1. Portland, Oregon is another good example of high conflict.
Thread from @NancyRomm, a former Portlander who has been covering conflict there for @reason.
reason.com/people/nancy-r…
Thread from @NancyRomm, a former Portlander who has been covering conflict there for @reason.
reason.com/people/nancy-r…
https://twitter.com/NancyRomm/status/1383754519738126343
3. On yesterday's DarkHorse Podcast, @BretWeinstein and @HeatherEHeying shared video from their son @ZackOWeinstein’s friend at 10:14 and photos they took of the aftermath of Friday night’s riot beginning at 12:05.
4. Friday’s riot was the 3rd time in 5 days that the Portland Police Bureau had declared a protest a riot. The unrest in Portland has been ongoing since las year.
oregonlive.com/portland/2021/…
oregonlive.com/portland/2021/…
5. But as @NancyRomm noted in her thread
“… the anger, as I wrote for @reason, had for a decade been "gathering momentum, was becoming an identity in itself."
This is high conflict.
“… the anger, as I wrote for @reason, had for a decade been "gathering momentum, was becoming an identity in itself."
This is high conflict.
https://twitter.com/NancyRomm/status/1383759698868936717
7. The high conflict between activists and police/city leadership in Portland has also extended to the media—local, national, and independent.
8. Some media function more as opportunistic conflict entrepreneurs than storytellers doing their jobs, but whatever they’re doing, violence should never be acceptable.
https://twitter.com/keikoinboston/status/1381417549133414401
9. High conflict is how you get this—violence against Justin Yau, a local freelance journalist who is also Asian American.
https://twitter.com/PDXzane/status/1383163724932927488
10. At a time when much of the left is virtue signaling about #StopAAPIHate, Justin’s role as a journalist cancels out any compassion for him as an Asian American man. He is viewed as the enemy, despite being a thoughtful liberal journalist. 
11. Justin was on assignment for Willamette Week, a Portland alt weekly newspaper.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willamett…
Archive of tweet: archive.ph/0bxRN
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willamett…
Archive of tweet: archive.ph/0bxRN
12. (Quotes from Time article below.)
“Certain conditions predictably lead to high conflict—including oversimplified, binary choices and buried grievances that go unaddressed.”
“Certain conditions predictably lead to high conflict—including oversimplified, binary choices and buried grievances that go unaddressed.”
13.
“In this state, the brain behaves differently. We feel increasingly certain of our own superiority and, at the same time, more and more mystified by the other side. …
“In this state, the brain behaves differently. We feel increasingly certain of our own superiority and, at the same time, more and more mystified by the other side. …
14.
… When we encounter them, in person or on Facebook, we might feel a tightening in our chest, a dread mixed with rage, as we listen to whatever insane, misguided, dangerous thing the other side says.”
… When we encounter them, in person or on Facebook, we might feel a tightening in our chest, a dread mixed with rage, as we listen to whatever insane, misguided, dangerous thing the other side says.”
15. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
“Good conflict is not about surrender or unity. It’s about walking into the fire, not walking away.”
“Good conflict is not about surrender or unity. It’s about walking into the fire, not walking away.”
https://twitter.com/amandaripley/status/1383848804307193857
16. The Time essay is adapted from @amandaripley’s new book, “High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out”.
amazon.com/High-Conflict-…
amazon.com/High-Conflict-…
17. Amanda recaps the journey that liberal Jewish New Yorkers, members of B’nai Jeshurun, an Upper West Side synagogue, took to a conservative Michigan community for a good conflict homestay with a dozen corrections officers. 😬
18. That journey started at home many years before when the congregation fell into high conflict on more than one occasion and brought in mediators to help them resolve their issues through good conflict.
19.
“People were sitting with assumptions about each other, and were no longer speaking to each other,” she told me. “It felt like a kind of microcosm for polarization.”
“People were sitting with assumptions about each other, and were no longer speaking to each other,” she told me. “It felt like a kind of microcosm for polarization.”
20.
“In any intense conflict, one of the most powerful disruptive strategies can sound deceptively basic. It’s to listen, with genuine curiosity.”
“The goal was to understand—not to agree (a huge and underappreciated difference).”
“In any intense conflict, one of the most powerful disruptive strategies can sound deceptively basic. It’s to listen, with genuine curiosity.”
“The goal was to understand—not to agree (a huge and underappreciated difference).”
21. In 2018, a dozen liberal Jewish New Yorkers made their way to stay in the homes of conservative Michiganers for 3 days. A couple months later the New Yorkers reciprocated. At the start of the Michigan trip, ~everyone! was afraid.
22. “Despite everything, in defiance of all the forces keeping them in conflict, these Americans wanted to make sense of each other. “It’s hard to explain,” [Mindi] Vroman said, “but I’m really starting to like these people.”
23. Amanda points out that good conflict is the exception now. "But that’s by design."
If we want a better world, we need to build it intentionally and turn away from the individuals and organizations that “intentionally incite high conflict, instead of good”.
If we want a better world, we need to build it intentionally and turn away from the individuals and organizations that “intentionally incite high conflict, instead of good”.
24. I highly recommend reading @amandaripley’s full essay in Time. B’nai Jeshurun story is fascinating.
time.com/5955632/good-c…
time.com/5955632/good-c…
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