Wrong on the Internet

I love this comic. This is pretty much exactly how I was for a long time, going back to my discovery of the internet. Well, my discovery of USENET, anyway. And I argued about everything: religion, science, computers, art, history, science fiction, tv, movies, whatever. I even had a hobby for a while of finding this habitual (compulsive?) fabulist on our university newsgroup and trying to systematically expose his inventions at every step. (And, truth be told, that still makes a funny story, even today.)

And then, for reasons of blood pressure or sanity or just coming to a generally more zen-like place in the world, I scaled way back and really started to pick and choose who I argued with, and over what. And mostly it got to be about stuff that’s actually important, stuff that kind of matters. Unfortunately, that kind of raises the stakes, but it’s also a good sorting function. It means I think about everything I engage with before I do.

The other thing I did, the other thing I think everyone who’s arguing should do, is that I grew to be willing to be wrong.

Not so way back when, I was wrong on the internet a lot, but had that natural human shame of being wrong. When my 19 year old self, suffused with the delight at discovering all that deep crunchy meaning in the epic tomes of Russian literature, argued on an author’s fan mailing list that you couldn’t possibly ignore the greatness of Crime & Punishment… well, not only was I wrong, but I found it extremely hard to deal gracefully with folks who told me I was wrong, and I couldn’t really admit that I was wrong. And, the funny thing was, it took me a long time to really learn from that.

And I went on to be wrong a lot more. There’s a chance that I’m still being wrong, even as I type this. But, that’s the thing. You do have to learn to be willing to be wrong. One of the things that always got me fired up, and still can tempt me to join arguments, is to see echo chambers develop. Where people don’t have to be wrong, where all of the responses are merely going to affirm their viewpoint; usually with more words than a simple “Me too!” but… plenty that are just as devoid of content or engagement. I’m not opposed to like-minded people getting together to share their like-mindedness, but there’s something about it, when it’s done in a mixed audience, that almost seems to dare those with opposing viewpoints to be silent. More often than not, it is, in fact, a dare that I can dismiss. But sometimes I just do have to engage.

And you know… Munroe’s spot-on snark aside, I also think it’s critical that we do engage. That we don’t shy away from discussing and disagreeing about the really important stuff, the stuff that affects people where they live. Even on the internet, maybe especially on the internet, where we can reach into people’s isolation (especially when they’re displaying it to the world) and try to engage them. But keep in the mind the key: the most important element is having the willingness, yourself, to be convinced, to be wrong.

Mirrored from Bum Scoop.