If wanting to be heard is one side of coin, the other side is being willing to listen. The two are inextricably connected. When convinced that no one _ especially those in place of power & privilege is really paying attention to our protests & demands we will be less...1/15

inclined to listen to others, particularly to people whose views differ from ours. Communication across the culture & ideological spectrum will falter &, eventually, crumble. And when communication is broken, coexistence, inclusion & social harmony will also be damaged. 2/15
In other words if perpetuated & made routine, the feeling of being systematically unheard will slowly, gradually, seal our ears, & then seal our hearts. In retracting our willingness to listen to others, we ensure that they too feel unheard. And the cycle continues.. 3/15
worsening every time it revolves.
The moment we stop listening to diverse opinions is also when we stop learning. Because the truth is we don't learn much from same_ness & monotony. We usually learn from differences. 4/15
In life most of what we have come to understand throughout the years we have acquired by interacting dis_similar & often challenging views, & by encountering information, criticism & knowledge hitherto unfamiliar to us & then processing these internally growing.. 5/15
insight from seeds of discussions, readings & observations. The thing group think or social media bubbles is that they aggressively feed & amplify repetition, And repetition, however familiar & comforting, will never challenge us mentally, emotionally or behaviorally. 6/15
Echoes simply reiterate that has already been said at some point in time, long gone. Like dead stars, they might seem to have a presence from a distance, but in truth, they are completely devoid of life & light. Echo chambers, therefore, severely limit the breadth &.. 7/15
depth of the views we subject ourselves to, they ration knowledge. And at the same time they limit wisdom: wisdom, which connect the mind & heart, activates emotional intelligence, expands empathy & understanding, allows us to reach beyond the lonely confines of our... 8/15
own minds & engage with the rest of humanity, to listen to them & learn from them. To leave one echo chamber to another is no solution either. We must strive to become intellectual nomads, keep moving, keep learning, resist confining ourselves in any cultural or mental ghetto9/15
& spend more time not in select centers but at the margins, which is where real change come from. If all my friends think like me, vote like me, speak like me, if I only read the kind of books, newspapers & magazines that are in line with what I have read before,.. 10/15
If I only follow online sites that sympathize with my pre_convinced verdicts, if I only watch videos or programs that essentially validate my worldview, & if nearly all of information comes from the same limited sources, day in, day out, it means that, deep within... 11/15
I want to be surrounded with my mirror image 24/7. That is not only a suffocatingly claustrophobic setting, it is also a profoundly narcissistic existence. But here's the thing: sometimes narcissism isn't merely an individual trait, it is a collective one... 12/15
the shared illusion that we are the centre of world. This notion was examined in detail by various thinkers in the last century, especially Theodor Aforno - Erich Fromm. What these writers had in common was that they had witnessed, first hand, the rise of nationalism... 13/15
Jingoism, Xenophobia & totali_tarianism. Their warnings are opposite today. Central to group narcissism is an inflated belief in the clear_cut distinctiveness & undisputable greatness of 'us' as opposed to 'them'. One un surprising consequence of this conviction is an.... 14/15
enduring resentment towards others. If I'm convinced that my tribe is far better & worth more, I will firs doubt, & then denigrate anyone who refuses to recognize our superiority. 15/15
@threadreaderapp compile

More from Culture

I'm going to do two history threads on Ethiopia, one on its ancient history, one on its modern story (1800 to today). 🇪🇹

I'll begin with the ancient history ... and it goes way back. Because modern humans - and before that, the ancestors of humans - almost certainly originated in Ethiopia. 🇪🇹 (sub-thread):


The first likely historical reference to Ethiopia is ancient Egyptian records of trade expeditions to the "Land of Punt" in search of gold, ebony, ivory, incense, and wild animals, starting in c 2500 BC 🇪🇹


Ethiopians themselves believe that the Queen of Sheba, who visited Israel's King Solomon in the Bible (c 950 BC), came from Ethiopia (not Yemen, as others believe). Here she is meeting Solomon in a stain-glassed window in Addis Ababa's Holy Trinity Church. 🇪🇹


References to the Queen of Sheba are everywhere in Ethiopia. The national airline's frequent flier miles are even called "ShebaMiles". 🇪🇹
@bellingcat's attempt in their new book, published by
@BloomsburyBooks, to coverup the @OPCW #Douma controversy, promote US and UK gov. war narratives, and whitewash fraudulent conduct within the OPCW, is an exercise in deception through omission. @BloomsburyPub @Tim_Hayward_


1) 2000 words are devoted to the OPCW controversy regarding the alleged chemical weapon attack in #Douma, Syria in 2018 but critical material is omitted from the book. Reading it, one would never know the following:

2) That the controversy started when the original interim report, drafted and agreed by Douma inspection team members, was secretly modified by an unknown OPCW person who had manipulated the findings to suggest an attack had occurred. https://t.co/QtAAyH9WyX… @RobertF40396660


3) This act of attempted deception was only derailed because an inspector discovered the secret changes. The manipulations were reported by @ClarkeMicah
and can be readily observed in documents now available https://t.co/2BUNlD8ZUv….

4) @bellingcat's book also makes no mention of the @couragefoundation panel, attended by the @opcw's first Director General, Jose Bustani, at which an OPCW official detailed key procedural irregularities and scientific flaws with the Final Douma Report:

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