The post is What Do We Miss When We Are Dismissive? and in it she explores what happens when we dismiss information soley because of who is communicating it.
It hits home with me because I have a tendency to be dismissive myself. Wrapped up in my own sophistication and cleverness I'll wave off information because it comes from a right-wing source or a conservative Christian website. But it's not clever at allt. It's lazy and indulgent.
Sunniemom has it right:
I do not want to imply that we be ideological fluffballs, floating on the winds of majority opinion and changing our stance with every shift in the social climate. But do we give credit where credit is due, or as soon as we see certain words- “global warming”, “conservative”, “pro-life”, “Democrat” do we turn away dismissively- “Partisan!” “Right wing fanatic!” “Liberal nutjob!”
If Hillary Clinton offers some insight based on her experiences, do we mock it simply because she said it? If Rush Limbaugh points out a study that supports his stance on a topic, do we dismiss the report because he is a conservative talk-radio host? Or do we take the time to actually see whether those things are so?
Sunniemom takes it further and has some great things to say on the matter which should be no surprise to people who know what a consistently thoughtful writer she is. Go read it.
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