Megan Phelps-Roper is an ex-member of the notorious Westboro Baptist Church who found the antidote of love, to her hate, on the social media site Twitter.
For those of you whom have not heard of them before, the Westboro Baptist Church are an organisation started by the now deceased Fred Phelps, that decided to take the most heinous parts of the bible and attempt to apply them literally.
Possibly the most odious practice that Westboro are involved in, is picketing the funerals of dead soldiers, with hateful banners and posters containing disgusting and disrespectful, homophobic slogans.
However, the daughter of the founder, Megan, left the church and joined Twitter, at first she was exposed to a torrent of vitriolic abuse and contempt towards her.
Then, something rather beautiful happened, people started trying to understand her, and engage with her, and simply treat her with the respect that a fellow human deserves. Which led to something quite beautiful happening.
Once more, I have linked the article, but for now, let us explore this very interesting and important subject.
A Sword Of Understanding Against A Shield Of Hatred
When Phelps-Roper first joined Twitter, she bucked and kicked, fought and pushed, yet the waves of understanding perpetually crashed against the shingled shores of her bigotry.
Eventually, she stopped responding with zealous dogma, and celestial threats, and actually began to explain her position.
Then she started to listen . . .
Today, one of those people she listened to on Twitter, is now her husband.
... and so endeth the hatred, and lo they did say; twas good.
Pushing Past Our Differences
Often it seems, racism can be the expression of misunderstanding and ignorance, regarding a particular culture. These misconceptions are often strengthened by further stereotyping and an unwillingness to engage.
It is important that we take the lessons of Megan Phelps-Roper and more recently Sarah Silverman, as they will help guide, and show society that talking to each other, can lead to some amazing results.
Polarisation No More
We are at an interest time, the internet is fast approaching its 30th birthday. In the same way a lot of humans really start to properly mature around this age, so too are we maturing as a digital society.
The fact that we can debate whether artificially intelligent learning algorithms, are pushing us further and further apart, is an amazing thing.
By realising that we are in danger of being divided along opposite ideological sides by mechanisms such as the Facebook learning algorithm, means that we have a chance to do something about it.
Our Cultures Are Multi
In recent times, the term multiculturalism has taken on negative connotations with certain sections of society. It has been seen as threatening the existence of an indigenous culture.
However we are driven by forces of evolution and genetics, and biodiversity is just natures way of breeding stronger and more hardy organisms.
Ergo multiculturalism, can only be seen as the manifestation of that biological urge to breed with your genetic opposite.
Fear Of Race?
Perhaps this is the ultimate goal of the human organism, regardless of what tinkering on our DNA we may engage in, we are simply at the whim of genetic code that has been around for circa 4 billion years.
At one point then, will we all be more or less the same race? Having taken the best of each of our traits and merged them into one.
In that respect then, our understanding of each other's differences, could lead to a harmonious sameness that benefits the human race for evermore.
What Hope For The Human Race: How Good Are We?
How Twitter helped save a former member of the Westboro Baptist Church
I AM PLEASED WITH THE RESPONSES TO THE 'ARE WE GOOD' ARTICLE WHICH I HAVE PAIRED WITH THIS ONE IN PARTICULAR I'D LIKE TO THANK STEEMIAN @APIPRINCZ FOR INSPIRING THE FOLLOW UP.
ALL OF YOUR RESPONSES SHOW ME THAT THERE IS AN UNDERLYING HOPE FOR THE HUMAN RACE THAT CANNOT BE EXTINGUISHED.
AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT MULTICULTURALISM AND HOW BEST WE CAN UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER AND PROGRESS.