Erec Smith
Erec Smith
Recently on Realtime with Bill Maher, the show’s host took a substantial amount of airtime to discuss his meeting with President Donald Trump, a meeting apparently brokered by the musician Kid Rock. Maher, who has not held back in criticizing the president, was pleased to announce that the meeting went well. President Trump, who also hasn’t minced words when talking about Maher, and has even sued him for defamation, accepted him with grace and good humor.
For this, Maher was pleasantly surprised. The meeting showed him a side of Trump he didn’t expect: a congenial and good-humored man who spoke in good faith. Though Maher insists that he “didn’t go MAGA” and will continue to criticize the president, the meeting gave him hope that common ground can be found. This event is a testimony to the power of civil discourse; it can bridge divides, innovate, and mitigate the demonization of perceived “others.” These are all things desperately needed in today’s America.
Talking is especially important in a free and pluralistic society in which varying viewpoints are not just present but encouraged. In a place where disagreement is all but inevitable, we would do well to find the best ways of dealing with that disagreement. Throughout history, such disagreements would have been dealt with using violence or some other form of coercion. Talking can help us evade such “solutions.” Talking is the glue that holds together civil society.
Maher’s relaying of his experience is a tacit endorsement of civil discourse. The point of civil discourse is not persuasion and deliberation alone. It is also about understanding. In Coming to Public Judgment: Making Democracy Work in a Complex World, social scientist Daniel Yankelovich defined civil discourse as “discourse that does not aim to insult or score points, but rather to understand the other’s reasoning and values, » Read More
https://www.cato.org/blog/bill-mahers-embrace-civil-discourse-no-laughing-matter