You’re at a dinner party. You’ve accused your friend of saying something ignorant. He’s fired back, calling you sanctimonious. The other guests are glancing at each other worriedly. This is long past the point of being a spirited debate. Not only has poor Barbara’s jamboree become a downer, but, aggressive and defensive, you and your interlocutor won’t retain the merit of each other’s arguments.
This entrenched dynamic often typifies political discourse. To convert others, finding the balance is tricky: impugning someone rarely wins them over, but peacekeepers risk becoming milquetoast, letting urgent issues go unchecked.
Anand Giridharadas’s thought-provoking, America-centric collection of interconnected essays considers progressive activists striking the balance between robust criticism while also not alienating the potentially persuadable. This is a vital topic now that people’s viewpoints have calcified thanks to the warping effects of social media, which rewards the hunt for “apostates more than the conversion of nonbelievers”.
Giridharadas’s interviewees warn that merely “calling out” people is deleterious to a movement’s expansion; there needs to be more “calling in” and “meeting people where they are at”. Although nobody should have to experience intolerance, it’s advisable to give someone evolving the benefit of the doubt if you sense goodwill behind an infraction — Linda Sarsour cites when well-meaning Amish people touched her hijab as an example.
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Other persuaders among the interviewees trying to broaden their base are: messaging expert Anat Shenker-Osorio, who says liberals can be too gloomy and should “paint the beautiful tomorrow”; Diane Benscoter, “a former cult member turned cult deprogrammer” applying her expertise to Trumpism and QAnon; and deep canvassers changing minds through empathy.
In a borderline hagiographical essay acclaiming Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Giridharadas makes a compelling case for the former waitress being a sort of pre-eminent embodiment of this synthesis of “calling in” and “calling out”. Both an insider and an outsider, she uses her internet savvy to be transparent to her constituents and decry her colleagues’ negligence, while also affirming them when it’s deserved.
Probably out of a sense of duty to his subjects, some essays are a little overlong, but they’re insightful, witty and surefooted. The same points keep coming up, but rather than being repetitive they bolster Giridharadas’s thesis. Anyway, as Shenker-Osorio states: “More familiar messages are rated more convincing. (…) Repetition creates cognitive ease.”
