be going against it.\u201d It’s troubling that people in a collaborative school don\u2019t think that they can share their thoughts with the rest of the class without fearing condescension. <\/span><\/p>\n

At IMSA, there is a union of ideas where everyone is more or less on the same page. Playing it safe, however, never \u201cadvanced the human condition.\u201d Playing it safe never broadened perspectives. Playing it safe never really did any good for the overall picture. It temporarily allows us to feel secure, but w<\/span>e will never improve and grow if we\u2019re not challenged. How will we be able to grow if we shun conflicting viewpoints?<\/p>\n

While we do seem like a safe and accepting environment b<\/span>ecause we are supporting one another and their beliefs when they are similar to our own, we end up creating a hostile environment for those who differ in opinions. <\/span>Instead, what we should be working towards is a respectful envi<\/span>ronment. While we may not agree with everything, we should be able to politely say that we do not agree and share our thoughts on the subject at hand. Respecting one’s opinion does not mean you have to accept it as your own; it means to recognize that it is someone else\u2019s ideas and that your ideologies might differ.<\/p>\n

Our \u201csafe\u201d environment is a facade. A truly safe environment is where everyone would feel comfortable being themselves and sharing their thoughts. As a community, we need to build a strong foundation of respect to welcome different perspectives. I know that none of us start off with malicious intentions or knowing that we want to hurt someone because of their different opinions. I also know that this isn\u2019t who we are at IMSA. We\u2019re about collaboration. We\u2019re about challenge. We\u2019re about differences. We\u2019re about respect. We\u2019re about acceptance–not always accepting the different opinions, but accepting that it\u2019s alright to believe in something else. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Acceptance and respect are not synonymous, and it took me a long time to realize that. I always hear others say \u201clet\u2019s agree to disagree,\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":356,"featured_media":18459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[2741],"coauthors":[2734],"class_list":["post-18380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions","tag-free-speech"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/356"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18380"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18527,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18380\/revisions\/18527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18380"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=18380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}