Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Moment of enliiightenment

I was eating dinner the other day while the television was running in the background. A CNN special, about what I assumed was on Trump supporters, was on. I caught a glimpse of a question from the host, asking why they supported Trump and what they expect him to change--my full attention was now on the television. Unsurprisingly, there were no tangible reasons for their support, just the same rhetoric reworded to avoid being flagged by Turnitin (yes, plagiarism joke, har har).
This is the picture I had drawn of Trump supporters; uninformed fanatics easily swooned by the unbridled, chest puffing, uncompromising temperament that is associated with American patriotism. In order to entertain myself, I decided to switch my focus to the host. "Alright, bring on the leading questions, the condescending response to the interviewee's opinions?" I thought to myself. Again, I was expecting this interviewer to validate my prejudiced opinion, one of a liberal media that condescends and criticizes conservatives for committing crimes that they are also guilty of. But none of that happened. Besides occasional facial shifts, the host managed to stay neutral, allowing the story of these individuals to flourish, which was extremely refreshing, seeing that this approach is nonexistent in modern journalism. The interviewee's responses made me reminisce of Obama's presidential run in 2008. These individuals have a passion that was ignited by a candidate. Trump gave these individuals hope. It was the same hope Obama invoked that got me and millions of other young people interested and involved in politics. We were enticed by his rhetoric, his demeanor, the passion and intent that filled each sentence he spoke--he represented our desires and spoke the words we longed for the world to hear.
Hearing these stories made me realize I was similar to these individuals that I had ignorantly generalized in the past. How could I have become so closed-minded to dismiss the passion that has been ignited in the millions of people following Trump? Do they not deserve to have their voices heard as well? In that moment I realized I was not the enliiightened and open minded individual I thought I was and decided to take on a new perspective and appreciation for a topic I had made up my mind on.

If you want a moral lesson, I guess the takeaway is that you should seek the FULL perspective of others, preferably from the source--you don't have to agree with them, but at least understand them first.

"Real insightful lesson there, captain obvious!"

"Hey, no problem my dudes!"

One love

No comments:

Post a Comment