This, to me, was an amazing learning moment. It needed desperately to be a calling-in and not a calling-out.
People making an error and being willing to listen and agree that the other viewpoint makes more sense — that’s us at our best, and it’s a huge help to actually changing more minds.
Everyone with the same viewpoint watching her change her mind is more likely to change their mind; everyone watching us punish her for their shared viewpoint is likely to feel other’d by us. The twist to be punitive and judgmental is frightening to me. How did we become this, that we are so derisive to someone who is an ally but not in perfect viewpoint harmony?
There are moments like this when we need to look at our own movements. To completely put aside the question of what has happened to our opponents, and decide if we are ok with what we are becoming, with what social media is doing to us and to our movements.