The Rabbi and The Shrink

Episode #5: Cancel Culture?

April 22, 2021 Yonason Goldson and Margarita Gurri Episode 5
The Rabbi and The Shrink
Episode #5: Cancel Culture?
Show Notes

1:30 People can violate the normative values and standards of society to the point where they forfeit the privilege of being allowed to remain a member of that society.


2:45 Groupthink vs constructive disagreement

Only when you understand the ideas of other people do you really understand your own

Insecurity drives us to shut down dissenting voices


5:00 It’s us vs. them, and you’re them: BYE!

Children have a fresh way of looking at things, and are unafraid to ask why

The older we get, the more threatened we are to reevaluate our world view


9:00 How do you deal with people you have to deal with who are not open to discussion?

Oblique approach rather than frontal assault


11:00 What outcome do you hope to achieve in your discussion?

Communication vs. conversation

Dialogues of the deaf


15:00 We aren’t trained to listen; we’re planning our response

What has happened to curiosity?

The I in ETHICS is Inquisitiveness vs. willful ignorance

Sometimes, our lives are too cluttered for us to be able to listen

Sometimes society cancels us for asking questions


22:00 No one ever died from a question

The real safe space is where we’re free to explore and investigate


24:00 Are we justified not to listen to people like White Supremacists or should we give everyone the benefit of the doubt first?

Isn’t labelling a form of cancelling?


28:00 Is it ever evil to listen?

Ideas can influence us for good and bad

What’s the difference between filtering and cancelling?


32:30 How do we prepare ourselves to listen to dangerous ideas  without making ourselves vulnerable to them?

Young people are not mature enough to deal with complex ideas

We have to protect children (and ourselves) from ideas they aren’t ready to handle


36:30 We deal with kleptomaniacs differently from how we deal with thieves

Not every thief is a kleptomaniac -- there are levels of culpability


38:45 Steven Covey:  Most people don’t listen with the intent to understand but with the intent to reply

How should we listen: First, paraphrase


41:00 Why don’t we want to listen?

Do we have to like someone to listen?


43:00 Sometimes it’s better to let people have their opinions and not engage them

Set ground rules


47:00 When we listen first, we encourage others to listen to us


48:00 Gossip vs. venting vs. necessary information

We have to take all the variables into account


50:45  Ronald Reagan denied screen actors’ achievement award


54:00 We have to anticipate how our word will affect others -- am I serving my audience?


55:00 Word of the Day:  antediluvian --  before the Flood

Without a civil society, society descends into destruction


57:00  Ask yourself: whom do I want to cancel?  How can I listen instead?