(Brief ambient chatter)
That is the sound of a political discussion. To be more precise, it is the response portion to a film focused on political conversations.
On July 9-11, KDNK hosted three election events called the Above the Noise Initiative around the valley in partnership with The Post Independent, The Sopris Sun, and Rocky Mountain Public Media. Over 60 community members attended the three days of events, many expressing in a poll that they see most political debates to be “polarized, mean-spirited, and dominated by a few loud voices”.
Participants first watched Undivide Us, an hour-long film created by PBS to address growing nationwide concerns over political polarization. Reflections on the film include the repeated surprise that only 21% of Americans describe themselves as being unable to engage in conversation with people who disagree with their views. Others were impressed by the method of conversation used in the film, where interviewees were asked to describe the case for another person’s point of view, rather than just answering with their own argument.
"All of this polarization is both an issue and is greatly exaggerated. Right? Cause we often have pretty bad caricatures of the other side. And often the loudest voices are the most polarized. I deal with mostly local issues. I work a lot with city managers. And I tell them often, who's going to walk up to the microphone at city council?
Often people who see the issue in a particular way who are so sure that they're right. And we have lots of processes that people in the middle that see different sides, who are kind of struggling, there is often no place for them to speak.
And then you add on top of that our brains, Right?
We kinda want to see what we're- we focus on the best intentions of our side and the worst intentions of the other.
Then that becomes a negative feedback loop.
One of the things that they have mentioned is the Hidden Tribes Report - it's a really interesting report, I have a link to it on the research page if you like or you can google it - It's by a group called More In Common that's doing some really great work just kindof finding common ground. And often unfortunately a lot of the research is 'well what are our differences and how can we win'
There's a lot of different resources that I highlight on there that try to do the opposite. So the Hidden Tribes report says that about 8% of the people they surveyed in the United States were seen as Progressive Activists, and about 6% were Devoted Conservatives. And you have all the other sides, so this middle we have is the Exhausted Majority which we don't really hear from very much."
The next speaker is Martín Carcasson, a professor with CSU’s Center for Public Deliberation, and offered context to attendees for how the human brain is naturally more inclined towards conflict rather than calm discussion of difficult topics.
In an exercise facilitated by Carcasson, attendees were asked to rank a set of values according to their personal importance.
Several participants each night astutely noted that they shared some of their top or bottom values, even if their personal definitions may differ for words like “Freedom”, “Justice”, “Community”, and “Security”.
When asked if they could add a value to the list presented that matters to them, participants spoke from the heart. - Compassion, Integrity, Play, Creativity, Love, Belonging, Connection, Empathy, Tolerance, and Respect were all mentioned repeatedly.
Many residents expressed interest in finding opportunities to engage more community members of more diverse backgrounds in future conversations. It is important to note that all three evenings a majority of attendees were white and predominantly women.
This fall similar events will be held throughout Colorado, although Glenwood Springs, Carbondale, and Rifle were the first.
More information on the Above the Noise Initiative is available here.
