“I can’t talk to someone about how to mitigate climate change if they think the Earth is flat.”
“If someone refuses to accept evidence that the holocaust happened, how can we ever talk about how I feel when I see a swastika drawn in the library on campus?”
How do we have civil discourse when information (and disinformation) is more readily available to us now than at any other time in history? And, how do we have discourse in an age when we disagree on a foundational set of facts needed to have a conversation?
These questions were at the heart of Discussing the Holocaust: Encouraging Informed and Respectful Conversation, a Listen. Learn. Discuss. event at WOSU on April 15. The lecture and fireside chat featured Ambassador Deborah E. Lipstadt, one of the world’s foremost experts on the Holocaust and contemporary antisemitism. Ambassador Lipstadt guided the audience through the complexities of one of history’s darkest chapters and offered a unique lens on navigating sensitive yet crucial topics facing modern university campuses.
After a packed room heard the fireside chat with Ambassador Lipstadt, led by Winston Thompson, director of the Center for Ethics and Human Values, they shared these thought-provoking takeaways:
- Lead with questions. How did you learn that? Where did you hear that? Why do you think that?
- Educate yourself so that you can educate others, especially on issues that matter most to you. How do you reach your neighbors? How do you reach that person on the treadmill next to you at the gym who makes a strange comment on the news story playing on the TV?
- Before engaging in critical conversations, take a moment. Ask yourself, “Am I willing to listen? And, is this person willing to listen? Am I willing to be self-critical?”