{"id":527,"date":"2016-06-01T13:21:27","date_gmt":"2016-06-01T13:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/campaignbattleground\/?p=527"},"modified":"2016-06-01T13:21:32","modified_gmt":"2016-06-01T13:21:32","slug":"has-american-politics-always-been-uncivil-bliss-institute-students-discuss-if-civility-is-possibl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/campaignbattleground\/2016\/06\/01\/has-american-politics-always-been-uncivil-bliss-institute-students-discuss-if-civility-is-possibl\/","title":{"rendered":"Has American politics always been uncivil? Bliss Institute students discuss if civility is possible"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics<\/a>, students and faculty often discuss the need for civility in politics, especially given the current election climate. Graduate student Emily Maher and undergraduate student Connor Shaw recently had a conversation with the Campaign Battleground blog about the increased sense of incivility in political discussion in the United States.<\/p>\n

Why is open political discussion among peers important?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maher: <\/strong>I think being around other people who don\u2019t think like you helps you. It helps you avoid groupthink. I think it\u2019s good to surround yourself with people who don\u2019t agree with everything you say. It makes you more conscious of yourself and your beliefs.<\/p>\n

Shaw: <\/strong>But there\u2019s definitely a lot of blending together. Like Emily said, aborting the whole groupthink mentality. At the Bliss Institute, we spread ideas and have civil conversations. The professors also feel the same way. It\u2019s not just the students. We\u2019re all here to learn or to apply our knowledge. It kind of defeats the purpose of the Institute if you\u2019re trying to push one specific way of thinking.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s definitely a huge thing. Whether it\u2019s here or even outside of the Bliss Institute, you definitely hear when you\u2019re outside with some people who can\u2019t see past the lies and see past political parties, but there definitely is a level of respect for the opposition or the other way of thinking.<\/p>\n

Has there always been incivility in American politics?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maher: <\/strong>I think there\u2019s always been incivility in politics. I think the internet has made it easier to be uncivil because a lot of the times you\u2019re anonymous. It\u2019s easier to write some things than actually come out and say it. This current campaign atmosphere reflects the growing concerns of incivility. It\u2019s just becoming more acceptable to be loud and proud about being uncivil.<\/p>\n

Shaw: <\/strong>Seeing these presidential campaigns, there\u2019s a lot of incivility. That\u2019s sometimes kind of frightening. It shouldn\u2019t be normal. I don\u2019t think I\u2019d say it\u2019s always been like that. I\u2019d like to think that there are some areas that have some decency even though it is politics we\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n

Maher: <\/strong>And I think the loudest opinion sometimes gets the most attention, and we\u2019re seeing that. Think about the political sound bites in our culture and media right now.<\/p>\n

Shaw:<\/strong> Absolutely. The smallest opinions are the loudest. It\u2019s a really weird mentality. You have your silent majority and now you have the vocal minority that\u2019s starting to guide the way through a lot of politics.<\/p>\n

How can society shift away from uncivil political conversations?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maher:<\/strong> It needs to be a conscious effort on everybody\u2019s part. It definitely takes effort to be thoughtful about what you say.<\/p>\n

Shaw:<\/strong> Because we both work in politics and study politics, I think we\u2019re a lot more likely to do it and I think our generation \u2013 millennials \u2013 is also a lot more likely. I think we\u2019ve both seen that a lot of our friends and peers are a lot more open to talking about sharing ideas and not being angry with each other\u2019s views. But it would definitely need to be a conscious effort. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s something we could start an ad campaign and end overnight or over a weekend. It\u2019s a work in progress.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics, students and faculty often discuss the need for civility in politics, especially given the current election climate. Graduate student Emily Maher and undergraduate student Connor Shaw recently had a conversation with the Campaign Battleground blog about the increased sense of incivility in political discussion in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2470,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/campaignbattleground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/campaignbattleground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/campaignbattleground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/campaignbattleground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2470"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/campaignbattleground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/campaignbattleground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":535,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/campaignbattleground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527\/revisions\/535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/campaignbattleground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/campaignbattleground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/campaignbattleground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}