Spiral of Silence
The spiral of silence stuck out to me because, in today's world, cancel culture is extremely prevalent, and many stay silent for fear of their beliefs or ideas being perceived as controversial. I am currently taking an American Politics class, and in class, we had to unlearn the belief that politics should be a touchy subject, throughout the class, we built the courage to say our beliefs respectfully and to educate ourselves on other viewpoints. This helped us to not stay silent when we felt a certain way, and we could freely express our opinions as long as they did not hurt others.
Spiral of Silence, to put a definition, is the tendency of people to remain silent when they feel that their views are in opposition to the majority view.
When my classmate discussed the spiral of silence, I really began to reflect on all of the times I chose to not say anything in a group, whether the issue was big or small, out of fear of rejection or insulting someone. Their presentation really highlighted why it is important to end cancel culture and that just because someone has a different way of thinking, doesn't mean they should be invalidated.
A few examples that I have seen of this theory include things like new mother groups on social media. Women often debate the topic of breastfeeding and might not speak out if they prefer to formula-feed their child. Another example is the movie Mean Girls. The Plastics dominate the school, and no one feels like they can speak out about their wrongdoings without the school turning on them, so the school had to have a bullying assembly.
I really believe that my classmate did a great job discussing this theory and making the class realize that we aren't alone if we have a differing opinion. They helped explain that it is okay to speak out when we disagree with something, even if we are the minority, and the only way to destigmatize cancel culture is to start within ourselves and say what we feel and listen to others when they are vulnerable.
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