Calling someone names
says more about your name, than theirs.
Find out why we think so by watching our Truth in Two (full text below)
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Pictures: Josh Collingwood, Snappy Goat
FULL TEXT
Everyone in elementary school knew me as “Eckel the elephant.” I was short and fat, or, as was acceptable to say in those days, I was considered, “stocky.” Before I grew six inches one summer, I was a roly-poly kid who couldn’t climb a rope in gym class to save his life. The fact that I remember how I felt decades ago gives credence to the fact that name-calling hurts. Sticks and stones do break bones and words will always hurt people.
But I would like to suggest that the act of name-calling has not stopped. It continues in adulthood. When you call someone “narrowminded,” “a terrorist,” or a “bigot,” for instance, you are saying more about yourself than the person you wish to debase. To describe another person and their perspective in negative terms only does two things: it alienates you from the other person and displays your true character. Take the word “bigot,” for instance. The word itself is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as “a person who has strong, unreasonable beliefs, who does not like other people who have different beliefs.” Or take the definition from Merriam-Webster. A bigot is a person who is intolerantly devoted to her prejudices and treats members of other groups with hatred and intolerance.” So, when you call someone a “bigot,” who is the “bigot”?
I doubt very much that name-calling in politics moves individuals to change their views. I suspect the opposite is true: when attacked, people have a tendency to become immovable, doubling-down on their political postures no matter what. Sure, being called names when I was a kid hurt. Being called names made me commit to physical exercise. In adulthood, calling out name-callers is most important to me now. Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, no longer “Eckel the Elephant,” president of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking truth, without bigotry, wherever it’s found.