Opinion: Have we forgotten how to disagree?

He definitely got that right. Some have got degrees for speaking less truth.

Anyway, that’s not the only problem with parts of the web, especially social media.

Lately it seems that we’ve forgotten how to have natural disagreements. Increasingly, we all appear to be interested in only listening to those views that echo our own.

If we can’t identify with a cause or the person putting it forward, we just ignore it. We plug our ears, pretending it’s not there.

So-called ‘cancel culture’ has a lot to answer for in this regard – and it’s something we’ve probably all been guilty of.

On social media, we tend to surround ourselves with acquaintances who share our views of the world.

That’s worsened in recent years, particularly when it comes to the Brexit, Trump and Corbyn eras.

Many on the British Left no longer read The Guardian because of its perceived hostility towards Jeremy Corbyn, for example.

I’ve also seen people on social media say they won’t read certain papers closer to home for political reasons.

But if we don’t listen to the views of others, we can’t strengthen our own arguments. That was always one of John Hume’s core philosophies.

Not everybody’s going to agree with us. But that disagreement might not be absolute. There’s a lot of grey in the spectrum of people’s opinions.

Going back to thoughts of music, I love the work of Van Morrison – but during the pandemic, I wasn’t too impressed with some of his antics.

It didn’t mean that I went out and burned his records, or gave them to the Cats’ Protection charity shop.

We should be able to listen to opposing views without them affecting our own. I’ve got my views on politics.

If I just speak to people who share my views, I might as well float up the Erne in a bubble talking to myself.

I remember once when working in an office in Belfast, I was listening to a tape (aye, that long ago).

I can’t remember the band, but it was something Irish; Folksy stuff, like Paddy Reilly, maybe.

Anyhow, a fellow from Larne overheard it, and says he: “Ah wonder what you’d make of my Willie McCrea collection.”

“Bring it on,” I told him. So, next day, Larne Man lands in with a tape of purely religious songs – I played the tape.

Though it seemed a different century to The Spice Girls and the bands of the day, I went through the motions like a dental appointment.

I was determined to show that I could go the full distance. I put my head down, worked on and left the cassette slurping away like a bowl of Chinese noodles in the background.

Then, in the middle of my listening, a few others came into the room, listening to the sound of Willie’s distinctive crooning.

Some older colleagues on ‘my side’ of the divide thought that Larne Man’s motives were a kind of conspiracy to convert a naïve young graduate.

But that’s as mad an idea as Liverpool fans being converted to wearing Man United jerseys just because they listened to Victoria Beckham at a Spice Girls concert.

Most of us are made of stronger stuff than that. But we seem to lose our reason when confronted with very different views.

It’s just that, previously, it wasn’t as easy to retreat into an echo chamber. There was a time we could politely disagree, and even come away feeling far better for it.

These days, you can follow the news without ever looking at the ‘mainstream’ sources, if you want to call them that.

You can exist in a bubble where everyone is a Brexiter or a Corbynite or a Trumpeter.

You can also argue that ‘woke’ spaces are a bit of a bubble unless they welcome free speech.

That’s, again, why as a reader of this paper, I’m glad to see such an exciting range of voices coming to the fore.

None of us are impartial reporters of the world around us. We’ve all got our views.

And the more we listen to those who have alternative views, the stronger our own become.

It’s good to disagree properly. Better that than our own wee bubbles.

Paul Breen is @CharltonMen on X (formerly Twitter).