If we really care about what the truth is for any particular issue, we should engage diverse types of media (or diverse viewpoints on social media)—flat earthers and round earthers, left and right, urban and rural, foreign and domestic. In my personal search for different viewpoints, I’ve noticed you can often identify someone who is uninterested in serious debate by their vocabulary. Woke. BLM. ANTIFA. Socialism. Fascist. Marxist. CRT. That’s not to say that these words don’t often have serious meaning that has been well considered by someone or lots of someones. Research and thoughtfulness are often where these ideas begin in the first place.

But may I make a few suggestions for de-sloganizing our jargon, particularly on social media?

Let me start off by apologizing if you are offended by this post.

That’s the way all crappy apologies start, right? We see that from celebrities, athletes, and politicians—but if we’re honest, it’s often the way we regular folks often apologize to each other as well.

There were a couple of apologies in the news this week worth taking a look at—from Congresswoman Lauren Boebert and football player Logan Ryan—and that’s what I’m diving into today.

Hi friends. I know it seems like our country is in quite a pickle right now. A lot of our politicians might actually be insane and social media is “turbocharging”—as President Obama recently put it—the misinformation and the cruelty.

But listen. We’re going to be okay…

Yep - that’s my tip this week. Don’t call someone a Nazi unless they’re an actual Nazi. Simple, right?

Far too frequently we describe things we don’t like in the strongest terms possible. Among the many problems with that: those strongest terms are often historically illiterate.  Mitch Daniels, president of Purdue University and a former governor of Indiana, illustrated the ignorance (and laziness) of some of our word choices in a recent op-ed in the Washington Post. 

Nazi.  Fascist.  Communist.  These words are uttered dozens of times a day on various 24-hour news channels.  Of course, it’s much worse on social media; Daniels reminded us of Mike Godwin’s theorem (from 1990!) that “as an online discussion continues, the probability of a reference or comparison to Hitler or Nazis approaches 1.” Unfortunately, some of these internet trolls now hold political office… 

In this world of 24-hour news and social media hysteria and misinformation, I think what we need is more radicals.

No, really. I’m serious.

One of Merriam-Webster’s definitions for radical, which I mean to use here, is “very different from the usual or traditional [and] favoring extreme changes in existing views, habits, conditions, or institutions.” The radical idea I suggest for all of us is to build in-person relationships, to listen more, engage people from different backgrounds than our own, and to embrace or at least appreciate ideas which do not come most naturally to our own hearts and minds.