The proliferation of hate speech has become an unwelcome by-product of the Internet age. And now, a researcher at Concordia Unviersity is attempting to counter it.
Dr. Vivek Venkatesh, an associate professor in education at Concordia, has created a strategy called Project SOMEONE — SOcial Media EducatiON Every day — which is unique is that it doesn't denounce hateful remarks, so much as it compels people to try and understand where those remarks come from.
"The central tenet that we hold is that hate is a powerful emotion," he says. "It's an emotion that needs to be discussed, as much as we discuss other emotions like fear, and love, and possession. What we're trying to do is render our conversations as transparent as possible, because if we want to learn how somebody who thinks differently from us is rationalizing their logic, the last thing we want to do is censor them or shut them down."
With this initiative, "agreeing to disagree" is set aside in favor of allowing different perspectives to percolate, in part, because it compels people to shout down arguments rather than coming to a true undertstanding of them — ultimately, he says, that will lead to more civil, healthier debates, rather than having them descend into knee-jerk reactions and name-calling.
'What we tend to see a lot on social media is an indignance. And people very indignant and very hysterical about disagreeing with someone's point of view. And that indignance turns into what I see as narcissistic judgement...you tend to say 'look, I think differently with you, I'm better than you'".
Dr. Venkatesh created the initiative last year, and now, it's more timely than ever — with Donald Trump acceeding to the U.S. presidency and with most Conservative MPs recently opposing a Liberal motion to condemn Islamophobia in the wake of the Quebec City mosque shootings earlier this month.
A web site has been created for the project, which provides users with multimedia materials to promote the approach.